12 February 2009

Flirting

The getting-the-child-to-school schedule is complicated. Three days a week, I drive her to school. Ideally, I drop her off at 7:30 and get on a train before 8, but ideally doesn't happen very often. Whatever.

The other two days a week, she takes the bus and I take the 9:09 train. And invariably, on those two days a week, because my schedule is predictable thanks to the promptness of the bus, I walk by a couple flirting by the overpass to the tracks.

She stands two or three steps up to give the appearance of "I'm running for the train". He, more snappily dressed than one might expect of a taxi-dispatcher, looks up to her, taking a break from putting the babysitters into their car service cars. They flirt, he smiles, she smiles.

I arrived one morning just behind her, and watched as she peeked into the taxi shack, "I'm here". She went to stand in her spot on the steps, he followed a moment later, and they assumed the position.

I never see them part. I'm always up and over before the train pulls in, waiting at just the right door.

But I wonder as I pass them on the stairs. Does she have a boyfriend, a husband, a partner? Does he? Is it just flirting? Have they ever gone out for a beer? Or more? Will they? And I wonder if the same little scene plays out five days a week, or just on the two that I take the 9:09 train.

13 comments:

YourFireAnt said...

Now I wonder too.

Fa

Anjali said...

I love making up stories about people I don't know.

Why don't you try flirting with him, too? You might be able to tell what kind of relationship they have by how she reacts. (Just kidding, of course!)

shrink on the couch said...

This is the stuff of a screenplay!

S said...

This is JUST the kind of thing that would preoccupy me.

kathy a. said...

how funny and mysterious. how strange to hear someone has a job putting babysitters in cars.

there is someone in my quiet little neighborhood whom i wonder about. she lives just a block from me, and i often see her walking -- one summer when i was driving a kid to a program at the university, i would see her walking that way, a good 5 miles from home. she's probably mid-30's is my guess; not employed in any regular way; and her hairstyles and clothing differ wildly. i wonder, but have no idea of her story.

painted maypole said...

people are fascinating. loved this

flutter said...

I totally love this!

Kyddryn said...

This is why I do not fear strangers - they are stories I tell to myself, wondering.

They are characters in the tale I live moment by moment, fictions based on fact.

That is, when I remember not to be afraid of strangers.

Shade and Sweetwater,
K

Kyla said...

Wow. That's interesting. I love to people watch.

heidi said...

i wanna see a cellphone pic. LOVE this post :-)

Mayberry said...

I like how they can't flirt at the taxi shack--it has to be on the steps.

You must contrive to take the train on one of the other days sometime, just to check in on them!

Woman in a Window said...

neat. I'm curious now too.

Anonymous said...

Great. One more thing to obsess over. ;-)

I love people watching like this.