I saw you when you first came into the bar. You were with your man. Your eyes, your smile, they were loving him – full of such care and wanting. So much kindness. And I was melted right there.

But he turned his shoulder – flirted with the pretty, skinny girl standing next to him. Your smile dissolved. You looked down. Played with your phone.

Later, as the band played, I saw you standing alone – your man and your friends sitting around a nearby table having fun while you hovered quietly. Ignored. Not even a drink to pass the time. Something about that tore at me.

True, you are not the stick thin, fake tan type that girls your age are supposed to be – but your beauty was radiating. It shone so bright, so obviously, that I wondered why your boy and your so-called friends could not see it. To me, there was nothing else in the room. Yours was the light and I was struck by it.

This is why I did what I did. Walked up out of the low light and stood beside you – told you that no matter what others think of or say about you, that you have a beauty inside you that is graceful and magnificent. And if they can’t see it, or choose to stare at shinier objects, then it is their loss.