Lavender Gaze

“Women are like cats!”

I remember my father complaining as he spared a glare at my mother. She had sauntered out of the room after a fight. I had stayed at the table, playing with my oatmeal and hoping I could just disappear.

I always hated that phrase yet here I stood in a marketplace, next to a woman with striking features. I had only asked her opinion on a scarf and she lifted those eyes towards mine with the slow, measured movement of a cat. She took a moment to consider the item and I took the same time to admire how her violet eyeshadow brought out her eyes.

She takes the scarf and gently places it around my neck for a better inspection. She smiles at me with a genuine gleam in her eyes and I am ready to accept whatever she tells me.

If I could be so easily entranced, I can only imagine how many men fell under her spell. When she turns to find another scarf, I take note of her thick auburn locks. Like a fountain, her hair springs from the confines of her hairband before neatly curling at the bottom like Corinthian columns.

I try to avert my gaze out of politeness but I cannot ignore her figure. Curved where it should be and slender everywhere else.

She turns back to me with a scarf that she says would better suit my eyes and I can only think my murky blue-grey eyes pale in comparison to her flickering lavender gaze.

I blurt out my gratitude as well as how beautiful she looks. Her eyes widen briefly before she laughs - a sound like a tender bell.

When I ask about her how she deals with admirers, as women often ask each other, she averts her eyes for a moment. As she turns back to me she plasters a smile filled with more pain than joy.

“Men: can’t live with them - can’t live without them!”

I watch her leave with a sway of her hips. She touches items from vendors with a cautious reverence, as if observing every detail, before gently placing it down. She moves with a slow grace as if ever step is calculated. I stand in wonder if such beauty and elegance is a blessing or a curse.