Every Monday night at around 6.10pm I see him. He’s tall and lithe, has a scorpion tattoo on his left arm (or that’s what it looks like from my vantage), has grey, brownish hair and a moustache. He has a look similar to Nick Cave or David Bowie and looks like his work would be creative. Perhaps he’s an architect or furniture designer.
He has two daughters, one about 10, the other probably 14. He’s pale skinned but theirs is olive and they have long dark hair and brown eyes. I imagine their mother to be a Balinese princess like Lindy Klim, or a Spanish beauty like Penelope Cruz. It’s this calibre of woman I imagine him with – someone beautiful and exotic.
I don’t know his name, I don’t even know whether they’re his daughters, but every Monday night for the past five weeks during my spin class, I’ve watched him and his girls dry off after their swim by the indoor pool below.
He first struck me because he bears an uncanny resemblance to a former flame – someone I haven’t seen since the day we parted. Past loves can be like that, if you see someone in the present day who bears any kind of resemblance, it can make your heart flutter and blood pressure drop. But part of this man’s attraction is that he has a family, something my ex constantly promised for us, but could never deliver.
In an environment where most of the swimmers are mainstream types, he stands out. He sweeps his hair back from his face and strolls up and down alongside the pool talking on his blackberry. I wonder who he’s talking to. His girlfriend, his wife, a friend, a work colleague?
His older daughter saw me watching them last week. Every now and then the swimmers below will look up to the spin class above. The area with the exercise bikes has glass windows floor to ceiling and looks down on the swimming pools below. When she and I locked eyes, it didn’t bother me that she saw me. If it was him who caught my eye, it would be a different story. I’d hasten to turn away.
I’m looking forward to seeing him again – and again, and again. It’s a thrill and welcome distraction from the hum drum of the regular spin class. Seeing him and his girls makes my Monday evenings that bit brighter and helps the class go that much quicker.
As I cycle to the blasting tunes on my stationary bike among the other spin devotees, I wonder if anyone has ever looked at me this way. Do any of my fellow exercisers think: “there she is, she’s here...yay!” Somehow I don’t think so. But it is nice to speculate.
