Lunching on Irritation

I was hungry so I took myself out to lunch before my next client arrived. I wanted something fairly healthy and inexpensive. A difficult combination, I know. I settled for a turkey & avodado sandwich on a honey-wheat bagel. It served its purpose in that it filled up my belly without filling my mind with guilt.

I was alone and, therefore, required a project that made it look like I was alone on purpose. I wanted that attitude of "I choose to be eating lunch alone" as protection for my seemingly, as of late, fragile ego. I rifled through the pages of my binder, reading through notes from a recent class and pondering the meaning of my life.

Something was irritating me, however, on the periphery of my consciousness.

A couple was sitting near me. I judged them to be on their first date - or the very early stages of a budding relationship - for several reasons...

First, they were young, maybe twenty years old. Second, neither of them had the tell-tale rings on the left hand. Third, he opened the doors for her both coming and going. (In my opinion, the most definite sign that it was a new thing.) And fourth, she ended every single sentence with a two-syllable giggle. No exaggeration.

It was this fourth aspect that was irritating me.

I am aware that, sometimes, when females are nervous about impressing the man they are with, they will giggle incessantly. They will belly-laugh at jokes that would normally only be awarded with a snigger and a roll of the eyes. They will laugh even when the man has said nothing of particular hilarity. And, apparently, they use giggling as a form of puncuation.

Irritated.

And then I wondered... why am I irritated?

I refuse to believe that it is because someone wanted to have lunch with her while I "chose" to have lunch alone.