People Watching and the Watched

Image by Greg Reese from Pixabay

The Wall of the Fountain

Darcy sat to the side of Fountain Square, on the wall as she did every Friday at lunch. Milton waved his hands, a coffee in each, as he spotted her. The same routine every week. He stepped up and put the coffees down, to follow with a long hug. The friends caught up on the events of the week.

As they always do, the events turned from what the two of them were doing, how the families were, jobs, etc and moved to watching the people circle the Square, as well as the fountain. Some in suits and ties, obviously grabbing a quick lunch between meetings. Others sitting, watching the birds bounce around on the concrete. The speculation on people’s backstories started shortly after.

The Instagram Model

The first woman that they decided to play on her backstory stood just a few feet away from them, posing in front of the statue behind them. The woman had her arm extended in front of her as far as possible, lifted slightly above her head. She was obviously trying to get a selfie of herself in front of the only noticeable monument in Cincinnati.

“Another Instagram girl,” Milton said, barely louder than a whisper. Darcy laughed.

“Stop that. Not every woman takes a selfie to be noticed. You always assume every young girl in her 20s just wants to be an Instagram hoe.”

“Check out her pose, she’s doing duck face, and I guarantee that the picture centers on her, matching the thousands of other pictures, and you can see a little bronze of the statue behind her.”

“You could offer to take her picture for her,” Darcy laughed. “You won’t though.”

“I can just tell by looking at her. She’s here, standing near us. I bet if I found her Insta this photo and the photos there are of her in panties and a bra, complaining about not having anything to wear on her last date, she has a very vanilla sex life.”

“She’s young, maybe 22, she doesn’t even know how to do anything without being drunk yet.”

The Boss’s Assistant

Milton laughs hard at this and the girl taking the selfie gave him a look before going back to trying to frame herself perfectly. He then points over to a wall on the other side of the square, a couple are sitting there leaning into each other and talking softly to each other.

“See them,” Milton says. “I bet you they have a great sex life. He’s married, and that’s not his wife. She’s the secretary for his boss, so they interact a lot, know each other well, and sneak out here at lunch to spend stolen moments together.”

“If that theory is right, then when do they do it?” Darcy posited the question to him with a smirk.

“I bet that they,” Milton holds up air quotes to emphasize his next words. “Work late regularly.”

“Yes, but Cincinnati isn’t known for renting hotels by the hour.”

“He looks like he is pretty well to do. If he rented a cheap apartment near downtown, he could get away with a lot and his wife would never notice.”

“You watch too many movies,” Darcy laughs at him. “She has an apartment downtown, is single, and he just goes over there after work before going home to his wife, 3 kids, and a dog.  She’s at least 15 years younger than him, so he probably buys her expensive gifts, nice meals, yada yada.”

“He buys her lingerie. Lots of it. Sexy, black lace lingerie.”

“Red.” Darcy says with absolute certainty. “She has that super blonde hair, the 24-year-old body of a girl that spends a lot of time at the gym. She will look amazing in red. I did at that age.”

Milton looks over at his lunch date and nods his head. “I bet you still do.” Darcy giggles.

“Damn straight!”

The Other Side of the Lens

“Don’t look to quickly, but do you see that couple over there looking at us?” Charlie asked the woman sitting next to him.

“I noticed them a little while back,” Lucy said. “Had you not been telling me about the blonde over there taking selfies and how you think she’s all over social media trying to be noticed, I would have pointed them out to you.”

“Well, she is so obviously taking a hundred selfies. Anyway, what do you think their story is?”

 “I’ve been watching their hand gestures and I am so curious the story they are telling each other. I figured they came out here to get away from their coworkers and plan their illicit acts for the weekend.”

“So… What’s the story?” Charlie asks.

“Well, she is a little older than him, but she is way out of his league. I’m guessing he either has a 9 inch cock, or he eats pussy like no man ever has.”

“You always have the big cock theory,” Charlie says. “How many 9 inch cocks have you seen in your life?”

“In real life?” Lucy giggles and punches her fist into Charlie’s suit jacket. She then leans in to whisper into his ear, “every man tells me it’s 9 inches, I’ve never seen one.”

Both of them laughed and looked up at Darcy and Milton.

“I love people watching out here with you, your mind is more warped than mine,” Charlie says as they try to stop laughing. “Are we going to come out and do this again Tuesday?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, people watching is my favorite lunch time activity.”


This story hits home for me, the idea of people watching and observing is one of the most fun things I’ve done over the years. I have a friend that, I believe we have had this conversation above (or close to it) over the years we have known each other. Distance has separated us, but this is one of those fun, fond memories I always have of spending time with her.

Wicked Wednesday... a place to be wickedly sexy or sexily wicked

Day Number 21 of the Advent calendar, and things may have gotten a little… hairy. #WickedWednesday http://wickedwednesday.rebelsnotes.com/2019/12/prompt-394/

15 thoughts on “People Watching and the Watched

  1. I love this. It’s just what we love to do; imagine the stories of their lives. And what if they are making one up about you…. Great post xx

    1. I believe people watching goes back to the invention of fiction… This one, when I wrote it made me miss 1 of my best friends and hopefully they enjoy it when they read it.

  2. Oh this was glorious – you told the tales and wove the descriptions skilfully, giving us scraps of data to make our own stories with.

    The dynamics were fun and delicious and it seems a harmless pastime – a writer needs to hone these observation skills I think.

  3. We are all watching each other and telling ourselves stories about their lives while others do the same to us. It is a very fun game. I think we can project our desires on others safely and that is a good outlet, just like the stories many of use write here on the internet.

    Michael

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