I look up.  I look down.  I feel it.  My cheeks.  Red.  I am blushing.  What is this feeling?  I must show off.  I look up.  I pull back my shoulders.  I see him.  He is here.  Am I dreaming?  I pinch myself.  Nope.  He is here, in person.  He walks into the cafe.  He is coming, I see him.  Each footstep he takes is like a blow to the heart.  My heart can’t take it.  I faint.
My eyes flutter open.  Where am I?  Where is he?  I close my eyes.  I open them again.  Am I still here?  I close my eyes.  I open them.  There he is.  Right above me.  He looks down at me.  The back of his hand brushes against my cheek.  My heart.  It beats.  Faster and faster.  He asks me something.  I ask him to repeat it.  He does.  What is he saying?  Why can’t I hear?  I reach my hand up to my ear.  My ear.  I feel it, it does not feel me.  My ear.  I pinch it.  I signal to him.  I cup my hand around my ear and motion that I can’t hear.  He laughs, at least that’s what I think.  I don’t understand.  What happened while I was unconscious?  I look around me.  I know this too well.  I remember.
I take the meds like a pro.  My dad picks me up and gives me a kiss on the cheek.  He speaks.  I can’t hear him.  I point to my lips and he repeats it.  This time, I am reading his lips.  He says “I love you.”  I mouth back “I love you” and put my hands in the shape of a heart.  I hug him.  He hugs me back.  He puts me down on the floor.  I see my reflection on the glass on top of the desk.  I  am four.  And then, I slowly fall asleep while my dad picks me up and brings me to the room.  I wake up.  I hear a beeping.  It is slow and steady.  I can hear.  My mom speaks first.  She asks me if it had worked.  I hear her voice for the first time.  It is beautiful.  I speak.  I tell my mother that I love her, but this time, I can actually hear myself.  My mom, she starts to cry tears of joy.  The doctor tells me to always be careful.  He tells me that the slightest thing, like landing the wrong way, can lead to temporary deafness.  Then, I fade back to the present.
I open my eyes.  I see him.  He is mouthing to me.  He holds a thumb up and a thumb down.  I point to the middle.  He understands me.  The doctor comes in the room.  She is a tall and fragile woman.  She has pale skin with beautiful freckles.  She has green eyes and brown hair.  She comes up to me.  She has a chalkboard in her left hand and a piece of chalk in her right.  She starts to write.  As she is writing, I see her face scrunch up.  I look up and see him, but he doesn’t seem to hear what the doctor is hearing.  I look back at the chalkboard.  The doctor flinches again.  I look at what she is writing.  She tells me that they had performed a surgery on my ear.  They told me that I had landed weirdly and that caused my previous surgery to be undone.  She wrote that I will  be temporarily deaf, but only for a few months. I shake her hand and she writes that she will leave me alone to get my clothes on and that I am ready to leave the hospital.  She leaves.  He is still here.  He points to my pile of clothes in the corner.  I walk over, holding my hospital gown shut tightly because I can feel him looking at me.  I point to the other corner of the room.  He goes over there and turns around, facing the wall.  I start to put my clothes on with my front to the wall.  I quickly put my skinny jeans and mint green flowly spagetti strap top on.  It compliments my brown hair and I smile.  I still have my makeup on and reach in my bag for a wipe.  It soothes my face.  I close my bag and walk to him.  I smile.  He turns around and looks at me.  My heart melts. But not as seriously as last time.  This time I know what the feeling is.  It is love at first sight.