I do. Hugely. And with this in mind, I had an absolutely insane experience this weekend just gone. I'm sure to many it would have been pretty benign, but if you're fascinated by heartbeats we all are, then this is pretty cool. Ok, please bear with me and I'll attempt to explain.
At the weekend I was at a wedding 'out of town' and stayed in a hotel close to the venue on both Friday and Saturday. When I say "I", it was with my partner, son and a full compliment of in-laws, so bar a couple of beers and a possible flirt with some inebriate bridesmaids, my outlook for fun this weekend was low on the social barometer. I worked friday too and bombed it down to the hotel in the evening, post a gruelling day in the office. Hot, bothered, tired and hungry, I had a quick shower and headed down to the Hotel's bar/restaurant for a cold beer and a burger. Must have been getting on for 10pm and being the burbs things shut early, so the restaurant was pretty much empty.
Empty that is, bar a friendly and super-chatty young blonde girl who appeared to be doing pretty much everything. As always when presented with anyone, I smile and say hello, although I would have to confess that it does go up a gear when presented with attractive young women. In need of a long, cold beer I can see her scrutinising me as she pours. I smile again in return, promoting her to appologise. "I love your tattoo" she offers by way of qualification. "Oh. thank you I respond" pulling up my t-shirt sleeve up so she can see the full design which takes up the whole of my upper arm. "Wicked tatt she adds", passing me my beer, then fumbling with her phone trying to locate a pic. Frowning she mumbles a curse and pulls up her hotel branded polo shirt a few inches so I can see the design running across her stomach and up her side. "hurt like fuck" she adds. "Wow" I splutter, not really sure where to look.
Anyway, this rather familiar introduction leads us into a great conversation, in which I comment how stressed she looks, being the only one on duty etc etc. "Stressed?" she adds. It's given me palpitations. And proceeds to describe how she becomes tacheocardic when she gets stressed, and how its already caused her to faint a couple of times. "So if I collapse in a heap…", she muses, to which I respond that she's in 'safe hands' and I learned to apply emergency first aid in the Army etc etc. Then kicking myself for being so cheesy. Fortunately it barely seemed to have registered as she already has her hand inside her polo shirt. "I can feel it now", she says, it's absolutely racing. And begins to tap out the rhythm on the bar. It's fair to say, that at this point I am, in a word, gobsmacked. Genuinely concerned I touch her lightly on the arm in reassurance, softly telling her to calm down. "I collaped at the station the other day" she begins, her hand still tapping the counter as I slide my hand down her arm and press my fingers onto her pulse. To which she just responds, "see it is isn't' it?", then before i know it she's pulled my hand towards her and placed in on her chest. I'm ready to faint myself at this point. In all honesty I was just totally confused. Obviously I was loving it. And I even told her that I'd like to hear it. But still can't quite work out what her game was? At first I thought she was just flirting outrageously. Which to be fair, she certainly was. That is, after all, a very intimate exchange to have with a stranger. But I also thought afterwards that maybe she was into the who heartbeat thing as well and could somehow guess that I was too? I actually felt a little guilty, she was only in her twenties and i'm significantly older but she clearly wanted to share it, even telling me she's seen two cardiologists and had more ECGs that she's had hot dinners. Again pretty personal stuff to share.
Then my farther-in law showed up looking for beer and the moment was lost forever. Although I kept catching her looking at me. Sadly there wasn't a chance to exchange any contacts, so that was just a rare and beautiful moment. Although I would be lying if I said I hadn't considered packing my steth and making a return visit. Still pretty blown away by it now. In case you couldn't tell!
Appologies for the ramble. Thought you may enjoy.
SFS