The Day I Almost Found Love in a Parking Lot
I wish I had a little more courage!
Love has once again passed me by. Actually, I don't really know, because once again I didn't dare jump headfirst into the deep end like a swimmer determined to win a gold medal in the 100-meter dash! I don't know how long the image of this elegant, smiling, fun-loving black woman will stay in my head.
But damn, I have so many regrets!
It was two days ago, June 18th. My mother was celebrating her 72nd birthday and I was with her and my father for the day. My idea was to go to the big shopping mall next door to find something that would make my mother happy. I chose a boxed set of Kusmi Tea and a book by Icelandic writer Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, Rosa Candida.
But the funniest part of this story is what happened before I walked through the automatic doors of one of the mall's entrances, just after I parked my car.
I saw her as I walked the aisles of the parking lot looking for an open spot. The huge parking lot is almost always full, even on weekdays. The proximity of Disneyland Paris and the adjacent Village Valley shopping center, with its luxury boutiques, attracts a lot of people and spaces are hard to come by at any time of the year.
She was wearing a skirt and short jacket, and small heels. A rather tall woman, about 175 cm, elegant, with a handbag slung around her left arm and a smartphone in her right hand. She walked hesitantly down one of the aisles of the parking lot, glancing here and there as if looking for something or someone. I soon realized she was looking for her car. A smile immediately appeared on my face.
We've all found ourselves desperately searching for our vehicle for minutes on end, imagining the worst-case scenarios in case our search came up empty. It's happened to me, don't laugh! It's downright stressful not being able to find your car and imagining that you're going to be devoured by vultures at nightfall.
I slowed down when I reached her, hoping that she would finally choose one of the cars parked nearby so that I could take her place when she left, but clearly she hadn't reached the end of her tether yet! The game of hide-and-seek was in full swing and her car was still nowhere to be found. I pulled into another alley a little further, finally found a spot and turned off my car's engine.
After locking the doors, I saw the young woman, probably in her forties, still walking in the direction I needed to take to reach the mall entrance. I smiled again and decided that this was the perfect moment to strike up a conversation with her.
As I passed her again, this time on foot, I gathered my courage, took a deep breath, and said playfully, “I think you're looking for your car!” She turned to me and replied with a charming little laugh, “Yes.” Charming Hopeless man that I am, I replied: “You'll find it, good luck!” and with a quick step, without looking back, I walked towards the Kusmi Tea boutique and the Fnac shelves.
Soon a thought, or rather a voice, crossed my mind: “What an idiot you are! You're so useless! You didn't even try anything! You started and then didn't finish! Maybe something would have happened! You could have offered to look for her car with her and asked her what model it was, that would have been fun and she might have accepted! You would have eventually found her and then offered to leave her your number! Or you could have just offered to leave her your number and asked her to send you a message when she found her car so you wouldn't have to worry! She might have refused to go any further, but at least you'd have had some nice time!”
Want to hear the rest of the story? I've never been so quick to buy tea and find a book at Fnac. My idea was to get back to the parking lot as quickly as possible and hope that our dear lady was still desperately looking for her car. I think this time I would have been a real man! Well, as you can imagine, I never saw the lady again and returned to my parents in a state of utter despair.
Ridiculous, isn't it? Well, it made me laugh anyway, and I hope this piece made you laugh too! The good news is that my mom was happy with her tea boxes and the book. That's the most important thing. Having said that, I hope with all my heart that I'll soon meet another pretty woman desperately looking for her car in a parking lot. And this time I'll tell you the beginning of my new love story.
Maybe you could get a job as a car parking attendant?