His Eyes Followed The Sun

Chapter Two: Adrien

Nothing could have made me excited for today. Nothing at all. Not the quaintness of the restaurant Danny had dragged me to. Not the prospect of the blind date he had me currently waiting on. Not even the idea of finding an everlasting adventure in something I didn't think would have ever happened for me. The idea that seemed to haunt me with every new discovery and destination in my travels.

Love.

The one very thing that seemed to follow me everywhere I went, especially in my late night phone calls to Danny. The very thing everyone— and I mean everyone—ardently badgered me about, day and night. Hell, even my parents had joined Danny in his crusade to find me the love of my life. But there was one thing that escaped them.

I hadn't met anyone worth going to the ends of the earth for.

Absolutely no one.

I, unfortunately, became the victim of hundreds of blind dates and forced conversations, with people that I could care less about. And for what? All because I was still single, like it defined everything I would do going forward. Like my world would come to a screeching halt for just one person. It was a fairytale I refused to believe in. Nothing in this world could have given me the same rush that deciphering ancient texts and mementos of the past did when they were in my hands.

There was still so much for me to learn. To find.

Yet here I was, sitting in a chair waiting for another potential suitor while I was surrounded by dozens of strangers. The people in the restaurant had become like white noise while I was lost in my thoughts, their voices and the clatter of their utensils getting lost in the background. Everything felt detached as I looked across the sea of tables to see Danny sitting in a corner booth looking directly at my table, his eyes focused on a menu. He must have felt my eyes boring into him because he glanced up, meeting my eyes with his hazel ones, a brow arching in question.

It was the subtle reminder that Danny would never let me have a moment's rest if I walked out of the restaurant, even though the thought was tempting. He was my best friend. Someone who was only thinking in my best interest, but when was it all going to stop? When was he, along with everyone else, going to realize I was not missing something from my life? That I was not silently aching for someone to join me in my journeys, to complete some empty part of me.

I continued to stare hard at Danny, his menu going slack in his hands as a look of concern passed over his face. I closed my eyes, taking a slow breath before opening them to look in the direction of the door, watching the patrons come and go. Danny would have to wait. He needed to become an afterthought so that I could focus on the task at hand, the person that I knew would walk through that door at any moment.

People continued to come through the entrance in droves, the lunch rush in full swing. I watched for so long that the faces all started to blur—so many damn faces—all of them coming and going before I could register what they looked like. The grayness from the weather had not deterred any of the incoming customers, their frantic energy possibly amplified by the threat of rain. Fortunately, there was no rain in the forecast. People just feared the unexpected. The subtle glow of the sun breaking through the clouds came without warning, beams of light filling the neutral surroundings outside. As the clouds continued to part, the front of the restaurant started to glow brightly, the warmth of the light slowly creeping in with each movement of the door.

That's when I saw him.

He walked in as the crowds of people started to thin out, the warmth of the outside rushing in as he held the door to peer inside, the glow from the light illuminating behind him. The sun had finally come out of hiding to chase away the dullness the cloud cover caused just moments ago, His bronze skin radiating in the light. My breath hitched as his eyes locked with mine, his aquamarine eyes reminding me of the clear waters of Greece. The deepness of them threatening to pull me in, to become lost in their serenity. The halo of his styled blonde hair atop his head only added to the ethereal beauty that was this man, a man who brought forth warmth amidst the quaintness of the restaurant.