Park-Crossed Lovers

I enjoy going on walks. Around my neighborhood, around friends’ neighborhoods, in parks, and when I’m on vacation: I love a good walk around. Fresh air is delightful, nature watching is even more, and people watching is the most. And on a recent walk, I was blessed with some of the best people watching I’ve had in some time.

I was in a park not far from my house, that has several walking trails going around it. It’s not the largest park in the world, so a few laps around the trails and you are bound to run into the same person more than once on your stroll. Sometimes you give an awkward half-smile and nod as you walk by, others you refuse to acknowledge them and keep going about your way, as if you’re both so focused on walking that you didn’t notice any other humans.

After a few laps, I saw two groups of two people, two different times. The first pair was a dad jogging next to what must have been his young son riding a bicycle. The second pair was, similarly, a mom jogging next to what must have been her young son, who was also riding a bicycle. They were separate groups going in opposite directions. But after seeing one group pass me, and the other group go the other way, I realized that they would have to cross paths. Now, I had to see this.

I walked off the trail and began to stretch. Truth be told, I didn’t need or want to stretch at all. This was all a ruse to casually peek my head around the trail to sneak a peek at what I hope would be the peak of all meet-cutes. I don’t know why a meet-cute is so fascinating, but I suppose that’s why romantic comedies are so popular. I don’t know if it’s that many of us would one day like to be part of one, or if it’s simply wholesome to see two humans cross paths and find common interest. Whatever it is, I shamelessly want to see it happen.

And suddenly, it happened. As I stopped stretching my hamstring to instead do some lunges, the two groups of two crossed paths. When they did, they stopped. I knew something good was happening, because how many joggers do you know that stop to chat with just anyone? Not many, I wouldn’t think. But here they were faced with a few unmistakable similarities: Each likes to jog and has a son who likes to bike. Match made in Heaven, if you ask me.

As I got up from lunging on one leg and switched to the other, the two groups of two went their two separate ways. How many times can I say “two” before you stop reading this? At least two more times, I bet.

They went their separate ways, without any sign of exchanging phone numbers or anything. So, I was left to a few possibilities to this disappointing and anticlimactic end to the story.

First, and most likely, one or both of them could have been married or otherwise romantically involved, perhaps with the other parents of those young sons on bikes. I suppose that’s always an obstacle, damn spouses getting in the way of true love.

Second, and also likely, is simply that they stopped to say, “oh wow how funny, what a coincidence,” with no interest of anything other than a jog on that day. Would be fair, but disappointing. I guess not every meet-cute gets to be more than a coincidence, sadly.

Third, and utterly impossible, is that they had an awkward encounter that led to no attraction or potential for more. Unlikely, but fine, I’ll mention it, to be fair. Whichever of these three reasons they parted ways, I was left wanting more.

Surprise! There was a secret fourth option all along. As I now stopped lunging and prepared to go back to my regularly scheduled walk, I noticed something. The adults had separated, but the kids on bikes both went with the mom who was now walking. They were brothers. And the two jogging lovebirds must have already been together, just jogging at different paces. The perfect ending all along: They had their meet-cute a long time ago. And they jogged happily ever after.