“I didn’t see you first!”

I was walking down a fairly busy, main hallway in the hospital today when, suddenly, someone I know from my *old life* comes through the door at the end.

He is walking right towards me.  I know he saw me, and recognized me… and worst of all, I know he knows that I saw him (Friends flashback, anyone? Do they know that you know that we know that they know???)

Instantly, I start to think about the situation unfolding before me.  I have one of two options: (a) acknowledge him with a friendly smile and nod (or, if I really want to be friendly, say “hey”) or (b) look at my feet and briskly walk by, as if I never saw him.

Quick, option a? option b?  I’m running out of time to decide, the distance is closing…

I know he’s also weight his options… the same options.

I decide that the gap has closed in too much and option b is no longer on the table.  He saw me. I saw him. There is no “bad blood” between us, nor is there any reason we would need to say anything more than “hey.”  We’re both adults, educated ones at that.  And I figure, why not… ‘tis the season, right?

Then at the last minute, like a cowboy standoff in the desert, he draws… the iPhone.  Yup, he choses option (b), with no time to spare.

Good.  I’m glad you did it to me, so that I didn’t have to be the one to do it to you.

I won.  Small victory, I know.  But satisfying, nonetheless.