I'm wearing a green shirt today. Admittedly, it shows off a little more of my bust than I typically prefer. So at lunch today, I shouldn't be too surprised that someone noticed, eh?
I walked past the gas station, and 3 guys were standing out front. One approached me, and said, "Do you know where the Six Forks Police Station is?" (BTW - not what I recommend for a pickup line).
So I responded, "I'm not sure but I see ambulances and such pulling out from up the road this way." I was on foot.
"Are you going that way? Can I join you?"
A little weird - - so I grabbed my purse a little tighter (we're still on a busy road, so I'm not sure why I was nervous), and said, "Sure." And the conversation continued.
"My name is Max, what is your name?"
"Rebecca," I responded tertly. In retrospect- I could have responded anything. Linda, Samantha, Martha, Elanor - - for a few moments in time, I could have been anyone in the world. Stupid me, perhaps, to use my "real" first name.
"So, do you live around here?"
"I work in that building."
"Are you married?"
"Yes"
And I was getting curious, so I had to ask, "Why are you looking for the Police Station?"
"I'm trying to get my panhandling license."
Next, he said, "Oh, well I have a Sprint phone, so I'm going to head to the Sprint store.." (which was located a few yards down the hill from where we were passing by).
A few strides later, I had to turn down the same hill to make my way across the parking lot to the Subway. He did, in fact, go into the sprint store.
The "analyst" in me is spending too much time over-analyzing the entire situation. Do I need to know where the police station is? Was he looking for trouble, and assuming that if I knew where the police station was I knew how to make trouble? Was "where is the police station?" an attempted "pick-up" line? I may never know the answer to these questions, but it is a bit interesting to think about these things.
As I was crossing the parking lot (all in the span of less than 2 minutes), another person stopped me - this time, a woman in a car.
"Excuse me," the driver said, "Do you know where Suzi's is?"
"Sorry ma'am, I have no idea."
"Is North Hills around here?"
"It's down the road about 3 miles."
"It's in a little area, next to an Italian restaurant. Are there any other strip malls close by?"
"The only one I can think of is down the road the other direction...," I responded, and she drove away.
Weird.
As I'm paying in the subway line, and Max and friends appear to be in line behind me.
Forgive me if I'm a little jumpy this afternoon at work.
Today: I am thankful to be back in my office.
