I am oblivious at times…
Tonight, as I drove home, thinking intently as I am wont to do as of late, I paid no attention to the man behind the wheel in the car beside mine. He made a concerted effort to crane his neck all the way around to make eye contact with me as he drove haphazardly in his lane, cell phone in his right hand practically forgotten as he did so. I thought it odd that he looked at me so pointedly. I had not done anything wrong. I was clearly in my own lane. My signals were all off.
What is his problem?
I promptly brushed it off as his deal and went about my business of driving and thinking deeply. I had turned my stereo way down, so I could hear my head, and was intent enough on my thoughts that I was absentmindedly rubbing the fingertips of my right hand back and forth across my lips.
Something to my left was bugging me.
I really didn’t want to look, because I was thinking. And, there was a lot of traffic. And, mostly, because I was thinking.
I glanced to the left and there was Mr. Cutie with the dark hair and a smile so big it lit up his car. His cell phone had disappeared and, although he was 100% focused on me, he was driving surprisingly straight in his lane, albeit slowly. He slowed to a crawl with eight car lengths of empty space in front of him in the middle of rush hour traffic. He slowed his pace to match mine, since my lane had come to an almost complete standstill.
I glanced again. He was still smiling. Then he did something curious. Akin to the way a snake snifts the air, he flicked his tongue at me, all the while smiling with this devilish look. I am uncertain what that gesture means. I know what it means if the person adds two fingers in a “V” on either side of his mouth, but I don’t know what it means without the “V”. Perhaps the same thing?
Startled, I grinned behind my still-rubbing fingertips and then the grin dissolved into a shy smile as I shook my head disbelievingly.
He did it again and I laughed outright behind my hand.
I hoped I was looking coy, but fear I just looked uninterested.
He smiled a huge sunshine grin and, with a look of disappointment, had to step on the gas when the annoyed driver behind him laid on his horn.
As he drove into the sunset, I was bemused at the myriad of thoughts that accosted me in three seconds flat…
What does that mean? Why are you doing that to me? Cute guys like you don’t even look at me, let alone flirt with me! If you saw my whole body, you would say, ‘I thought you were someone else,’ and then you would run away. Why me? I don’t even look good today.
I laughed at my self-defeating thoughts and turned up the radio. Enough thinking for one evening.
