The two passengers exchanged polite conversation.
The interaction even slipped into friendly banter at times but ultimately the connection was not strong enough to hold water.
That’s fine.
We don’t hit it off with everyone.
But now it turns out that these two will both be subject to a disgustingly long layover in the same terminal.
These two were only strangers to each other.
They didn’t even talk long enough to learn surnames.
And yet it felt rude to part ways.
To say out loud ‘I’d rather spend this layover alone’ felt churlish.
And so the two strangers were bound together by politeness.
Both wanting solitude but not brave enough to risk being seen as impolite.
Thomas Duggan 