Making my way down to the movies at the Ritz at the Bourse tonight, I started idly thinking about the possibility of running into someone I had once dated once I got there.  I don’t know what made this thought pop into my mind.  Possibly it was that I was going alone, which often ups the potential for chance encounters.  Or maybe I was picking something up in the ether.  I thought it might be John, a guy I went out with twice last summer at about this time, who I’ve seen from across the theater at a couple of other Philly Film Society screenings.

As I was wandered down this thought path, my phone rang and all mental meanderings came to a halt, as my mom asked me if it was okay to get rid of a certain pile of books that I had been through during my last visit home.  By the time I got to the theater, I wasn’t thinking of anything but getting a seat in the rapidly crowding auditorium where I wouldn’t leave with a crick in my neck.  This is why I was totally surprised when I heard someone calling, “Marisa!  Hey, Marisa!” from behind me.

I spun around, and it took me more than ten seconds to identify the source of the voice.  It was Cullen, who I dated sporatically for a couple of months about a year and a half ago.  He was the one responsible for the deal that got me the iBook on which I am currently typing, as he is a stock broker who works at the Apple store on the weekends for fun.  He is a man with connections, and one of his connections had yielded him two reserved seats in the jammed theater, one of which I ended up being mine for the duration of the movie.  It was nice to see him, and we chatted aimlessly for the fifteen minutes we had until “The Illusionist” started.  The director was speaking after the movie, he stayed and I didn’t.  He stood to let me up out and we both said something about keeping in touch, although I don’t think we will.

I left the Bourse, smiling inwardly at the feeling I had had as I left home to go to the movie and the unexpected way in which it had manifested.