When Her Boyfriend Turns Up

Bumping into the boyfriend of the girl you are chatting up. Sounds embarrassing to you?

Not to us.

Arsene is a specialist of this type of situation, that happened to him many times. For me the last time was in Singapore outside Clarke Quay. I was coming out of the MRT, saw a pretty Filipina girl walking up the escalator in front of me. It happened very fast: as she was coming out of the station I ran after her, almost crashed into a few people while attempting a clean stop. My manoeuvre was overkill since she had already stopped walking anyway. Now she was waiting for someone and looking around.

“Excuse me, it might seem strange to you but…” I said to get her attention and bang: just before I could give the compliment, a guy turned up from behind me and she recognised him. I instinctively assumed boyfriend or Tinder-date and I burst out laughing saying, “Oh that’s embarrassing. I was just about to give you a compliment.” She looked confused, he didn't seem to care and I said goodbye.

There was another one inside Little India MRT: I stopped a girl who had just walked through the gates. She looked Indian, fit and well-dressed. I gave a compliment, started the conversation then a minute later a guy turned up next to her. And that’s when I understood that she was actually waiting for her boyfriend to go through the gates.

“Are you guys boyfriend/girlfriend?” I asked, just to be sure.

"Yes,“ he said.

"Well you know what? Your girlfriend is very pretty so when I saw her I had to stop and gave her a compliment.”

He took it well. We had a short conversation: he owned a restaurant, gave me the address and said I should come by.

Arsene found himself in more extreme situations: once I saw him in Selfridges chatting up a girl for ten minutes assuming that the guy standing next to her was her gay best friend. Arsene was running the whole assumption-teasing-challenging-vibing sequence in front of the guy who was listening patiently [see another story].

It may sound like a daredevil thing to do but it always ends well. As long as it is done with a light and playful mindset while being respectful of the boyfriend and acknowledging him, no-one gets punched in the face.

Well at least it hasn’t happened so far.