A Confusing Incident

I was on Third Avenue, coming home with a bag of two Spicy Tuna Rolls from a restaurant called Sushi Time, when I spotted a very attractive, young brunette just ahead of me. She had dark, shining hair, long legs, and was chattering into a cell phone. A small boy, maybe 7, trotted on her left, and she patted him on the head. I wondered if the boy was hers. She seemed too young to have a kid that old, but you never know.

I watched for a long while, thinking about things, but pretty soon I overtook her on the left. Her arm was swinging, and I guess one of us veered toward the other, and for an accidental second our hands met, and one or both of us, in that instant of contact, clutched.

She looked over, I began to mumble an apology, and she said "I love you."

For a strange moment, gazing into her brown eyes, I felt really connected. It didn't matter that she might have a kid. Maybe that was just the thing I needed to grow up, to mature into a man. It all seemed perfect, like fate was finally looking out for me.

"I love you too," I said, and reached for her hand.

"I was talking on the phone," she responded, and jerked her arm away.

I had forgotten about the cell, invisible on her right side. I thought she'd just been fixing her hair.

"I wouldn't want someone with a kid, anyway" I said.

"I'm babysitting him," she told me.

Thinking quickly, I hailed a cab. The driver got mad when I asked him to drop me off a block away, at my work, so I tipped him ten dollars. The whole thing took so long that the girl caught up with me, and I had to sprint to my office to avoid any more conversation.

What a confusing incident.