At first fucking sight.
I saw two people fall in love on the subway today.
He was wearing a fur hat and the ugliest poncho this side of Mexico tucked into sand-colored corduroy jeans. He couldn’t quite stand right in the fast-moving train and was playing a violin strapped upright to his torso. He looked near my age, on the older side of his mid-twenties and had small, intense eyes and a gingery beard.
He played violin as if he had never been understood all the way through.
Bluegrass with soul and a quiet sadness.
She pushed her way though the door from the car alongside ours. She had laugh lines around her eyes. She wore teal stockings, a backpack under her wild wavy hair, and looked like she ate granola on the regular.
She was intense.
She immediately locked eyes on him. She had followed him into this car. He saw her and a smile bloomed across his face. Her eyes sparkled. They looked at each other, electric. Charged. Some silent understanding coursing between them.
I could tell they had not yet met.
He moved through the car towards her. He kept playing graceful violin and almost tripping over his feet.
And quietly singing, raspy, bluegrassy, like he was in love. He was standing 6 inches from her face, and she was staring, unblinking, a half-smile hugging her teeth. He stopped playing. The train stopped moving. And I heard her introduce herself as Emma. He was Gabriel. And she wasn’t getting off at the station. She wasn’t getting off until he was.
And that was that. It was my stop and I got off the train. Smiling electric and feverish as if their new love was contagious.
I love this