I watch her from across the café. She strolls casually towards the counter but with purpose. Her graying hair is messy but cute; her wide brown eyes glimpse out from under the bangs. She leans in, just slightly, towards the young man taking her order and I hear her giggle float across the room. He’s trapped, like a mouse under the benevolent paw of a house cat. Somehow her order becomes a grande; a cookie is comped. As she walks towards me, I see a slight lift to the corner of her mouth. At eighty, my mom’s still got it.
Fall Contest 2024 “Flirt” Finalist. Michele Rule is a disabled writer from Kelowna and an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets. “I write so my head doesn’t explode.” www.linktr.ee/michelerule. Of “Life Goals,” Contest Readers said: “love the ending, super adorable” and “a great story told well.”