Anecdote

“I would like to check your teeth please,” she said, adding belatedly, “if you don’t mind, of course.”

“Excuse me?” he looked as bewildered as he surely felt.

“Ummm.....” She was beginning to have second thoughts about the entire thing. Surely he was handsome but this was a strange place. “Never mind,” she said. “Some other time, maybe.”

“Whoa. Wait.” He caught up with her at the door of the restaurant. “I don’t mind some other time but you do have me curious. Did you just ask to check my teeth? Are you a dentist or....” he trailed off as if another thought had struck him. He smacked his forehead. “Oh. Now I see.” And he gave her a mischievous, knowing grin.

“You see what?” She was indignant now.

“Never mind. But I think we should at least introduce ourselves.” He leaned forward and spoke in a voice so soft that she could hear him only by reading his lips. “I am Vlad.”

She flinched and he laughed so loudly that people around them turned to stare.

“You should see you face”, he managed to speak once he had controlled his mirth.

His voice broke her stupor. “I am glad you are finding this highly amusing”, she said in a chilly voice and walked off.

He stood there and watched till she surreptitiously quickened her steps, refusing to even look back, hailed a cab and drove off.

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She did not even look out of the window. He was joking, right? Of course, he was. She was just being silly. She must have lost her marbles to have asked him the question. It was stupid how her friend’s joking words popped in her head the moment he came in all his good-looking glory and said “Hello”. And how quickly he had figured out her reasoning. Of course, he couldn't be...you know. He was clearly American, not East European with a fetish for innocent, young things and their fresh, unmarred throats. Well, she did not know the last, did she. After all, he did not let her check his teeth, did he now?

Stop it. She ordered herself. You are talking in circles. It was a chance encounter. Maybe you made a fool of yourself. Maybe it was a chance to know an interesting man that you lost. But it’s all done and over with. You go back tomorrow morning. You will probably never meet him again. So, just chalk it down as an experience that you will tell your grandkids as an anecdote.

With these thoughts firm in her mind, she hopped on her plane next morning and returned home.

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Back in his hotel room, he looked in the mirror. He bared his teeth. He had just brushed them. They were even and white. Funny woman she was to ask such a question in this day and age. Silly chit. Or maybe not, he thought to himself, as he smiled and his canines elongated subtly to become two points. He poured a large glass of whiskey and raised it in a silent toast to lucky escapes. Noroc.