Knots

I had been there working on the same sentence for an hour when she slid into the booth across from me.

Her smile commanded my attention like I was a ship lost in a storm and she the guide light from a light house. Delightfully, I could see a garden of white, teeth like tulips, behind the soft retaining wall of her lip. She placed a knot of computer cords on the table in front of her. Her power cord and USB cord to the mouse wire intertwined, wrapped around her headphones in a series of snarls and tangles. Deftly her fingers followed the end with the headphone jack to the first knot and gently, calmly, unraveled it. Then did the same with the next one and the one after that, and before long it was extricated, completely separate from the other two cords. She set the now free headphones on the corner of her table and brushed the her hair back behind ear curled fingers. Her smile was one of great joy and her eyes held intense concentration mixed with the glint of amusement.

I felt something knot in my chest.