Missed Connections 101: How To Blow A Promising Coffee Shop Encounter Like A Total Pro

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You had the loveliest light blue eyes I'd ever seen and cerulean highlights lilting in your long tawny hair when you approached my table at the Buena Vista Roastery that day.

A knapsack over your shoulder, and a sketchbook in your hand.

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I was the man with the calico beard and baseball cap staring down the barrel of a laptop, writing an article about something I didn't care about for someone I did not know.

And I just wanted to say today what I couldn't figure out how to say that day:

The second I saw you I was captivated.

And I wish our paths hadn't had to part like that.

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You were a young artist from Asheville, living in a van for the summer and making ends meet with your commissions for drawings and decorative apparel.

You showed me your portfolio and we spoke at length, each trying to get a read on the other until eventually that brief chapter of life we shared came to its conclusion, and you walked out the door and into someone else's story.

I know that the coffee shop was packed that day, and that finding a free spot to sit and draw and drink your ginger tea and generally just be that outlandishly damn attractive wasn't all that easy.

I'm glad you found that spot by me and I had a wonderful time talking, but I can't help but wonder:

If it hadn't been so crowded in there, would you still have taken the same spot?

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Before you left that day you gave me a sticker with a picture of the moon you drew.

He's a jade-green crescent guy with a great big nose and a squinty eye and a little pink bandaid on his neck, chewing on a blade of dead yellow grass with gritted teeth.

I stuck him on my car's rooftop cargo box, where he's fixated with all the other stickers that are together starting to tell a bit of a story about this weird wild and wandery tentlife experiment of mine.

Maybe someday fate will catch a glimpse of him as I go driving by, and decide to let me have another chance with you.

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But until then,

best wishes and good luck out there.

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☕️ 🧢 🎨 🌛

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_{9-30-21. Couldn'ta screwed that one up any worse now coulda ya Hive account@brandt.}