That Moment When A Complete Stranger Called Me “Baby”

I woke up this morning, still groggy from this blasted Day Light Savings time change.  I get it, I’m excited about Spring coming too, but do we really have to wake up before it’s light outside?

So I started my day, laying in bed with one eye opened as I scrolled through the five notifications I’d received on Facebook overnight.  And then I watched what I thought was going to be an incredibly awkward video, but instead turned into such a beautiful display of what intimacy does to two individuals.  Check out the video here.

I rushed off to Kroger’s to pick up a card, congratulating a co-worker on the recent birth of her first child, and went to the checkout aisle with the shortest line.  As I was standing there, I saw a rather attractive man walking towards checkout with his Starbucks in hand.  He came and stood behind me in line.  Instinctively, I turned and smiled at him as he approached.  He returned the smile.  (Cute dimples!)

The poor woman in front of us in line was having difficulty getting her check to go through, so I nonchalantly turned to the cutie behind me and said, “I guess we picked the wrong line”.

I must have caught him off guard because he quickly said, “What’s that, baby?”

Baby?  I could feel my face turning about 50 shades of red and he immediately bit his lip, laughed and said, “I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I just called you, “baby”!”  I laughed too and even commented on my poor rosy red cheeks.  He smiled and said, “I’m just blushing on the inside.”  Ahh, melt.

We made some chit chat after that about his sick obsession with Starbucks and my confession that I had given up sweets (including tempting drinks like his) for Lent.  We were then asked (as though we were a couple) if we could give the poor lady in front of us, still fighting with her check, directions to downtown.  I think we managed to get her the directions she needed; each of us taking turns to fill in the blanks.

And then I checked out…and didn’t want to leave the store.  Before I turned to go, he reached out and put a hand on my arm as he told me to have a wonderful day.  And the smile that stretched across my blush-burned cheeks has stayed there for the rest of the day.

So the day that I thought that I’d have to muddle my way through, so that I could crawl back into bed tonight praying for enough rest for the next day, turned out to be one full of beautiful surprises, from complete strangers.

And to the handsome man that made my day.  “Baby” says, thank you!