Prompt Week 11: He had the sense she was senseless, yet there was still so much he could see...

                I wasn’t sure why, but every time I saw him I was left with an odd feeling, like he could see right through me. I didn’t know his name; he was just a customer who stopped into the store occasionally on his way home from work. He’d walk in, jeans tattered and dirty like he had been working outside all day, his boots heavy on the linoleum floor. A six-pack of Moosehead was all he ever bought and as I rang him up we discussed the best ways to run a store. He owned one down the road, making me wonder why he ever stopped in at all.

                I was always pleasant, smiling and perky even though my life at home was crumbling a little more each day. Andy and I were at each other’s throats, not one day went by where we didn’t fight and as sad as it was, I looked forward to work. It was an escape from the tension that surrounded me, my attempt to live a normal life.

                He began to stop in more, each time leaving me more uneasy than the last as I wondered what he was looking at when he looked at me. I avoided his eyes when I gave him his change, sure if he saw mine he would be able to tell exactly what I was thinking. A different kind of tension stole the air and I could hardly breathe as I stood vulnerable to him without understanding why. He wasn’t attractive; his hair was always messy and his clothes were wrinkled and splashed with paint. He was tall and strong but he wasn’t chiseled and fit. He was average .

                When we talk about how we met, he always says he could sense my unhappiness, that my smile wasn’t real. He could tell how nervous he made me, always thought it was funny. He says he knew he met me for a reason, cliché, but not really because it’s the truth. Like a sappy love song, he knew me before he met me. He saw more in myself than I did.