Weighing the "Con"s of a Conundrum

While I was constructing the post below, I was working in a public space. And when I was about half way through the post, I realized I could hear the voice of someone I recognized. But that was all I could do. I couldn't make out the words. I couldn't even trace the voice to where it was coming from, and make a visual confirmation. All I could do was think, "yep, that's him/her all right. I'd recognize his/her tone anywhere, and that is most definitely the distinct warbling of him/her."

The thing was, having reached that conclusion, I was at a loss on the proper course of action. Normally, if I run into a friend or see a friend (and I do count him/her as a friend), I would greet them. But this wasn't quite a full running, and there was no seeing at all. And since I couldn't see him/her, I'd have to walk towards the voice to do said greeting. That had two selfish points against it: first, my laptop was set up, so I couldn't just walk over--to ensure the safety of my too-expensive machine, I'd have to pack it up and bring it with me, which meant the slight time commitment of putting everything away. Further, I was in the middle of a blog post. I didn't really want to lose my train of thought.

The other side of the issue played on my ever-present insecurities. Would this person *want* to be greeted by me in this place? It was a public space, but not one I tend to spend a lot of time with, so he/she wouldn't be expecting to see me there. If I was hearing his/her voice frequently, that implied that he/she was there with someone else. Would an interruption be welcome? What if I greeted them, and their first unguarded response was hostility? I could deliberately make my presence known first, and pretend not to acknowledge them, to offer a chance to realize I was there, but what if in that case they feigned to ignore me as I was ignoring them? What if our entire friendship was built on a precarious house of cards and my unexpected appearance was the gust of wind that causes the whole iffy assemblage to come tumbling down into a heap of lies and deceit? (The fact that I was writing a post on conspiracy theory was probably creeping into my thoughts here.)

Luckily, the problem was abrogated when he/she left (or stopped talking) before I finished the post. Once again, indecision inadvertently rescues the day. That was a close one.

(Extra game: Regular readers in the area! Try and figure out the identity of the mystery person! Could he/she be YOU?)

Later Days.