We were stuck at a service station a few weeks ago, in a Costa, having a tea break. A dapper man in his fifties or so came in with a younger woman, maybe early thirties. they were very affectionate and flirty. He was wearing a wedding ring, she wasn't. I could hardly sit down and ask them, in a non-judgemental, curious way, 'are you having an affair?' But I could shepherd my husband away from the inviting sofas and towards the hard backed chairs right behind them. Her name was Cheryl, I think, but it might have been Cherie for all I know. (Maybe he was French!) She just called him darling, about twice every sentence.
Anyway, being a bit road-dazed, it took the husband a while to realise what I was doing (I think my actually pulling out a notebook may have tipped him off.) But, so much research! He can't complain, he writes songs on the fly, and once wrote a love song that you realise slowly is a stalker talking about his victim. I think he got that off something written in the sand on the beach.
PS This is not an endorsement of Costa coffee or of affairs. I don't drink coffee, for a start.
hahah! Great post. I was literally fist-pumping when I read: I think one of the key traits of a writer is nosiness.
ReplyDeleteAnd people are so interesting. It's why I became a therapist, I think!
DeleteExcellent post. I absolutely love people watching. I'm going to do it much more actively now, with notebook to hand.
ReplyDeleteNotebook, definitely. You can make your phone record, as well, really we should go to spy school...
DeleteHaha. You deny drinking coffee, but don't mention affairs. Lovely post, interesting and well-written.
ReplyDeletehttp://francene-wordstitcher.blogspot.com/
My husband might read this, it doesn't hurt to keep him on his toes...
DeleteI usually get a look on my face, so my boyfriend says, when he knows I'm listening in to some situation or another. He can be halfway through a sentence and I'll just hone in on something else, a slight turn of the head perhaps, miniscule, but he knows he's lost me. It is an absolutely essential part of being a writer. And blogger. I'm not nosey, I'm just interested in the way people interact...
ReplyDeletePeople are fascinating, aren't they? And out of all that observation come characters, so we can't be blamed.
Deletethat is so funny (not ha ha, but coincidental!)
ReplyDeletei recently wrote a short story about a barista concerned about a philandering man in a cafe!
Maybe there are loads of philanderers in coffee bars. Writers notice these things...
DeletePeople-watching is fascinating, I find myself making up stories about them sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI love doing that, especially if I see two people out together but not talking. Why aren't they talKing? Who are they, anyway? I find the stories get more outrageous as they get older, older people have more history!
DeleteIf I had a penny for every time I peered at the neighbours through my binoculars...perhaps I made a mistake when I chose my career.
ReplyDeleteIt's just creepy when you notice them looking back...
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