Shortly
before I set off for a quick sightseeing trip I lived through 15-minutes-long
episode I could not get off my mind for the past two weeks.
15 June
2016, Wednesday.
A workmate
who had decided to attend the same conference I did turned up around 9:00 a.m.
As his decision had been kind of belated (or to put it coarsely, he had not
been far-sighted), he had not managed to find a room in a hotel where the
conference was held. He was planning to leave before evening to return to
Warsaw around dusk, yet when it turned out my single room was in fact a double
room with two single beds, I decided to give in to his entreating and put him
up overnight, illegally. Because we had one room entry card, we had no choice
but to go to most places together. As I spoke on the phone to another
colleague, he advised jocosely we hang around separately, since I would be
scaring off his prospective clients and he would be scaring off all women
interested in me…
16 June
2016, Thursday
Early
morning. The workmate is kind of languorous and indecisive; two traits I cannot
put up with when they are exhibited by fellow males. I delicately urge him to
leave the room before 7:30 a.m.. He insists on eating a breakfast in the hotel
restaurant, while I keep telling him just like in almost each and every hotel,
the restaurant crew would ask him about room number and thus his free-riding
would come to the light, not the course of event we both would wish for. I walk
downstairs to consume my duly paid breakfast and leave him packing his stuff in
my room. While I finish eating, I see him strutting about outside the hotel.
Then I notice a missed phone call from him. We work together on day-to-day
basis, so I overcome my irritation and walk off outside to shake his hand and
wish him a good journey… He marches to his company car, while I take delight in
breathing in fresh warm morning air. The past twenty two and half hours proved
lack of company is better than any company…
I briskly
stride towards the hotel making a plan to visit the swimming pool (went there
once yesterday, but since it has been paid for, why not use it?) and in my
state of sheer bliss I fail to notice a young woman crouching over an open
suitcase. She begins a conversation:
Woman:
Excuse me sir, does sir know how to call a taxi to the train station in Town?
Me: At the
moment unfortunately not, but I am just finding it out (grabbing the smartphone
from my pocket and looking for a number to order a taxi cab from Town).
Woman: The
taxi driver was bound to pick me up at 7:30 while my train to Warsaw departs at
8:03…
Me: I am
afraid you have some twenty minutes left and waiting for a taxi is kind of
risky. If you are to make it to the station, I will give you a lift. I will
just fetch the car keys and documents from my room and off we go…
While I was
nearly running back with stuff necessary to fire up the car, my thought was
that the taxi driver has pitched up in the meantime and I my fit of help was
gratuitous…
Woman,
still squatting over the open suitcase: I thought sir was joking and ran away.
Sir is very nice.
From the
next ten minutes I remember that:
- we kept
talking (or heads off) during the entire journey and definitely were on the
same wavelength from the very moment we got into the car, however I cannot
recall well subject matters of our chat,
- I felt
addressing each other Pani / Pan was absurdly unnatural since with newly met
people on social occasions I am on name’s terms from the very beginning,
- I had to
ask her to find a route to the train station on her mobile phone (with
hindsight I have learnt my new company swanky smartphone has an up-to-the-mark
navigation),
- she was
somewhat frightened by my style of driving, while I was slightly fast and
furious behind the wheel,
- when for
a moment we talked about football (Poland was due to play with Germany later
that day), I missed an opportunity to sound out whether she has a husband or
boyfriend (by asking a casual question whether her husband or boyfriend is a
football fan),
- when I
parked next to the station she asked me for a business card and since I had
left them in the hotel. I told her my name and private phone number and held
back from asking her about hers, since my thought was that in such situation
asking her for phone number would be a step too far. In my awkward reasoning I had
showed immediate initiative and resourcefulness and if she wanted to pay back
as she was promising when getting off the car, she would make the next step, if
not, imposing myself was a bad idea.
Some four
or five days later I realised I did not know her name, where she worked and
given my poor memory for faces, I would not recognise her if we met again. But
this was the second time (let’s pass over the first one in silence) over three
months when I met a woman for the first time and for the second time some kind
of chemistry (and spontaneity) was in the air that instantly shortened the
distance between us from the word go. Come to think of it. So often two people
deliberately date and both struggle to keep up a conversation while out of the
blue you can run across somebody accidentally and talk with them (if time
permits, for hours) effortlessly.
22 June
2016, Wednesday
I get a
text message from my team-mate. She writes a courier has delivered a parcel for
me, undersigned “with thanks from Company XYZ”. Kind of confused I google the
name of the sender and learn Company XYZ was one the partners of last week’s
conference. Whether the bundle’s arrival is an implication of the pleasant
adventure, or just a follow-up to a cordial exchange of business cards will
remain a mystery until 4 July when I return to work.
Looking
back at the situation, there is no clear reason why I cannot get it off my
head. The woman might be a happy wife and mother to two small lovely children.
The woman might also in a long-lasting not formalised relationship. If I knew
that, I would have simply come to terms with it, put giving her a lift on a
list of good deeds I have made in life and give it a rest once and for all.
Twists and
turns of life are frequently driven by coincidences. As the old saying goes,
luck is an opportunity not missed. In this case, I hold it against myself I
have not seized the opportunity. I can neither give up nor move on…
Or
alternatively, if she knows how to get in touch with me and (rather) has not
done it (cannot determine it, until I open the parcel) it is high time I gave
over…
No comments:
Post a Comment