2 The first impression
Arriving in Tel Aviv, where I had a two-hour stopover, I think of walking through the shops to get one of my favorite perfumes with a sweet aroma of jasmine and iris. I have to admit that the denim jacket my mother insisted to take was good now. Due to the air conditioning, there was a chill in the airport that made me freeze. There was a possibility that I would start looking in my hand luggage for a jacket, a cardigan, something to keep me warm, but I was embarrassed to open my entire luggage in the airport. "What the hell, Sofia? You better get ill?" I kept repeating in my mind. So, I was bending down to open my suitcase, when suddenly I felt a cold, heavy hand on my shoulders, and my whole body was shaking.
I turned around, and behind me, a brown man with big brown eyes smiles
broadly at me.
"Excuse me, do we know each other?" I ask him completely puzzled, having no idea who he is or what he wants from me.
”Hi, I was thinking of helping you. It seems that you have a bit of difficulty opening your luggage, so do every woman when she is packing for the holidays. They forget about stopping when over-packing their luggage.”
”Thanks, but I can handle it.” I tell him, totally taken by surprise by his tone.
”Hmm ... I'd like to know what's stopping you from letting me help you? Distrust of male gender or the ideology of the so-called "feminists" of the 21st century, who think can do anything on their own?”
”Dude, I think you're pushing it a little, don't you?”
”Oops, I've reached a sensitive point. There will be both reasons mentioned by me, probably.”
I would enjoy slapping him right in his pretty face but there were a lot of people and I didn’t want to make such an impression. But who the fuck thinks he is?
”I will tell you what it is: it's pointless to approach a stranger at an airport and even more so to use such pick-up lines to draw attention to yourself. Believe me, if you don't change the board, no girl will take you seriously. At least not one with her head on her shoulders. Now,
please, I'd like you to leave me alone. ”
”I think we started with the wrong foot taking into consideration that I have annoyed you so much. ”
”Do you?” I ask him, not sure why he didn't understand that he should be stepping out from this strange conversation.
"Let's try again. Hi, I am Michael. I would like to help you open your luggage if you give me great pleasure." he tells me with a huge smile on his face that does nothing but accentuate his irony even more.
”Hi, Michael. Thanks again, but I can handle it.
”You know, miss, this is the part where you tell me your name, and I confess you that I'm delighted to meet you ... you're not very polite”. he says with a laugh in front of me, which made me want to slap him right in his face.
"Look, I don't have the best day of my life, I'd appreciate it if you didn't ruin it even more and just leave me alone."
"Can I at least know your name?"
”Sofia. Do you have any other wishes?”
”Sofia ... is a very beautiful name. I'm glad to meet you, Sofia, and I would have liked to be in other circumstances, happier, in which you don't take me from 11 meters and you would have been a little nicer.”
His words make me feel really bad. This man I have just met for sure made a bad first impression of me just for the fact that I'm messed up. And all because Antonio had the guts to drive me to the airport did nothing but charge me with negative emotions.”I am sincerely sorry. I didn't have a good day.”
"Do you want to talk about this at the upstairs cafe? They have an excellent espresso.”
”Thanks for the invitation but I don't drink coffee unless it contains flavors like coconut or maybe caramel.” I realize how absurd what I said sounded, but I don't want to drink that horrible potion called coffee.
"You mean pseudo-coffee?" he asks me with a smile to his ears and his jaw tense so as not to burst out laughing.
”Name it whatever you want. I don't like coffee or its smell unless it has special flavors that make it tastes good.”
”Well, those special flavors not only contain a lot of crap, but also a lot of calories. You have to think twice before drinking it.”
I roll my eyes at his real remark but I didn't need it anyway, I knew all of that. I see him smiling even wider seeing my reaction which my mother would consider rude. She kept telling me not to roll my eyes when she was criticizing me what she called "constructive."
”So? Do I take you out for plain water?” he asks me, waiting for another answer.
"Sure, but first I'd like to take my jacket out of my luggage. I hope it's here.”
"I can give you mine if you want. I don't think you want all these passengers to see the underwear you're hiding in your luggage.” Michael displays a provocative look as he utters these words, and I smile at the man I just met.
"No, Michael, but something tells me you wouldn't mind seeing it, from what I see." I feel that I amazed him with this reply because his eyes widened at my words and he swallowed hard.
Just what did he think? That he's going to intimidate me? I'll show him.
"Okay, Sofia. Well played. But still, I can lend you my jacket, I'm sure it would look good over your white shirt."
"Ok, I'll just accept because I'm not sure I can close my luggage once I open it." although I don't understand what was on my mind to tell him that I accept his jacket, I wake up that his strong scent is enveloping my clothes. His perfume smells good, seems expensive but classic.
"I told you that always when you go on vacation you girls are used to overpack," he tells me, waiting for me to hold his arm to lead us to the cafe.
"I don’t want to disappoint you, Michael but I'm not going on a vacation, I'm moving. So I think I'm entitled to pack too much." I answer with a trace of regret, only now, when I said it out loud, do I realize how real everything gets."
"And where are you moving on this globe, Sofia?"
"New York!” I realize that although my heart suffers that I leave so much behind, I cannot deny that everything that follows delights me.
"Wow! I did not expect this answer. Well, what can I say, New York is lucky to have you, and I'm more than happy to show you around when you have free time.”
Does he live in New York too? If I weren't so skeptical about destiny, I'd think our meeting at the airport was more than just a coincidence, but if I'm rational ... there are so many people at the airport. It wouldn't make sense to start with ideologies that provoke vain illusions.
”Thanks for the invitation, I'll think about this proposal again, Michael.”
"I doubt you can think too much, given that New York is a big city where you could easily get lost, a personal guide would suit you," he says, continuing to smile in a way that makes me think what the hell he's after.
In the meantime we get to the cafe he was talking about, and I order some plain water. I refuse to give a sermon again on how coffees with various flavors contain a lot of calories, so I will not put myself in the lion’s den. I watch him look at me laughing.
"Could you share with me what's so funny?" I ask, rolling my eyes again.
”You are. Why didn't you get the coconut or caramel flavored coffee you dreamed of?” he asks me with a look that only showed how proud he is of the fact that he made me change my mind.
”I think water is a better choice right now.”
”So I escaped. It means you're not an airy feminist. One of those would never do anything a man would say.” I wanted to hit him.
Is this man serious? Does he think that means being a feminist? Does he know about suffrage, has he ever heard of all the struggles of women to gain equal rights with men? If I wasn't well raised, I would get up from the table at that moment and leave, but I chose to stay with common sense. But I still won't be silent.
"And I thought you were a little smarter. You disappoint me, Michael. You misunderstand feminism. First of all, I didn't give up flavored coffee because you said it wasn't good, but because I preferred water at the moment. Second, to be a feminist is not to "not do what a man tells you," but to have your rights, from thinking of one and making your own choices about your life.
Not so often it's not a fucking coffee. I realize that this man is listening to me very carefully, sucking my eyes, I still don't intend to stop my very well-thought-out speech.
"So you're one of those fighters for rights, freedoms, and other nonsense."
I got annoyed, I take my luggage and leave. I will not listen to a misogynist who does not want to understand that this feminism or movement that does not include starting "nonsense", I simply did not have anyone with. I could hear him shouting at me, but I wasn't going to go back. The world is full of fools like him.
