Reality Check--Of The Good Kind

So I'm in the Starbucks making my way through a small swirl of people to the exit when a woman comes out of the bathroom to my right. I catch a glimpse of her out of the corner of my eye and all I really catch is a slack expression on her dark cocoa face. Not a physically attractive woman by most standards. Heavyset and a little too wide in the eyes. Fairly manly in fact. No attention to enhancing any womanly traits whatsoever. Wearing a red hoodie and jeans. And walking way too close to me as I continue to the door.

So close in fact that I hear her clearly when she exhales, "Damn! He's cute!" Referring to me. Because when I had glanced her way at first, she was staring right at me. Her too-wide eyes were gaped because she was looking me up and down as if she was catching a movie star incognito. Clearly she was compromised in the appropriate social behavior department. I could see some developmental disability behind her eyes and demonstrated in her inhibition-free exclamation.

But developmental disability doesn't mean a person is stupid. Maybe a little unwise and childlike, but not stupid. So she didn't have the impulse control that she could have exercized when she saw me--and because of that, I got to hear an unedited and clear opinion of my looks without the worry of what I would think of her, or whether I deserved to know, or any fear of what I would do to her as a result. She didn't worry about our relationship afterwards or if it would blow my head up, or if men on a whole don't deserve to have that information because they act like jerks once they know. Without any of those social filters, I heard what she thouhgt. It was like a direct link into her mind--as though I were telepathic suddenly.

"Damn! He's cute!"

Thank you, Miss Anonymous. I REALLY appreciated hearing that!