Submitted to I, Anonymous late yesterday afternoon:

It was a minute or so after I first noticed you that I realized you were crying.

It's Gay Pride Sunday, and I was gazing idly out a window onto 15th Ave, where you happened to be sitting in your little red Honda. You were texting someone, and I thought it was decent of you to at least have pulled over and parked first. But then you set your iPhone down, put your head in your hands, and began to sob.

Heartbreak looks a certain way, distinct from the loss of a job or a pet or the life of someone close, and it was heartbreak I saw in how you twice gathered yourself up as if to go, and then broke down again when you looked at your phone.

I'm so sorry. Consider this the hug I wanted to give you, if only it weren't creepy to impose hugs upon strangers at their most vulnerable moments. And the hell with them, whoever they are.