Well I was on a long 6 hour bus ride and this man and woman get on but the bus is packed so the woman sits on my left and the guy sits in front of her the next row up.
The bus is cramped and as a little time goes on, I notice us getting closer and closer until we are touching, and touching a little more, and then finally leaning against each other. The bus ride is from around 1 AM to 9 AM, so this is all going on at night. Periodically, she would back off a little and detach, and so I would do the same, but then we would lean on each other again. I sometimes did the same thing- I pulled away, and then felt either her shoulder or bottom beside me so I relaxed again.
Keep in mind this is at night and I had had a couple of drinks before getting on the bus, so I am tired; when I open my eyes I acted like "Where am I?" but when I closed my eyes I relaxed and we basically leaned on each other and warmed each other up. I left at one point to use the bathroom and had to ask her to get up. When I came back, she got up but she was smiling. I sat down and within the span of about a minute we were leaning on each other again. She was a darker skinned woman and I'd guess in her late 30s or 40s.
Anyway, there comes a point when she starts breathing noticeably heavier and louder, almost like an automatic motor response rather than a conscious decision. This went on for some time. About half way through I realized she seemed excited about something (maybe somebody who actually cared about her and was paying attention to what she wanted) and thought maybe I could help her by synchronizing my breathing every other breath (I wasn't going to breath as fast as she was). Her breathing seemed to intensify in volume.
Eventually this wound down and she backed off a little bit, smiling, and got something out of her bag to eat (at 3 AM??)
The heavy breathing thing happened at least 2 other times in the night (the whole thing is kind of blurring together). Toward the end of the night she seemed noticeably more attached (didn't do the game of backing off anymore), and her eyes were closed as her head was nodded in my direction. I'm sure that didn't look so good. This entire thing was completely unplanned by the way.
It was incredibly awkward when daylight came, both because we had hardly said two words to each other and also because the boyfriend/husband was pretty sharp and picked up on what was going on even though we thought we were being subtle (we're just sitting beside each other and it's a cramped bus). He gave me a very pointed dirty look.
Then when enough people had left the bus, he told his girlfriend/wife to sit on the other side and she obeyed. But they didn't sit next to each other. Then the guy asked her some questions and I could tell he was asking her about the interesting situation next to me on the bus. At that point I was avoiding all connection with her because I didn't want her to get into more trouble than she was already in. But she tried to downplay it (I wanted to and she didn't but she just went along with it, etc.) and he asked her, "What did he say?" and she went "Nothing!" but he didn't believe her.
So he gave her the cold, silent treatment all the rest of the way; cold as ice. She was leaning against the back of his seat, trying to get any response out of him, looking sad. I felt like sh!t. If they really were married, that wasn't worth it to screw up their marriage.
Anyway. Now I feel guilty.
The bus is cramped and as a little time goes on, I notice us getting closer and closer until we are touching, and touching a little more, and then finally leaning against each other. The bus ride is from around 1 AM to 9 AM, so this is all going on at night. Periodically, she would back off a little and detach, and so I would do the same, but then we would lean on each other again. I sometimes did the same thing- I pulled away, and then felt either her shoulder or bottom beside me so I relaxed again.
Keep in mind this is at night and I had had a couple of drinks before getting on the bus, so I am tired; when I open my eyes I acted like "Where am I?" but when I closed my eyes I relaxed and we basically leaned on each other and warmed each other up. I left at one point to use the bathroom and had to ask her to get up. When I came back, she got up but she was smiling. I sat down and within the span of about a minute we were leaning on each other again. She was a darker skinned woman and I'd guess in her late 30s or 40s.
Anyway, there comes a point when she starts breathing noticeably heavier and louder, almost like an automatic motor response rather than a conscious decision. This went on for some time. About half way through I realized she seemed excited about something (maybe somebody who actually cared about her and was paying attention to what she wanted) and thought maybe I could help her by synchronizing my breathing every other breath (I wasn't going to breath as fast as she was). Her breathing seemed to intensify in volume.
Eventually this wound down and she backed off a little bit, smiling, and got something out of her bag to eat (at 3 AM??)
The heavy breathing thing happened at least 2 other times in the night (the whole thing is kind of blurring together). Toward the end of the night she seemed noticeably more attached (didn't do the game of backing off anymore), and her eyes were closed as her head was nodded in my direction. I'm sure that didn't look so good. This entire thing was completely unplanned by the way.
It was incredibly awkward when daylight came, both because we had hardly said two words to each other and also because the boyfriend/husband was pretty sharp and picked up on what was going on even though we thought we were being subtle (we're just sitting beside each other and it's a cramped bus). He gave me a very pointed dirty look.
Then when enough people had left the bus, he told his girlfriend/wife to sit on the other side and she obeyed. But they didn't sit next to each other. Then the guy asked her some questions and I could tell he was asking her about the interesting situation next to me on the bus. At that point I was avoiding all connection with her because I didn't want her to get into more trouble than she was already in. But she tried to downplay it (I wanted to and she didn't but she just went along with it, etc.) and he asked her, "What did he say?" and she went "Nothing!" but he didn't believe her.
So he gave her the cold, silent treatment all the rest of the way; cold as ice. She was leaning against the back of his seat, trying to get any response out of him, looking sad. I felt like sh!t. If they really were married, that wasn't worth it to screw up their marriage.
Anyway. Now I feel guilty.