Clockwatchers (Read: Why I Like Him)

by Kimi Goodrich

I don’t really like people; especially a lot of them inebriated in one place that smells like beer, sweat and anticipation (read: crowded bars), and if I happen to get caught talking to one person, the clock on the wall becomes my savior, my way out of conversation that fails to ignite. It’s not that I want to be rude, but the time keeps track of a million other things I could be doing in that moment while I am not doing any of them (read: wasting my time). Meeting his mind in that hot, packed bar, circumstances that normally make me clockwatch, I wasn’t aware of anything at all (read: enjoying myself). Truth be told I haven’t had that much fun in ages, though I can’t remember the exact details of why it was so much fun - only that I while I was talking to him I never checked the time, and when I went to sleep I had a smile on my face, still full of our banter (read: he was fantastic company). The next day when I told him I didn’t check the time, a great feat for a perpetual clockwatcher, he said that spending time with me was great, and he too had an obvious habit of checking the time, but while we were talking he didn’t check either, which I took as a compliment to our conversational skills (read: we were both digging it). See, this is why I like him so much (read: I have a serious crush)!

6S

Kimi Goodrich, author of Priscilla Rides the Subway, is an anomaly. Someone once told her anomalous women were more interesting.