The Way You Look Tonight

As I sit here, sipping slowly on my classic Old-Fashioned, my mind absently drifts back to the one topic that I don't want to be thinking of. I take another draw from my cocktail and gently replace it on the old oak bar top. Thoughts begin to spin in my mind, following the slow rotation of my drink's ice ball, churning up memories that are painfull to my broken heart.
I'm grateful that the drinks are starting to do their job, dulling the sting a little bit. Suddenly, I become aware that my favorite artist is playing on the jukebox, Frank Sinatra. I force my thought away from... her, and tune in to the song. "My kind of town, Chicago is. My kind of people, too..."
I love this song.
As I concentrate more of the tune, trying to forget the hurt I had unwillingly welcomed into my heart, I look across the smokey pub towards the jukebox sitting in the corner. Faces blur in my vision as my eyes pan over: old, young, beautiful, not-so much. All of which are lost to me once my eyes come to rest on the musicmaker and I am hypnotized by Sinatra's smooth voice and lyrics. "Why I just grin like a clown. It's my kind of town"
"This place really is my kind of town," I think to myself. "I've always loved it, with the people and the mellow, but hardworking energy..." My thoughts drift off, finally finding tranquility as the last verse of the song plays in the background.
I'm not sure how much time has passed when my conciousness finally wanders back to me. The current song enters nonchalantly into my mind, I don't recognize it. Suddenly, like a shock of lightning, I become aware that my eyes have inadvertently been resting, unfocused, on a beautiful woman across the bar. I quickly look away to break the appearance that my eyes have been glued to her for this unaccounted time.
I focus back on the drink in front of me, noticing that the sphere that previously rested in the glass has developed a flat spot on the bottom. I guess I had spaced out longer than I had presumed. I order another drink from the bartender and can't help but steal another glance across the way.
Her hair, shiny and flowing like a milk chocolate river, cascading down her shoulders to rest gently on top of her breasts. My eyes slowly trace the silhouette of her face, entranced by her porcelain skin that was softly shadowed in the darkness. The only lit portions of her face are her smooth cheekbones and the crest of her forehead as it gracefully slopes down to her bright caramel eyes. Surely, I have never in my life laid eyes on another woman as beautiful, as captivating, as subtly elegant as she.
Just as I'm taking in the piercing golden glow of her eyes, she glances up from her cocktail. Her gaze follows the bartender as he passes by and eventually places my fresh drink in front of me. For reasons beyond my comprehension, the woman's eyes flick up from my glass to my own paltry perception. In that brief moment, time stood still.
I quickly and abashedly smile, nod and turn to the bartender tl thank him for the drink. He nods in response as he knowingly glances over at her and then back to me. "Blueberry Mojito." Is all he says to me before he turns and walks back to the kitchen. My confusion sets in as I watch the two-way doors swinging behind him, I hadn't ordered a Blueberry Mojito, nor had he given me one. What could he have meant by that? I absently reach for my drink, and miss, grasping at nothing but air. I turn back to the bit of bar in front of me to realize that he had not placed the glass on my coaster. I roll my eyes at my ignorance of that detail. Just then, I hear a small noise. Was it a laugh? I look back down the bar and catch her gaze again. This time, there is a playful simper gently curling her lips as she regards my blunder before lifting her purple drink to her mouth and drinking lightly from it.
The peices fall together after I see her drink. Blueberry Mojito, it's hers! Was I really being that obvious? I try to shake it off, but now it's weighing on me like a full-grown elephant sitting on my shoulders. The next thing I know, I'm taking a deep draw from my fresh old-fashioned and sliding my stool back from my placement. I stand, turn toward the far end of the bar and, with confidence that I don't realize I feel in the moment, approach her just as another Sinatra song plays its introductory verse, "I feel a glow just thinking of you. And the way you look tonight."