Diane had been at work 10 minutes when the first parent turned up with his boisterous seven year old daughter. It was a miserable morning with the persistent rain from last night still dribbling down in the wintery morning dark. Thank God, she did not have to commute like Mr Davies, the parent at the door, obviously did. Diane certainly had not enjoyed the walk into work this morning and it did nothing for her foul mood. Why did she always seem to find these useless men to go out with?
She opened the door as she did every day and Mr Davies and his daughter, Rebecca, said 'Good Morning' as they usually did. Mr Davies when to sign his daughter in whilst Rebecca shot off into the corner to dump her bag and coat, preparing to tackle the breakfast club activities. Breakfast was probably not far off her mind as well. Mr Davies exchanged pleasantries with Diane's colleague Michelle as he signed the register before returning to the door. Diane didn't intend to open the door until he was close, no use letting in the cold damp air when they had just managed to warm the room up.
"What's the matter?" Mr Davies asked as he approached, "I am so used to seeing you gorgeous smile and that amazing twinkle in those", he paused like trying to find a word, "Beautiful eyes." Another very brief pause. "Ah, yes, wonderful eyes."
Diane was absolutely gob-smacked and before she could respond, Mr Davies continued with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes "I don't know about other men but after I've seen your smile in the morning, I am ready to tackle anything". Whilst saying that he had taken her hand and was patting it like a child's, "Cheer up dearie, it may never happen". And with that he was gone.
Diane and Michelle stared at each other for a few seconds then burst out laughing. "Did he just hit on me?" asked Diane very confused. No, he can't have. Not old Mr Davies, well maybe not old, but certainly in his forties, Mr Davies. No, it can't be. I mean she was old enough to be his daughter, a mere 20 years old.
Rebecca just looked at these crazy confused grown-ups, shook her head, shrugged her shoulders and brought them back to earth with "Can I have some breakfast, please?"
All day Diane felt really good and on a number of times remembered the warm hand hold and the way she felt really warm all over inside at the time. She smiled a lot that day.
For the next few weeks until half term, Mr Davies dropped his daughter off as usual, Diane smiled at him every day and all returned to normal. Mr Davies showed no signs of ever remembering that morning but Diane certainly thought of it several times and the memory always made her feel warm and happy.
On the last day of term, Diane had arranged to go out and celebrate with her boyfriend who not for the first time, changed his mind so he could 'hang out with his boys'. As she angrily put down the phone, for some peculiar reason, Mr Davies came to mind. She thought about it for a minute, picked up the phone her best friend in the world, Sandra.
"Sandra, what you doing tonight?"
"Nothing, was just going to chill at home, too horrible outside."
"Let's go out for a drink. Somewhere different, somewhere where the rats we see all the time don't go, please, please. I am sick of the ghetto and these ghetto bootie call blokes."
Two hours later, they stood hesitantly outside what looked like a bit of a posh bar in the city centre. From behind them, came a voice "Come on, ladies, get in there! It's not so bad a place."
The friends turned and Diane looked into a ridiculously handsome smiling face. Naturally, she smiled too.
"Ohhhh" said face "What a gorgeous smile and them eyes...", he paused staring deep into her soul, "Ah, yes, wonderful eyes". All he needed to do now was hold her hand.
Sometimes we get so entangled in our lives, we forget to look up and realise that we are not tied to what life has handed us. It shouldn't take a little act to make us feel different about ourselves; we should stop once in a while to see how we can make ourselves a little happier.
You heard it from Le Raconteur.