I saw her at the window, and I wondered if she was looking at me. The pensive look on her face was inscrutable at a distance, but I didn’t know her well, so would I dare to get closer? I decided…I’m not getting any younger. If I don’t overcome my shyness now I’ll be forever cursed by it. How long is long enough, anyway?
For so many years I’d hung back…but how many times can you do so when a kind young woman looks your way and smiles? Someone has to make the first move. But as I moved closer, Mandy’s face beamed. My like response was involuntary. She swung the window open and shouted. “I wondered if you’d ever notice me.” She was teasing, but I knew it wasn’t meant unkindly. And she was right.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know if you’d welcome my attention. I guess my fears were unwarranted.”
“Ya think?” I detected a slightly mocking tone, but she was smiling more all the time. So was I. I’d heard of long relationships coming from far less than this. Was it too much to hope for? Was it too soon to have such thoughts? It probably was, but the ball’s rolling now, and I’m not one to stand in the way of seeing where it goes.
Whatever happens from here on out, it’s better late than never…better something than nothing. It occurred to me that I was quickly going all-in. I’m not really a gambling man…but a chance at love wasn’t something my head could talk me out of. Losing would only come by not trying. So, yeah…all-in.
© 2018 Robert Mihaly
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artifiswords 
wow, I’m impressed
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Thanks, Denise. As you may have noticed, even just from a glance at the short story category, there’s a lot more. I’ve applied to some contests, but so far nothing has been accepted for publication. It reminds me of the many art competitions I entered in what seems like another life. Those I mostly was accepted into…but times have changed. Now trying to simplify and change things for the better, but a studio full of unsold work is my anchor/albatross. “And so it goes,” as a favorite author often wrote.
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It is hard for me to understand your frustrations. I write mainly poetry and write because I can not do anything else for the love of it. I guess a writer of stories wants them to be read. I post my work at twitter do you use those social media places? It might help your ambitions.
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I have posted many of my stories and longer poems from this site to Twitter, always at the end of my day, so they won’t get buried by other things. Most get few readers, but that’s true of my poems too. I’ve been told that poets don’t like politics, but it’s a necessary evil. I had hoped that politics would mostly disappear from my TL, but the election destroyed that plan. Now I work to save our democracy from Fascists. A studio full of art from previous decades costs a lot. At least things on here don’t drain my funds. Frustrations are real regardless of whether anyone else understands them. Frustrations by artists have existed as long as there have been artists whose work isn’t sufficiently appreciated during one’s lifetime. After that, it’s the artist’s legacy, but of no benefit to the artist…just his or her heirs. No longer their concern.
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I am afraid I fall into the apolitical category. But there are many who would be allies and perhaps given time….I really do not have a magic answer.
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These are times when being apolitical, certainly in the US, makes no sense. I regret that extremism on one side brought out extremism on the other. But when nearly 240 years of democratic rule is being undermined to shift power from the mass of the people to those at the top, what choice do you have but to fight it?
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end conversation.
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