The prompt I was given was ‘headphones’. It inspired this little meet cute flash fiction
She is wearing headphones.
Of course she is wearing headphones. All the women in the gym are wearing them. They have a dual purpose, to listen to whatever your music or maybe audio book of choice is and, to tell all the people in the room to leave them alone.
Of course there is always one. Always!
I watched him tap her on the leg as she sat at the hip abductor between reps. He was older than her and I don’t mean by a few years but by a couple of decades. I couldn’t hear what he said but I could tell be her face that she was being polite, nodding and smiling and twice going to put her headphone back into her ear but he continued to talk.
“Don’t be that person” I admonished myself
We are always here together on Monday and Friday. I don’t know if she comes at other times during the week but on a Monday and a Friday, she is always here when I am. It’s been weeks now of us orbiting each other in this room. Her on the treadmill, her long hair piled up on her head, the little strands escaping and sticking to the sweat on the back of her neck. Me on the bike or the step machine my heart racing, my blood pumping, the flush on my face from more than just the exercise
But she is wearing headphones, I chant to myself over and over.
Today she is wearing bright fuchsia pink leggings with a bright yellow cropped t-shirt over her black sports bra. It is a new look for her; I have only ever seen her in black before and I wonder what inspired the change. Not that it matters, she looks amazing, vibrant, sexy, captivating. She catches my eye and I realise that maybe I was staring. If my face was not red before it is now. I can feel it, the burning heat of embarrassment flooding my cheeks.
For a moment I think I see her smile as she turns away. I take myself off to the other end of the room and hide behind the wall of free weights and give myself a bloody good talking to.
“She is wearing headphones; she is wearing headphones.” It is becoming a mantra now. How many weeks of this has there been, 3 or is 4? “She is wearing headphones, she is wearing headphones, she is wearing headphones.”
By the time I leave she is already gone. I wonder what her Friday night looks like. Does she go home to a boyfriend or a husband? Maybe she is out on the town with friends? I image her in a little black dress, her rounded bottom and her cleavage, her hair long loose and cascading down her back.
I need to stop this.
For the next few weeks, I change my routine and come later on a Monday and Friday. On one occasion I am sure I see her leaving the car park as I drive in and yet again my heart skips a beat. Damn it, I think, you are still thinking about her. Bloody idiot.
The next Friday when I push the door to the changing room open, she is there. In all the weeks or maybe even months now of this, she has never been in the changing room when I have. For moment I wonder if maybe that was by chance or design. Did I always make sure she was gone before I left?
“She is wearing headphones,” I think to myself.
But then realise she isn’t. In fact, not only is she not wearing headphones, she does not seem to be wearing very much at all.
She smiles at me. I glance behind me, yep, definitely me she is smiling at.
“Hi” she says
“I…. umm… Hi?” I stammer back
She laughs a tiny bit and then bites her lip before continuing on
“I am gonna take a sauna. I just wondered if you might be going in there too”
I stand, open mouthed and stare at her. Inside my head the words, she is wearing headphones, continue to loop through my thoughts.
“I mean, no worries if not. Now she is the one stammering. But I just thought, maybe you, we, I mean it’s just a sauna.”
“I don’t have my swimming costume” I finally manage to blurt out.
“Oh, you could borrow mine. I mean not the one I wearing obviously” and she flashes open the towel as if to prove she has one on. I can feel the heat flush through me, she is wearing a black and white bikini and honestly, it looks like it was designed for her body or maybe her body was designed for it. “Once they are dry, I just shove them all into my gym bag.” She continues on, seemingly oblivious to the fact that desire just reared up and killed me.
She turns to the lockers, fumbles through one and retrieves a dark emerald green bikini.
“So?” she asks, holding it out to me
I take it from her silently and disappear into the changing cubical.
“My name is Rosa she calls out.” “Sarah-Jane” I respond back through the door but everyone calls me SJ.
It is not until much later that night, when the gym is all shut up and we are eating burgers in the pub round the corner that she asks me why I never spoke to her at the gym.
“You were wearing headphones” I explain
So?
“Well, you know, women wear headphones to tell people not to talk to them.”
She throws back her head and laughs.
“No, women wear headphones to tell men not to talk to them”
“Really? Only men.”
“I can’t speak for all women but yeah, only men”
“So why didn’t you speak to me?”
She smiles a little coy smile at me. “I am shy”
And now it is my turn to throw my head back and laugh.
