Where Have You Run Into an Ex?

Yous know that ex, the one who sailed into your life, cherry-red flags flight; who grabbed your heart and then chiseled it away; who somehow charmed his or her way back in and pressed repeat on the whole bicycle over again and again. The one that being done with makes you feel similar a real grown human. Only me? Well, we all come face to face with that person again…

I was riding my bike over the Williamsburg Span, my sweaty hair clinging to my forehead. At that place I am, struggling upwardly the incline, when he appears around the bend, benumbed downward without a care — the metaphor for our relationship all too real. Our optics meet ten anxiety apart, and my heart jumps into my throat, but he only rides past. You can't actually finish on the bridge, and why would we? I manage to continue pedaling, my mind spinning every bit apace as his tires. What was the chance of such an encounter?

I always figured it would go downward at a neighborhood bar — where nosotros had spent so many evenings in our 20s — cheap beer making it that much easier, or that much worse. On those early post-breakup nights when he was nevertheless knocking effectually my brain, I would bank check for his silver bike locked out front wherever I went.

Of course, running into an onetime fling isn't always bad — my friend Scott got back together with the dearest of his life afterwards bumping into him 3 years post-breakup. Simply the worst encounters are more fun to talk well-nigh, correct?

Says Gemma Burgess: "I ran into my ex at a bar," she told me. "I started shaking every bit he came over. And then, like Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral, I drank all my vodka in one gulp, and said 'Good Lord, I seem to have finished my drink.' Then, I walked away and hid in the bathroom."

Information technology tin can be even more than jarring to run across someone on public transportation. My friend Christina bumped into her ex-fiancé waiting on the subway platform. Later a infinitesimal of sweaty-palmed, center-thumping "catching up," she jumped on a train — it was going in the wrong direction, only information technology was worth it.

Another woman I know, Maria, had no such escape road: "My new boyfriend and I jammed into a packed train, and lo and behold sitting right underneath usa was my ex," she says. "I turned beet ruddy and was Way besides nice to him. I basically acted similar he was my best friend from childhood; my beau was totally weirded out."

What about when you're basically at home? "I ran into an ex-girlfriend exterior my apartment while taking the garbage out property an umbrella in pajamas," says Stef. Her wife was right inside, only it tin can be just as uncomfortable after y'all've moved on.

Another case: "I was leaving a restaurant when I spotted him across the street," says Alex. "Nosotros hadn't seen each other in years — and nosotros were both married, mind you — merely rather than simply waving and saying hello, I leapt backside a parked car and crouched there until he left."

Ghosts from the past aren't express to our own neighborhoods. "I was on holiday in Puerto Rico lying by the pool with my eyes closed when I heard the voice of my college boyfriend," says Beth. "I thought I was hallucinating, but it actually was him, one chair away. Nosotros had a stilted chat and then I spent the rest of my trip avoiding the hotel vestibule and puddle."

Running into an ex tin spark reactions ranging from butterflies to full-blown panic attacks to confident satisfaction when you realize you're totally over it. But no matter the state of affairs, no thing the history, even if he rides right on past, it will e'er be… awkward.

Have you ever had a run-in with an ex? How did information technology go?

P.S. First appointment rituals, and advice to your younger self.

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