0 serendipitous

The sound of the chair scrapping against the brick laid patio startled her from her thoughts. She took a moment to glance away from the computer screen to catch a glimpse of the man who sat down across from her. Her eyes averted back to her screen as she tried desperately to squelch the tirade of thoughts that itching to take control of her mind. "Don't suppose you remember me?" His voice was exactly as she recalled it, rough and sexy like the rest of him.  It had only been a brief exchange of words, but it was still enough to embed his voice into her memory.

She took a moment to regain her mental composure. Without looking up from the words she had been laboring over for the past several days, she replied. "Likelihood is against you. I'm not really one for faces or people for that matter. I have a small tunnel vision problem. Not because I'm too absorbed in my own thoughts to notice anyone, nor because I'm an elitist who walks with her nose in the air believing she's better than everyone else. On the contrary, I rarely pick up my head or look people in the eyes. People simply make me uncomfortable. So I do my best to pretend they don't exist. You," she finally took her gaze away from the jumble of words and looked up at him, "however, were unavoidable. One, because we bumped into each other at the airport, an incident that made it very hard to pretend you didn't exist. And two, you just sat down at the table over there," she nodded in the direction from which she had known he had come, "with Della, that would make you either the groom or the groom's much hotter, her words not mine, older brother."

A sexy half grin creased his lips at her words. She could see a glint of humor in his eyes. He cocked his head to the side slightly, "So, you saying you don't think I'm hot?"

With a small raise of her shoulders, she responded, "'Hot' is a relative term, though I'd say you possess some generally handsome features. As for 'much hotter'," she leaned slightly to the side and looked toward where his brother was sitting with his future bride and her aunt, Della. She looked back at him,obviously giving him a once over, "that might be a bit of an exaggeration."

He nodded thoughtfully at her. "So than you do think I'm hot?"

She allowed the smile that had been itching to get out spread.  With a small shake of her head, she allowed a small sigh of a laugh to escape.  "Is there something I can help you with? Your party seems eager to order and I'm sure your presence is desired."
 
Without even a glance over his shoulder, he shook his head and dismissed her statement. "My brother knows what I want, he'll order for me. No worries there. As for what you could help me with," he leaned forward across the table, "you can have dinner with me."