Chance Encounters

            This is in response to my friend’s post on October 8^th, 2012 her blog themeetcutecollector.blogspot.com After reading about a chance encounter between her two fictional characters, I got inspired to tell you all about two random past chance encounters that happened to me in real life.

The 1^st: Chance Taken

            About two years ago in December I was shopping in Soho for presents for my friends for Hanukkah. When I was finished I got into the subway station at Broadway/Lafayette on the F train going downtown to Brooklyn. A minute passes and an older man seemingly in his late 30s stands next to me on the platform. He was wearing dark jeans and a black leather jacket and kept looking over and making eye contact at me. When the train arrived there were a ton of people on the train so the man and I had to stand next to each other side by side leaning against the door. Me with my two huge bags listening to my ipod and him just standing there glancing over at me from time to time. I would look up and he would be staring at me until he looked away. I didn't think he was unattractive but I did think it was odd he would be staring at me every time I looked up.

            When we finally arrived in Brooklyn he got off at the Bergen St. along with a ton of other people on the train so it became far less crowded. Once he got off I noticed he was just standing there and deliberately looking at me without looking away. I smiled and so did he, along with a wave. I think he was waving for me to get off the train, but I had somewhere to be and was running late. He started to laugh as the doors closed and I couldn't help but laugh and smile myself. Off the train went and I didn't see him again.

            It wasn't until days later I was looking on craigslist for part time jobs that I noticed the missed connections posting. I was curious and so I clicked it and searched through the post and found that someone had posted about the exact same incident that took place between me and this guy. I was surprised so, I responded by e-mailing the posting and describing my side of the story, what I was wearing, the bags I had with me, and a little while later he responded and said it was him. He asked me to brunch and so I couldn't refuse. That weekend I met him and he was really nice, charming, sweet, and incredibly generous. We had a pleasant conversation about his job, he was a hotel architect/real estate developer, and then walked around the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights. Though he was nice enough, I didn't think I was really all that into him, so I thanked him for a nice time and made plans to chat again. We text for a little while but nothing progressed further than that one time connection.

The 2^nd: Chance Missed

            A couple of weeks ago in September on a Thursday evening, I was coming home late from a night of bonding with coworkers at a bar and went into the train station at 14^th street and 6^th Ave taking the F train downtown to Brooklyn once again. I was wearing a suit but was holding on to my jacket and my bag, listening to ipod and reading New York Mag. I had been waiting about 5 minutes when a taller white male came down the stairs and made direct eye contact with me. He had on a sweater and cut off jeans with flip flops and looked to be about late 20s. He passed me and stood against the pole behind me when the train came. As I turned I noticed he had been staring at me.

            Once the train opened its doors we each got onto the train from separate entrances and went to the same area of seats that had nobody sitting in them. We each stopped suddenly and waited for a second until I sat down and then instead of sitting down next to me where there was absolutely nobody and clearly enough room for 2 more people, he chose to wedge himself in between two larger people so he could be directly in front of me. I looked up at him and he was smiling as he listened to his music and I looked into my bag for a pen. I flipped to the back of the magazine and started to work on the crossword looking up from time to time thinking about an answer and finding that the guy was looking at me. We had only gone three stops until we got to 2^nd Ave and he got up to leave. I looked up once again and smiled at him. When he doors opened he left and so that was that. I didn't see him walk from my peripheral vision away so I turned to see maybe he went the opposite direction and came face to face with him in the window. He smiled so did I and then we laughed. Even after all this, I didn't get off the train and never got his name or number or anything. I immediately went onto craigslist and posted about the encounter we just had thinking that he would at least know about that and check. It’s now the 10^th of October and I haven’t heard or seen him again.

Unfortunately, another opportunity gone, but that’s okay. Like you all know, I've been on two dates with another guy and it’s going extremely well. We’re taking things slow but you all know you’ll read about the progression and how things are going.

Until next time, good luck on all your searches.