Yuri

 I didn't see Yuri at first. Desi told me to look for someone with frizzy hair and massive shoes, but there was probably a grand total of, like, two people in the cafe she told me to meet him at, and I still couldn't find him. So he had to get up and introduce himself. 

 

The first thing I noticed were his--well, actually, no, I noticed his height first. His eyes were about at the level of my nose. That's not so unusual, I'm pretty tall--but in reality he was probably only an inch or three taller than Desi (who's super short, by the way. Not like I mind, but... she is. Like, compared to most people, not just me. Probably five-two or three). Anyway, so he was wearing these huge platform heels. Snakeskin-looking boots with wood-looking heels that probably added about five inches to his height (knowing what I know of him now, they were wood. But I wasn't sure at the time). 

 

"Cassidy?" he said. Like, it was a question, but he sounded pretty damn sure it was me. His voice startled me a little and I jumped--it was deeper than I expected, but not really that deep. Resonant, I guess. Actually, he looked kinda girly. Tight jeans (not really jeans, I'm just used to seeing jeans with that cut... cigarette pants?), blouse, neck tie... bow... thing... (it wasn't a scarf, but it was too big to be a bow tie--I mean the proportions weren't right, it's not like it was obnoxiously huge), and his hair was kind of long but just barely touched his shoulders--I guess I expected him to have sort of a husky-but-still-feminine sounding voice, and maybe a bit of a New Yorker accent. I mean, I shouldn't think that way just based off a person's looks, but... I still did?

His tone was more brusque than I expected, too. I guess I expected him to sound a little more hesitant. Since we'd never met before. I wondered if Desi had shown him a picture of me or something.

He sat down first, so I got a better look at his shoes under the table during the second or so I was still standing. If you actually looked at the curve where the outer material met the sole, there wasn't much heel to it. Maybe an inch or an inch and a half. They were pretty solid shoes, so they didn't really make him sway much when he walked like normal heels would. 

Something about him made me even more nervous than I'd been coming in. Maybe it was his confidence--confidence isn't a good enough word, it was more than that--standoffishness. Or his clothes. It was obvious from the start he was really meticulous about his looks. I thought I was dressing up wearing eyeliner and a button-down shirt with a tank top instead of a t-shirt, but I got the impression that his outfit was his idea of casual wear. 

 

He had really clear skin, too, but I couldn't tell if he was wearing foundation or just took really good care of his face. I think he was wearing lip stain and eyeliner, too, but it was really hard to tell. He just looked and acted incredibly put together. Completely unshakeable. It was kind of intimidating for awhile.

The look on his face after I sat down didn't help at all. He looked utterly revolted by something, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what.