Seeing Red

What if tonight was the night my life changed? The thing with breaks is they come when you least expect them, one chance meeting, one friend of a friend of a friend and suddenly your diary transforms itself and you have enough cash to buy fruit, and meals for two. But tonight the night passes without event, and I find myself that evening having dinner on a roof terrace in some ubercool club in Soho, reflecting as I gaze and glaze over the people. My eyeline falls on a beautiful, porcelain woman, full, soft lips, eyes glittering, a cigarette poised. I drift off in thought as I rest my eyes there, and think briefly, for a moment, this woman looks just like Scarlett Johansson. I pause. And then I think, she looks really like Scarlett Johannson. And then I realise: She is Scarlett Johannson; sitting not four feet away from me. And this is the same girl that, not five minutes ago, flicked her eyes over to me as I showed a friend of a friend quite an exclusive card trick. All it would take is one conversation, one or two words to strike it up, and a new path could unravel before me. But give the girl a break. Let her be and give the girl a break. So I stand up, slip on my jacket, shoot a smile across the night air, and disappear, never to see those eyes again.