On a dark stage, on a quiet night, two dancers twirl around each other, perfectly in sync. They leap, and bend, and spin, and twirl. Each on their own part of the stage, neither dancing any closer to the other. From opposite sides, their movements perfectly aligned, yet so far apart as to be alone.
———
David felt his heart flutter, not for the first time, as Maria walked into the coffee shop at exactly 5:03, just as she did every day. “The usual?” He asked her. “Yes, thank you,” she replied. Having already made it for her in anticipation, he hands it over. She gratefully takes her coffee to her favorite nook and sits to read for the next few hours before sighing and heading home.
———
The dancers twirl closer, spinning around the center of the stage as if pulled by gravity, trying to pull the other closer without being pulled themselves. Always in step, always without flaw, copying each other before the move is ever made.
———
Maria stops by the coffee shop every day, hoping for some sort of change. She always seems to catch David’s eye, but for some reason he never asks anything else. She wonders if things will ever go back to normal.
———
Another step closer, the dancers spin. Another step out, another step in.
———
For months now Maria and David kept to the same routine. He’d wake up, head to work, head home, go to sleep. She’d wake up, get a coffee, go to work, get a coffee, head home, go to sleep. Like clockwork the two lived their lives as they always had.
———
Faster now, the dancers spun. Around and around the stage they run. Faster again their hearts go beating, faster and faster, as if time were fleeting.
———
More and more, David finds himself wishing he could talk to Maria. Never one for shyness, he becomes increasingly confused as every time he works up the nerve to speak to her, he has the strangest sensation that someone important, someone close to him, wouldn’t approve of him doing so. For the life of him, however, he cannot figure out who, or why.
As for Maria, she grows increasingly agitated with David’s lack of forwardness. Hoping and wishing, and wishing and hoping, that one of these days he would say something more. Something beyond a simple greeting. Something to give her the sense of what kind of man he could be.
———
The dancers, perpetually in lockstep, flow away from each other once again. Not so far as to be alone, though far enough to not be mistaken for dancing together.
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———
Maria decides enough is enough. If he won’t make the first move again, she’ll have to. Her resolve set, she marches into the shop, only to find David not there. Confused, she asks the other barista, “Where’s David?” The girl replies, “He said he had something important to do, and rushed out, do you want me to let him know you were looking for him?” “No that’s alright,” Maria replies, wondering where he could have gone. Walking home, lost in thought, she turns a corner only to bump into David, rushing back to work.
———
Closer and closer the dancers come again. The pace of their dance unchanged, though the intensity ever increasing.
———
“I’m so sorry!” David exclaims. “Here, let me help with that,” he reaches down to pick up Maria’s bag and help her back up. “Oh, Maria! I was on my way looking for you,” he says without thinking. “Oh, and why would that be?” She replies, all frustrations momentarily forgotten. “Ah, well, you see, I uh…” David can’t help but wonder why he’s having a hard time talking to her today of all days, when every other day he had no issue. Belatedly realizing she bumped into him from the direction of her home, Maria wonders aloud, “How did you know to look for me this way?” David pauses, blushing as he realizes his error, “Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out. I’m not sure how I knew, I guess it just sort of felt like the right way to go?” He says nervously. She gapes at him in surprise, only adding to his nerves. “I-I’m really sorry for being creepy. I just thought that I really wanted to tell you something, but when you didn’t show up at your regular time I wondered if you were ok and I started to get really worried so I decided to go look for you and now that I’m saying all this out loud I realize how bad it sounds and oh my god I realize what a creep I must seem like and now I’m so embarrassed an—“ Her startled brain finally catching up, “Stop,” Maria interrupts with a smile, “It’s okay, I’m not upset.” She waits a moment for him to catch his breath, then asks, “What did you want to ask me?” Still not recovered from his previous blush and subsequent spiel, David’s cheeks turn a deeper red before he sputters out, “Ah, I uh, wanted to see if you wanted to maybe, sometime, grab a coffee or something with me?” Startled once again, Maria takes a moment before responding happily, “Yes, absolutely.” Smiling wide, the both of them head back to the coffee shop to spend the rest of the evening chatting.
———
The dancers inch closer, evermore closer, till just the tips of their outstretched hands brush against each other. Their rhythm never ending, energy never waning.
———
After several more dates over several more months, Maria and David find themselves sitting at her favorite bench in the local park, watching the geese in the small pond nearby. David lowers his arm around her shoulder, and she leans closer in. “I have something to tell you,” he says. “No I don’t want to feed the geese,” Maria jokes, “They’re pretty but mean.” “Hmm, pretty,” David replies, looking not at the pond but at Maria. As she looks at him, realizing he’s serious, she asks, “What is it?”
———
The dancers close in, closer and closer and closer until they are but a foot apart, spinning around each other so quickly that to outsiders they’d be a blur.
———
Maria’s heart beats like thunder as she hears David utter the words, “I love you.” Not realizing just how badly she needed to hear that, the floodgates burst and she can’t help but cry powerfully into his chest. Startled, and not a little nervous, David starts to apologize, before he can, Maria waves him off, saying, “No, no, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” He asks, worriedly, “What was that about?” “Nothing, silly,” she replies, “I love you too.” Diplomatically choosing to ignore David’s now racing heartbeat, she contents herself with the knowledge that despite her husband not remembering her, at least his love for her always will.
———
As Maria leans into David’s tender embrace, so too do the dancers on her music box, closer than ever, loving forever.
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