two's company; three's a crowd
An informal way to express a situation when two people desire privacy and a third one is present - A proverb.
True story. I bumped into a friend at the grocery store and our conversation grew from the checkout line to the exit doors. As we were standing outside the doors and she was confiding in me how "she wishes her boyfriend would change but he doesn't. He says he will,but he keeps going back to old habits--"
A man interrupted us. "Excuse me. I don't mean to eavesdrop on your conversation...but, I do the same thing."
My friend and I look at each other with perplexed faces. I knew that this friend was not going to enjoy someone eavesdropping and then joining our conversation. Someone that WE HAD NEVER MET BEFORE interrupting a private tête-à-tête.
Another friend of mine (Linda the caretaker) would have set the man down, bought him a cup of coffee, and had him talk to her about his trials and tribulations. But not Nicole.
"What thing?" Nicole asks the stranger.
"I say that I'm going to change but I don't. I keep going back to doing what I was doing. What can I do?" the stranger said almost reciting Nicole's and my conversation to the letter.
I was befuddled and suggested that the man "could perhaps talk to one of his friends about it to help him?" and then I started giggling. When I'm under stress, I tend to laugh. You don't want me around if a flying object hits you in the head, you slip on ice...ah yes, these things will have me on the ground in hysterics...I'm no good at spontaneous stress.
Always in charge Nicole says she's sorry but she really can't help him and starts to laugh as well while pushing her cart to her car and dragging me behind her. The poor guy didn't stand a chance.
