Subway Guy

So on a cold wintry night in 2005 I took a bus and then a train back to my little piece of independence condo on the north end of the city. I was dating my ex then and well not that happy. He drank too much, he paid little attention to me and the time we did spend together much of it dwelled upon his sour depressive mood or his lack of money. Fun times for a girl like me in her early twenties. I spent a lot of my commute time home thinking about all kinds of what if's.

What if I had a better job?
What if I dated someone else?
What if I became more healthy?

So on this wintry night I was in the middle of one of my what if moments thinking, what if I had a boyfriend who actually drove me home instead of dropping me off at a bus stop?! I was interrupted by the glare/stare of a man with many instrument cases. At first I wondered if he was really looking at me or if I was paranoid. Then I wondered if I had something on my face. Then I wondered why he wouldn't stop. By the time I got to the subway platform we were standing beside each other and I looked at him again and met his eyes and he said "Hi" Intrigued by the sheer number of instruments he was carrying, I asked, "what instrument do you play?"
We chatted and I learned he was a music teacher at the music store that I used to work for. In my mind this gave him some kind of credibility and I loosened up a bit.

At my station, I got up and left. No information was exchanged and truth be told, I just didn't know how to do any of that. Besides I wasn't single, and wasn't that wrong? I couldn't shake how satisfying that conversation was. There was humour, intelligence, and a softness that was missing from my life. I phoned my best friend and told him, "If I only had the guts to break up with ex, I could meet more guys like that..." He agreed and encouraged me to break up with ex, but instead I continued to torture myself for another year.

The inevitable happened and ex and I became exactly that... ex's. A good friend attempting to get me out of my post break up funk insistently invited me to a party on the east end. I thought... I just want to curl up under the covers and cry a little... and good friend would not have any of it. It had been a month and according to him it was time for my hibernation to end. At the party, one year later I met him again. Subway guy, he was there. We recognized each other and talked all night. Even more satisfying then the last time we met one year ago we talked and laughed the night away.

Subway guy and I began to date, got engaged and well subway guy became Hubby.