A normal Friday morning..you go grocery shopping and after you park the car, you quickly run over the list of things to buy when you feel someone staring at you. You look up and see a very attractive stranger looking at you with a smile. You quickly scan his face to see if you know him or have seen/met him before. No, you are positive you don't know him. You smile back at him uncertainly coz you don't want to seem rude and of course he is attractive. You get back at your task though you still catch him staring at you. Finally he starts walking towards you and you freeze. Your mind quickly comes up with a long list of reasons why you should turn away thanks to your past bad experiences and conditioning.

You quickly walk away.. After your mind calms down, you think with a pang of regret you will never see him again and you lost the chance to know who he was and what he wanted. And yeah there definitely was an attraction coz you felt the sparks too.

Maybe it would have led to something..maybe if would have led to nothing..Maybe he was nice, decent..maybe he was a player, a user..maybe..You will never know coz you lost the chance to find out..
Now the only thing you can do is wonder..What if

Should have said " hi do I know you?" then you wouldnt be wondering lol

That's true but sometimes the mind stops working in those moments! lol

you should have asked 4 his phone number if u where attracted to him

I guess I just froze lol

nice looking lady like u he is not going to say no. do it next time whocares if u strike out u only live once

i simply need higher numbers and more practice.

Thank you and will keep that in mind

Lol

That happened to me and I took the chance. We had lunch and a long walk. We lived too far apart and never saw each other again.

It was nice that you took the chance Wish I had done the same today! lol

Why this got moved to poetry I do not know... Poets talk in poetics... it's who they are and what they do… on the task at hand... people get nervous it's human nature he has good reason to be staring and how was your expression on his gaze... because you could easily run into this cat again. Make a plan list and since he seemed so darn familiar that sounding soulmate connection to me hun... gl wish you the best and you deserve it for all the talent you have showed on this platform :)… After re-reading yes it is one of those what if moments people are scared of everything these days this person could be dangerous that people can't just meet anymore which is why everyone meets online and no matter what church market internet it's a dangerous place but if there's not this slight chance that someone may just want to say hi then maybe he did get away from something great.. likewise who's to say what's meant to be what will be will be is as dust in the wind... if he meets again do you say hi or do you scramble away from giving that chance?

I had a very similar experience in the supermarket a few months back. A man coming my way whilst shopping, I look up, he looks at me, and WOW! Recognition, chemistry. I almost blurted "Hey, how good to see you again!" but within a split second realized I didn't know him at all. Yet, I do know him. We both smiled, then moved on.
However, at the cash register I noticed I was standing behind him. He noticed me too and smiled and said goodbye before he walked out the shop.
Had he asked me something, maybe leading to a cup of coffee, I would've stayed for sure. Not because he was my type, he wasn't even overly handsome, but there was this weird connection.

And yes, leaves you wondering, what if?

I've had both good, and bad experiences
from being approached by random strangers
in public places.

I simply prefer, that it NOT happen...
At least, not by anyone who lives within
a 50 mile radius of me.

Yea so true. My mind starts working again about 2 minutes later. And then I can think of loads of things I could have said.
Fortunately my mouth continues working without the mind taking part.

I'll say something silly like "come back" a little forlornly. after the initial freeze the back up brain cell kicks in. I know it's going to be a couple of minutes until the other brain cell comes back on line.
Then I'm back to full power :)
Have faith..

"What if"... My two favorite words when I want to spend minutes, hours, days, and sometimes weeks pondering what could have been or what may be... the merry-go-round of living life in the past or future rather than living in the moment, the present.

Haha, been there many of times. It can be quite a challenge to not engage in the "what if's" of life. I'm amazed every time I choose not to get on that merry-go-round and simply act on what I'm wondering about. To simply live in today.

Ouch.

I'm thinking about the guy in the OP scenario.

Smiles at a girl, she smiles back, he goes to approach, and she runs away.

There's a blow to the ego.

hi

...practice really does lead to forms of Perfection for men.

The mistake was mine lol..i was planing to write a poem but donno why ended up writing this. This got shifted from poetry to coffee house sect rightly so...hmmm sometimes we don't see the same people again in life but in case I do, definitely I will say hi :-)