an "I love you", out of the blue

"I love you!" comes from a the backseat of car pulled over in front of a King Street West theater. It is 9:49 pm and I am on my way to a screening that started four minutes earlier. Walking hastily to the TIFF Bell Lightbox, a chic movie complex that honors its patrons by a wall displaying the precise amount of money they donated, I overhear the soft words roll like a red, velvet carpet. It is not a designated lovey-dovey day and the street is particularly deserted. As I'm in full throttle I think to myself "How nice, someone is in the middle of loving." The words resonate a sincerity. It must be a mid-length relationship. They must have known each other for long and one day it must have manifested itself: love.

"Hey! I love you!" This time it is louder. I turn to see what is going on. The back door of the car is half open, I see a young man waving his hand, one foot down on the sidewalk. I smile. I return to my business of being eternally late and hurrying in vain. The car moves and at the moment of passing me by he gives me an extended smile and waves his hand sticking out of the window. The car reaches the corner of the street and slowly turns right. At that moment he shouts pointing at me "You are so beautiful!" startling a girl fiddling with her cell phone. She looks at the car as it drives off and then at me. She smiles. I smile. Two men on the other corner of the intersection smile.

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