to touch...2

I arrived early for the moving job in Jackson Heights, and read a Shere Hite book under a tree as i waited. My partner was coming with the client, driving the U-Haul for her.
They arrived, and my partner and i waited while the client (a man, not the woman...i surmised that she was the wife, and probably upstairs) drove off to find a parking spot. I walked up to scout the job. There was indeed a wifely woman, plus a young daughter and some grandparents. When she came into the room, i was already headed out the door with a load, so i didn't give as much of a greeting as i normally do. There was a businesslike energy in the air. Fifteen minutes later, the four of us gathered to wrap their mattress and box spring.
That's when it happened.
I hadn't spoken any but the bare minimum of business dialogue with her, if that. She was Asian, a heart-stopping passion of mine, but i genuinely hadn't taken much notice.
We were in a long hallway. My partner and the husband were at the other end of the mattress. There was a lull in activity while they fixed something. My hands were steadying the mattress. Suddenly, her hand was on mine. Not merely touching, but resting directly on me. At first i thought she didn't realize it, as her visual focus was on the other end of the mattress. I didn't say anything. I thought it might take her a few extra seconds for her to notice, as i was wearing a glove.
But no moment of notice came.
Our hands were out of the line of sight of the workers on the other end. We stayed like that at least sixty seconds...an enormously long time under the circumstances. It wasn't all cloth either, her skin was resting on a section of my bare thumb, for i had torn away that part of the glove to wear a splint.
Her focus never strayed from the other end.
A few hours later, we all parted ways without even the slightest hint of acknowledgment from her.
I tried to chalk it up to a cultural difference, that she had perhaps grown up in a society which was more relaxed about touch than my own? But my experience of Asian cultures told me they were as aware of such things, if not moreso, than my own. I couldn't come up with a single equation that equaled her not knowing exactly what she was doing.
The clients' energy was lovely. Happy. Some comments by the husband told us that he and his wife had a comfortable, loving relationship.
Her hand on mine.
A moment that i might dream of tonight. Or someday years from now...