Picking up girls at the office

In which our Hero begins to think he needs to avoid more social occasions with the people in his workplace

I noticed the girl at the base of the escalator that Hollywood and I were heading down. Hard not to, with a face like hers, big brown eyes meeting mine without hesitation or self-consciousness. She was standing behind one of the big marble columns that provided a sort of lee from the foot traffic swirling up and down. And I don’t know if the gesture was meant for us, or me, or at someone else, but when she stretched out her arm, I waved back in acknowledgement.

She was still watching us as Hollywood and I reach the ground, so I smiled at her again as we moved past and that would have been the end of it, but Hollywood looked back, thoughtfully: “I don’t think she’s with anybody.”

When I turned, she was still at the foot of the escalator, still by herself, still watching us. And then she started to wander away, behind the escalator, where there’s a little hub for people to sit and fountains and some elevators. Her bold demeanour aside, we were both still puzzled that she was alone. We watched her window shop for a few minutes, slowly drifting further into that hub area, when there was a bit of commotion behind us.

We turned to discover the answer to the mystery, and the source of the noise. A *very* anxious woman was running toward us. “Did you see a little girl?!”

“She’s fine, we just saw her” we reassured her. “She’s a little further, around the escalator.”

Mother ran on down one side of that hub area and I started to drift down the other side of the escalator/fountain, just in case the toddler had wandered even further when we were talking. Which was just as well because she came running full tilt around the fountain to the choke point I was standing in.

She ran right to me and then started to continue on before I grabbed her hand. She was very intent, staring down the atrium saying something that included “Mommy!” though I couldn’t tell you if she was trying to find mommy or attempting to flee. But she was trying to slip my hand, and mommy was just around the corner and obviously distraught, so I figured I’d keep her from running and make her easier for mom to spot.

Which is when I picked up a girl at work.

Sadly, my gallant thought to reunite mother and daughter was almost immediately interrupted by worries. Does anybody really want to see their kid being carried by a stranger? It might stress out mom about my intent. And likewise, I’m not just any stranger, I’m a grown man scooping up a little girl. The kid wasn’t crying, I didn’t need to carry her anywhere, and so maybe putting her on my shoulder wasn’t such a good plan. Appearances.

So I just turned her in the air and put her down facing where her mother had emerged from the couchery. Mom still seemed pretty upset, so I just waited till she’d gotten a grip on her daughter and exited the scene, bemused and a little sad that I have to worry about this sort of thing.