Window of Love

Margaret was busy. She was a thirty-year-old blonde-haired and blue-eyed beauty. She ranked high among top fashion designers. She worked hard. She achieved her success by long hours of designing and creating. She loved what she did and appreciated how far she had come. She occupied a prized office in a New York City high rise building. The view from her office was to die for. It was magnificent and glorious. She cherished it.

After many hours spent leaning over her desk busily drawing,erasing, and drawing again, she treasured her break time by gazing out of her large office window. She always kept the blinds up. One day, the sun was shining brightly and the sky was actually visible. She happily sighed and returned to her drawing. After an hour, she put down her pencil and returned to gazing out of her office window. There he was. Wow! It was always the same man.He had bright blue eyes, brown hair and he was gorgeous, tall and slim. Way too good-looking to be a window washer. And he appeared to be her personal window washer.

They had established a pattern. He came by on Friday afternoons, washing and giving her quite a nice view, of him. Along with the stunning city view, of course.She remembered how it all started. He nodded to her one day and she smiled and waved back.That action became routine. Just little things and making gestures made her smile. They were laughing together without saying a word. Margaret stayed busy. She had no time for men, family or much else except work. That kept her ahead of the competition but,it made for some very lonely nights.

The window washer did a low bow to her and she giggled.He was so cute and funny, too. She was sometimes afraid that he would topple over and fall to his death. He appeared to love heights and had good balance. He had captured her imagination and her attention long ago. Soon, she felt her heart skip a beat when they shared exchanges of humor through the glass. She often wondered if he had a girlfriend or wife. He was not wearing a wedding ring but,that does not mean much sometimes.

She heard a tap on the window. That startled her. He had never done that before. She looked up. He was holding a sign, a piece of white cardboard with a phone number. Under the phone number was the name Jim. Underneath the name “Call me?” was written.She gasped. Should she? She really didn’t know him, except six months of flirting through a window. Still, he seemed nice. She wrote down the number and nodded. He waved, smiled and rode off to wash another window. She was still in shock when Jessica walked into her office.
Jessica was her boss. She was also one of Margaret’s closest friends. Margaret told Jessica what had just happened. 

Jessica told Margaret that she knew Jim from her church. He was a regular member. Jessica said that Jim was indeed not married and that he always attended church services alone. Margaret smiled. She asked Jessica if she believed in fate and told her that she kept being drawn to that particular window. Jessica laughed. She said,“Honey, this is your window of love and it just opened for you!”
Margaret said, “Maybe so.” Later that night, she picked up the phone and started dialing. Jim answered.

Margaret and Jim had been happily dating for six months.Once again Margaret heard a tap on her office window. She looked up. Jim was dressed in a black tux and he held a sign. This one said “Marry me?” Margaret grabbed a sheet of paper, writing quickly and held it up. “Yes!” Then, she walked to the window and pressed her lips to it. Jim did the same. A red lipstick stain is still on Margaret’s window of love to this very day.

情緣之窗

瑪格麗特是個大忙人。年近三十的她是個金發(fā)碧眼的美女，同時，她也是一名頂級時裝設(shè)計(jì)師。她工作勤奮努力，通過夜以繼日的設(shè)計(jì)和創(chuàng)作終于取得今日的成就。她熱愛自己的工作，珍惜自己所取得的成績。她所擁有的辦公室處在紐約市的一棟高層建筑中，從辦公室能看到的景色宏偉壯觀 , 令人艷羨。她珍愛這一切。
    
她總是長時間伏在桌邊反復(fù)涂畫修改，閑暇時，她喜歡透過辦公室巨大的窗玻璃向外遠(yuǎn)眺，因此她總將窗簾拉開。這一天，陽光明媚，碧空如洗，她愉快地嘆了口氣，繼續(xù)繪圖。一個小時后，她放下手中的鉛筆站在窗邊眺望。哇哦！他在那兒。每次都是那個人，他有一雙明亮的藍(lán)眼睛，一頭棕色的頭發(fā)，他帥氣、高大、修長，竟有如此好看的窗戶清潔工。他仿佛就是她專屬的窗戶清潔工。
    
他們甚至建立起一種默契。他每周五下午會從窗戶旁經(jīng)過，將玻璃清洗干凈，讓她有一個清晰美好的視野，這樣就可以更清楚地看到他，當(dāng)然還有城市的美景。她還記得這一切是如何開始的：那天他朝她點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭，而她微笑著招手示意。這樣的動作成了兩人例行不變的問候方式。一些很小的舉動甚至一個手勢都能讓她開心不已。他們心意相通，隔窗相視而笑�，敻覃愄毓ぷ髅β担�她沒有時間談朋友，沒有時間照顧家庭，她的時間都花在了工作上。雖然在激烈的競爭中，她脫穎而出，遙遙領(lǐng)先，可是，一個人的夜里，她難免有時會感到孤單。

這時，窗戶清潔工對她深深鞠了一躬，逗得她咯咯直笑。他真的太可愛了，而且還這么風(fēng)趣。有時候她擔(dān)心他會掉下去摔死，不過他似乎很喜歡處在高處，并且他的平衡感也極好。她不禁對他浮想聯(lián)翩，腦海中時常浮現(xiàn)出他的樣子。又過了不久，她發(fā)現(xiàn)每當(dāng)他們透過窗戶分享各自的愉悅心情，自己的心就會撲通撲通地狂跳。她很想知道他有沒有女朋友或妻子，雖然他沒有戴婚戒，但是有時候那并不代表什么，不是嗎？
這時響起了一陣敲窗聲，她嚇了一跳，要知道他以前可從沒這么干過。她抬起頭看到他正拿著一塊白色牌子，上面寫著一串電話號碼，電話號碼下署名“吉姆”，名字下還寫著“可以打給我嗎？”。她深吸一口氣，心想這樣可以嗎，除了這六個月時間里隔著窗戶的曖昧，她根本就對他一無所知。不過他看起來人不錯，于是，她記下電話號碼，點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭表示同意。他揮揮手，喜笑顏開地去清潔另一扇窗戶了。直到杰西卡走進(jìn)她的辦公室，她依然心潮澎湃。
    
杰西卡既是瑪格麗特的老板，也是她的閨密。瑪格麗特告訴杰西卡剛剛發(fā)生的一切后，杰西卡便告訴瑪格麗特，她在她常去的教堂見過吉姆，他是那兒的教徒，而且他還沒結(jié)婚，常常一個人去那里做禮拜�，敻覃愄剌笭栆恍�，問杰西卡是否相信緣分，并告訴杰西卡這扇特別的窗戶仿佛有魔力一般吸引著她。杰西卡笑了起來：“親愛的，這是你的情緣之窗，而且這扇窗只為你而開。 ” 瑪格麗特應(yīng)和著：“或許是吧。”那天晚上她拿起電話撥號過去，吉姆接了電話。
    
瑪格麗特和吉姆約會了六個月，這段時間他們過得十分開心。一天，瑪格麗特又聽到了一陣敲窗聲。她抬起頭，只見吉姆穿著一身黑色晚禮服并舉著一塊牌子，上面寫著“嫁給我吧！”瑪格麗特拿起一張紙飛快地寫下“我愿意！”并將其舉在手上。接著她走到窗前將嘴唇貼在窗上，吉姆也將嘴唇貼了上來。直到現(xiàn)在，瑪格麗特的情緣之窗上還留著一個紅紅的嘴唇印。

單詞注解
◆ to die for 
  【釋義】[ 美國俚語] 惹人喜愛的，很美的
◆ flirt [flt]
  【釋義】vi . 調(diào)情，打情罵俏
◆ tux [tks]
  【釋義】n . 男士無尾半正式晚禮服
◆ appreciate ['priet]
  【釋義】vi . 增值；漲價 vt. 欣賞；感激；領(lǐng)會；鑒別
  【短語】highly appreciate 充分肯定
◆ magnificent [mɡ'nfsnt]
  【釋義】adj . 高尚的；壯麗的；華麗的；宏偉的
◆ cherish ['ter]
  【釋義】vt . 珍愛 vt . 懷有（感情等）；抱有（希望等）
◆ treasure ['tre]
  【釋義】n . 財(cái)富，財(cái)寶；珍品 vt. 珍愛；珍藏
  【短語】buried treasure 藏寶 , 寶藏 , 埋藏的珍寶
◆ cute [kjut]
  【釋義】adj . 可愛的；漂亮的；聰明的，伶俐的
◆ height [hat]
  【釋義】n . 高地；高度；高處
◆ gasp [gɑsp]
  【釋義】n . 喘氣 vi. 喘氣；渴望 vt. 氣喘吁吁地說；喘著氣說話
  【短語】gasp out 喘著氣說出
◆ indeed [n'did]
  【釋義】adv . 的確；真正地；甚至 int. 真的（表示驚訝、懷疑、諷刺等）
  【短語】indeed so 確實(shí)如此