Old Guy

There is an older man who lives on the first floor of my apartment building. He smokes, so I often see him sitting on his porch as I come and go. Over the past three and a half years that I have lived there, this man and I have become "friends."

Through my observations and conversations, I know the following: he is married to a wife with an accent (England, perhaps?), he works very early in the morning and gets home in the afternoon about the same time I do, he smokes, he has a few grandchildren that his wife watches during the day, he likes to work on his car,  and he is always willing to strike up a conversation.

We've never exchanged names, but we talk every time we see each other. He calls me "Young Lady".

"Hey, young lady, how are you today?"
"Great day to be at the pool, young lady."
"Have a great weekend, young lady."

I've come to look forward to seeing Old Guy outside, and every time I go down the stairs, I take a peek to see if he's sitting on his porch.

Recently, Josh and I were headed to my place in separate cars. I was 10 minutes ahead of Josh, so I decided to grab dinner at Little Caesars quickly and figured I'd still beat Josh to my place. The Hot 'N Ready's were not so ready yet, though, so Josh ended up beating me to my apartment.

As I pulled in, I noticed Old Guy working on his car with another guy leaning against his car. Old Guy was having a smoke break, so both men were leaning on the hood chatting. I didn't bother to look at the second guy because I was in a hurry to find Josh and eat our pizza.

As I parked, I waved at Old Guy and noticed that the second man was Josh. Josh had quickly become friends with Old Guy in the five minutes he'd been waiting for me (this wasn't the first time Josh and Old Guy had spoken, but I was still surprised to see Josh leaning against his hood). As I got out of the car, Old Guy said, "You know, in all these years, I've never asked for your name. Your boyfriend just filled me in. You're a teacher?"

"Yes, I teach at Chatfield. My name is Shiloh. I know, in all these years, we've never introduced ourselves."

"My name is Phil. You guys ride your bikes a lot."

The conversation continued for a few minutes, and then Josh and I went upstairs to have dinner. I told Josh that Old Guy, I mean Phil, sure knew a lot of about me. I said, "I think he's been stalking me." Josh said since he lives on the first floor, he sees everyone coming and going and probably knows quite a bit about everyone.

Josh also told me that Phil said I had the most beautiful smile. Now I like Phil even more than I did before!