78 Degrees and Cloudy.

A cool breeze blew through his open car windows as he sat motionless in the traffic jam on the freeway. He mused to himself the reasons he would willfully sit in a traffic jam on Friday afternoon when, normally, his afternoon routine would keep him away from such a mess. He sat patiently, though, tapping his foot to the music of the radio and letting his mind wander to nothing in particular.

He was heading to the university campus to see where tomorrow morning’s class would be. A pre-emptive strike at tardiness and misdirection was always a wise endeavor in his estimation. He read over his map instructions again in an attempt to make sense of the ambiguous directions he received from the website. The directions had him making several turns towards the end of his trek, and he read and reread them as the traffic moved forward and then stalled. Eventually he made it to his exit, and left the freeway at a greater speed than he had enjoyed while actually on it.

Right, and follow for 0.5 miles, then left for another 0.5 miles. Then, another right for 1.8 miles, and another right again for a short 0.1 miles. Easy enough, he thought. This whole routine saw him past several gas stations and a grocery store, before it dropped him dead center of the little suburb the university campus was supposed to be in. One problem though… there was no campus.

He took a deep breath and took stock of his surroundings while stopped at a stop sign. He had landed somewhere in the middle of a sub-division, with decent sized two story brick homes on either side. The neighborhood was out collectively watering their lawns while their kids were playing with their toys on the sidewalks. A honk of a horn jerked him out of his observations as a local resident decided he had sat too long at the stop sign and wanted to finish going home. He pulled forward and found a nice spot in front of a house to park his car so he could read his instructions again. He leaned over to the passenger seat to grab his papers, but stopped dead in his motion.

Before him, sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck parked in the driveway, was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen; her eyes were so bright blue that he could see them from where he was sitting. Her hair was an unbelievable copper brown that cradled her face and flowed effortlessly over her shoulders. He was in awe, shock even, at the scene before him. Her eyes left his and she took her attention back to her book and the apple slices she had by her side.

He realized he was holding his breath. He exhaled slowly and sat back in his seat, mesmerized by what had just happened. The instructions on this map had led him right to this woman; this couldn’t be just chance.
An idea struck him, and he pulled away from her house, performing a U-turn in the middle of the street. He drove as reasonably fast as he could to the nearest of the many convenience stores he had seen on the way in. He ducked inside and found exactly what he was looking for within seconds. He plucked a perfect red rose from the display in front of the cashier and paid for his purchase.

He took a different route back to her house – one that would position the driver door nearest to her when he pulled up. He rounded a turn and saw her still sitting, right where he left her, on the back of the pickup truck reading her book and enjoying the late afternoon. He rolled to a stop in front of her house, slipped the car into neutral, and engaged the parking brake.

She looked up at him with a curious expression, and waves of excitement and fear flowed through him as he exited his car, leaving his door ajar. He walked up to her slowly… calmly, and offered her the rose. She reached out and slowly took it from him.

"What’s this for? Do I know you?" she asked, obviously bewildered.

Her sweet voice melted his heart. He looked into her eyes but spoke no words. He took in her beauty for one final moment, smiled, and went back to his car. He stopped at his door, looked back at her, then entered his car and drove away.