W96th street ruby headed girl pt. 1

     Anthony sat there on the 1 train as it pulled out of 110th street station, head down and deeply engulfed in his book. Some days it’s just him and his favorite author, as he drowns out the sounds of busy New Yorkers exiting and entering and phone conversations that are much too loud. Other days, like today, he runs into the ruby-headed woman that he often sees but never speaks to. As they pull into 96th street, the stranger next to him exits, and she takes his place, letting Anthony know that today is going to be a great day. 

“I’ve heard good things about that.” She gestures to his book, elevating their polite nod and quick glance relationship to another level. A level he hadn’t woken up prepared for but wasn’t about to shy away from. 

“Yea, it’s good so far. I really like his work, so I decided to give this one a try.” He replied. 

“Nice.” She said as she nodded with approval. Anthony had been caught off guard by her initial advance, but he wasn’t about to let the moment fade.

“You reading anything good?” he asked in an attempt to continue the conversation.

“Um yea, actually I am.” She opened her oversized leather bag and searched for her book. She pulled it out and started explaining, not only the book, but also her love for art and museums in general. She told him about the first time she had gone to the Whitney as a child and how mesmerized she was by all the exhibits but that she was pretty disappointed by the pretentiousness that lives inside the Moma. She gushed about her dream to one day visit the Lourve. A dream that made sense after he caught a glimpse of it on her lock screen. She was beautiful, confident, smart, and funny and Anthony was just happy to be in her presence. 

“Wow, that’s really dope. I had no idea how much went into art curation or just museums as a whole.” Anthony was enamored by all the ways this stranger was slowly starting to become more than just a stranger to him and he wanted to know all there was to know. As they entered mid-conversation, she looked up quickly with a gasp. 

“Oh shit! This is my stop.” she threw her book quickly back into her bag as she hurried to make it out before it was too late.

“Have a great day!” She called out behind her as the subway doors closed -- her on the platform and Antony still there, wondering how did he get the opportunity to have experienced someone so great in such a short amount of time and also wondering why he was too stupid to ask for her number. He let out a sigh and leaned back as the train pulled out of the station.