The man with the knitted hat and baggy sweater reached the corner of Calle las Flores with his dog precisely at 8:30 a.m. every day. The young Labrador would always stop here to sniff around the bus stop and trash bins. This took about two minutes. Mia knew this because her morning routine often coincided with her taking out the trash at the same time. Whenever they both arrived at the recycling bins, Mia would call out to the dog.
“How’s it going, Pup?”
Then, when the man gave a gentle tug on the leash, she would send the playful puppy off with one last message.
“Careful at the crosswalk!”
The man would always respond with a faint smile to the humor of the disheveled woman in a polka-dotted robe, who would trudge behind them across the crosswalk to the glass recycling container.
The plastic milk bottle rolled downhill faster than Mia could catch up with it. She knew that the stupid bottle wouldn’t fit anywhere else. She could have just left it in the kitchen, but Mia couldn’t stand having trash lying around. This morning, however, it wasn’t just a few brochures and juice boxes cluttering the otherwise spotless kitchen; there was also the packaging from a newly purchased office chair and a few wine bottles. The milk bottle had no other place to go but under Mia’s arm—until it slipped out with one careless move.
The man with the dog stopped the runaway bottle with his foot, then picked it up by the neck and spun it in the air with a flourish.
“If I’d known there was going to be a performance, I would have worn my nicer robe,” Mia chuckled.
“Don’t do that; you’ll confuse the dog. Every morning he waits for the lady in the polka-dotted dress,” the man grinned.
Mia was surprised to see that the scruffy man’s smile wasn’t yellow but dazzling white. And the lips that belonged to it weren’t chapped, but rather full and healthy-looking.
“Give it to me” Mia reached for the bottle.
This time, instead of grabbing a hair tie, she reached for her brush and thoroughly combed through her thick hair. She put on a red tank top and tight shorts, leaving the robe loose to flutter behind her as she hurried to the corner. Mia almost burst out laughing when she saw the man approaching, also without a hat and wearing a t-shirt.
“No tricks today?” he asked, feigning disappointment.
“I was hoping you’d come up with something,” Mia replied without hesitation.
“Well then, I’ve let you down today. But just wait until tomorrow!”
Mia hung the mauve-colored lace dress back on the rack twice before turning around at the store’s door and buying it. By the time she put it in the trunk of her car, she regretted the purchase. Why did she even need a dress like that when she never went anywhere? It had been ten years since her husband left her, and over time, she had lost all her friends to her constant sorrow. For ten years, she had barely left the house, and the most meaningful human connection she had was with the man with the beautiful smile and his dog.
“Alright, I need a good backstory that I can believe in. I don’t need to talk about it, just know it and act accordingly,” Mia explained to her reflection.
“So, I’m going to a gallery to discuss my artwork. Or rather, my upcoming exhibition. Or, I don’t know who or what they want with my paintings, but I’m going to meet someone about them. I’m taking the trash out now, and not later after I’ve come back and changed into something comfortable because I just happen to have time to do it now. That’s why I’m wearing slippers.”
“You’re an idiot,” her reflection grimaced.
“You’re right, I’ll put the robe on.”
The timer on her phone beeped loudly. Mia frantically looked for her robe, but in her rush, she had left it upstairs. There wasn’t enough time to go back for it now. So, in her slippers and lace dress, she hurried down to the corner.
“What happened to the dog?” she asked in alarm when she saw the man arriving in a rolled-up shirt, with a new haircut and a freshly trimmed beard.
The man with the beautiful smile looked confusedly behind him, then smiled.
“I hope he’s just looking for your trash,” he nodded toward her empty hands.