The third time Andres looked up from his coffee he caught her glance. He had been in a brooding mood. He had spent more time at the restaurant in the past 5 days than he had spent at home. He was still wearing his black slacks and polo shirt and smelled oily like the kitchen. For him there was only work. He wore a slight scowl most of the time, but occasionally a bright thought would cross his face and his smile would reveal two strait rows of perfectly shaped white teeth. It was her light, bubbly laugh that had caught his attention. All of the sudden she got up from the table she was sitting at with five or six other laughing people and crossed the room toward him. Andres looked down at his shoes and the cuffs of his pants, they were spotted with miscellaneous food debris. He took a quick sip of his coffee and sat up strait and then bent his neck sideways to glance toward the door. Just in case he was mistaken and she wasn’t approaching him.

“I’m Natalie.” she said with a round beaming face while she extended her hand to him.
“Andres.” he took her hand and gestured for her to sit down.
“I noticed you were sitting here alone. I thought you might like some company.”
Andres noticed the softness of her hands and felt self-conscious of his own rough calloused ones.
“Sure.” he said, rather lamely. His ambiguous reply didn’t deter her or shake her confidence. She babbled on.
“I am just the nosiest person, but I wonder what made you smile a while ago. You were sitting here looking so tired and worn out and then your whole face lit up for a second and you smiled.”
“I… I don’t remember. I think I was just… I thought about my son.”
Natalie’s face flashed a moment of something like alarm. Like Andres’ family might be standing right behind her.
“You have a family?” Andres was slightly amused to see her ruffle just a bit. He had been caught off guard. Talking about his son was a purely honest moment and he hadn’t thought of what it implied about him.
“No. Just my son. He lives with his mother.”
“I love children.” Natalie said, regaining her perkiness. “I work as a nanny to three children. It is the best job, really. I’m a student full-time, but I spend my evenings with the children.  How old is your son?”
Andres thought a moment about how much of his life he was willing to reveal to this bubbly stranger. He looked at her earnestly for the slightest second to see if her face would reveal her intentions.
“He is seven.” Andres’ lilting Spanish accent had become apparent to Natalie.
“Oh how sweet. What a fun age. I love your accent. I went to Guatemala on a mission trip last summer. It really helped me polish my Spanish.”
Andres was trying to decide if this woman was a walking disaster. There was a moment when he had looked into her face that he felt something intriguing. She was the polished, manicured type. Her hair was just past her chin and some bangs kept falling into her eyes. She was constantly brushing them back with her hand. She was wearing dark jeans and a white blouse with a delicate fitted jacket. She was curvy. Large-breasted. Her bulbous breasts strained against her thin blouse like trophies.
“…Do you go to church?” Natalie asked brightly.
Andres realized that he had tuned out a lot of what she had just said. He only realized when she stopped talking and seemed intent on getting his answer.
“Yes, sometimes. I go to the Mormon church.” Andres tried to remember the last time he had been to church. Then he realized he was drinking coffee and tried to think of a way to change the subject.
“Would you like to go for a walk?” Natalie glanced at her friends and smiled.
“I came here with some friends, let me go see if they are going to be around a while.”
Walking was the last thing Andres wanted to do after being on his feet all day. He needed to change the scene. He had always been a little on the shy side. He felt more confident away from crowds. Natalie came back in a moment with her bag on her shoulder.
“They are studying for an exam tomorrow.  I’m pretty sure I’ve got it though.  My friend Jasmin said she’ll be here at least another hour so I’ve got a little time.  Lets go.”
Andres  got up and stretched. He pulled a wad of bills out of his pocket and threw a few on the table. He held the door for her and tried desperately to think of something to say.
“So, you are in school?”
“Yeah, I’m going for a nursing degree. I want to get a Master’s in counseling and work with psych patients.”
“What makes you interested in that?” Andres thought this was an odd ambition.
“I don’t know. In this economy it seems like good work to have.” Natalie laughed a little through her nose.
“What do you do, Andres?”
“Well, as you can tell by the way I’m dressed, I’m a lawyer.” Andres then shot her his winning smile. Natalie giggled.
“I know you are a waiter. I’ve seen you at Theo’s before. I just mean, what do you plan to do… someday.”
“I don’t make plans. That is why I work as a waiter.” Andres’ English was beautiful. He had strong shoulders and his smooth face didn’t reveal his true age. They walked along the sidewalk and had come to the end. They had to decide to go toward a neighborhood of identical town homes or cross the street and follow the path of the shopping center. Andres waited to let her choose. They crossed the street.
“So you are a Mormon and you hang out in coffee shops, huh?” Natalie’s eyes twinkled. She had picked up on those details. Andres grinned self consciously.
“I’m not a very good Mormon.”
“Would you like to come to my church?”
“Sure. Where do you go to church?”
“Grace United. Its down off of 15-501 by the car dealership.” “Oh. Do you go with your family?”
Andres suddenly got uneasy at the thought of sitting with Natalie’s family at church. She was quite a bit younger than he was. He wondered if it was possible her parents were near his age.
“Actually, its my dad’s church. He started it 10 years ago. We have over 1,000 members now.”
“Oh. Thats good.” Natalie giggled again.
“You don’t have to worry about my dad. He loves when people come to church with me.”
“Well, obviously. He gets more money that way.” Andres smiled and winked. Natalie giggled again. She was easy to entertain. Once they had reached the end of the shopping center they turned back toward the coffee shop.
“So tomorrow then? I’ll wait for you at the front entrance? You can just come in whatever clothes you feel comfortable in. Its not the stuffy kind of church. Probably not what you are used to.”
Andres smiled and looked down. He stood by the door of the coffee shop and said good-by.

That night Andres lay in bed and a silvery hair came into his view. It was lit up by a beam of moonlight that came in from his window. It seemed to just hover there. He wondered how a woman’s hair had gotten there and how it was just floating over him like a ghost. He thought of Natalie and her cheerfulness and suspected for a moment that she had placed the hair there over his bed to enchant him, giggling to herself. She must have said an incantation to give him good dreams. Those were the thoughts that started shifting and morphing in his mind. Before he fell asleep he concluded that it was the beginning of a spider web. By the time he woke up he would be completely ensnared in it.