get connected
You must always remember not to have a watch on while asking for the time, or to have a pack of matches sticking out of your pocket when asking for a light. The next step is working up the courage to talk to them. It is not as easy as approaching someone for the end result being sex. You want to talk to this person for their stories, for their life, their nuances.Ask for the time, and some people will look up at you with a desperate smile. Oh, the time? You see, this very morning, they spent two G-D’d hours at the bank, being told that their account was compromised. Can you believe it? After being told just yesterday by her boss at the pub she now slings beer at to never to be late again. Not like it was her fault that her card got stolen. And at 54, she really doesn’t appreciate being talked to like some pimpled teenager. She knows better than to piss off her boss, but the bank kept her there. What could she do?! Who on Earth would pick her to rob, she bemoans. There’s nothing to be had.
Some people told her it could be her ex husband. ‘He’s done a lot of shitty things lately, but it’s not like we ever had a joint bank account.’ You don’t want to hear what comes next, about the younger, more attractive woman that he left his wife of 27 years for. That just serves to remind you what probably will be your fate, eventually, although you do take a small comfort in the predictability of this man.
If you continue, and if you probe just right, you will have her crying on your shoulder, this stranger to you 30 minutes ago – her snot will be embedded in the cloth covering your shoulder, and you will have her blood on your hands.
You’re predictable, too. You will forget about why you asked for her stories in the first place. When the first tear falls, you are every problem that’s ever affected her and you are invested.
This is worse than the morning after; during the cry.
