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He had not seen her in several months.  So it was with some surprise and pleasure when she re-entered his life in such a sudden and unexpected fashion.

Their last contact was an email exchange.  He had told her how much he had enjoyed her company, and she had replied in kind, but had not offered any kind of further hope for further communication.  He figured that, had she wanted, she might have asked something of him, or suggested going for a drink sometime.  But she hadn’t.  And at the time, he remembered the sinking feeling.  He didn’t want to appear too odd so he had refrained from sending a further message.  If she had wanted to form some kind of friendship, she would have given him a bigger hint, he thought.  Or would she have done?  

Although he was glad that he had sent her that message in the vain hope of continuing to develop their friendship, he also sent it out of sheer gratitude.  He really had enjoyed her company, and thought it was a nice thing to do.  

Anyway, she had drifted towards the back of his mind, only reappearing in fleeting moments in the months that followed, so when she announced herself out of the blue in the coffee shop that was part of the cinema where he was sat drinking and waiting for his film to start, he felt a surge of happiness.  He had sometimes daydreamed about bumping into her, wondering how she would react.  Would she acknowledge his existence?  Would they share a smile across the street and nothing more?  So to hear her voice, unprompted by any action on his part, he felt a great rush of joy.  She had seen him.  Noticed him.  Remembered him.  And approached and engaged him in conversation through her own volition.  It was too good to be true.

Hello!  How are you?  How have you been doing?

She smiled and her smile was so broad and beautiful that it made him feel at ease in an instant and swallowed his attention whole.  It was like falling into a warm pool of water.  He put down his book and looked into her dark eyes and he realised again just how beautiful she was.  He felt like he could look at her forever.  There emerged an ache within him.

It’s nice to see you again.  Can I join you?

Of course you can!  Would you like a drink?  What do you want?  I’ll go get something for you.

He felt a charge in himself: be kind to her, do something, be proactive, buy her a drink.  Anything.

She sat down and smiled.

He remembered what kind of drink she liked - but he was embarrassed to ask if that was what she wanted.  He looked at her and wondered if she would be flattered or freaked out that he had remembered something so seemingly nondescript about her.

Black tea?

He’d already spoken the words before he had made up his mind whether or not to offer up the suggestion.  He was even smirking, smiling at her, as if the thing was an in-joke between two good friends.  In reality, they had hardly spent enough time together to have ever been friends.

Her eyes widened and she gave him a look of curious approval.

You remembered that?

He felt embarrassed.

That’s so funny that you remembered.

She smiled again.

Yes, though.  That would be lovely.

It turned out that she was going to see the same thing at the cinema.  The screening of a documentary about migratory birds.  It was in the smallest room in the cinema that had two-person sofas, and the thought of sitting with her had already crossed his mind before he dared to ask if she was meeting someone.  She wasn’t.  She was here alone.  

She told him that she had spent the past few months job searching.  She had split from her boyfriend.  She had been on holiday to the south of England.  She had moved into a new flat by the waterfront.  She was eager to move on with her life.

He didn’t ask her if she wanted to sit with him in the cinema.  Instead, they went in together and sat together without any question of doing otherwise.  They were the first ones into the auditorium.  The lights were on but low, and the screening hadn’t started.  He sat and turned to her and smiled.  He suddenly didn’t know what to do or what to say - but he did know that he was very happy to have seen her again.  She looked comfortable and relaxed - but maybe, he thought, she looked like she was waiting for him, waiting for him to reassure her of something.  He was nervous about admitting something that would put him in a vulnerable position, but he wanted to let her know that.  Let her know how happy he was to have bumped into her like this.  The words came out before he had a chance to second guess himself.  He turned to look at her as he spoke.

Me too, she said.

They smiled at each other and there erupted in his chest a feeling of purest joy which he had never experienced before.

The film began but all he could do throughout the screening was think about her.  Thinking not about migratory birds that return home each winter to nest, but of imagined futures together.