the hall dance

There is one dance that everyone, red, yellow, black, and white have all danced, regardless of style - ghetto, graceful, or 2 left feet. It begins when you are headed to a meeting, class, or simply to the room 15 feet away. You enter a long narrow hallway only to see, that coming down the opposite end of the hall is a colleague, fellow student, superior, or complete stranger. This dance is no respector of persons. As you approach each other, initially there is the quick glancing that takes place, you know the kind. It's when you're too far away for it to be obvious that you're looking them up and down, but you're not close enough to look away. If it's an attractive stranger, then the glancing turns to an appreciative/flirting gaze. The steps quicken. If it's a boss or creepy weirdo, then the gaze quickly goes to the wall, the ceiling, the paintings, or the tiled floor, anywhere but straight ahead, and the quickened steps are for an entirely different reason.
You're drawing closer.
Then comes the game of chicken. You're both walking down the middle of the hall, wondering who is going to be the first to give in and slide towards the wall. The person with the louder shoes usually wins this one. Girls in stilettos going down a tiled hallway seem to just own the hall. Guys and girls wearing flats slink out of their path.
You're passing each other.
Both glance towards each other out of etiquette (unless you have the attractive stranger or the creepy weirdo situation), but then, as soon as you make eye contact, you break it. One must always remember the golden rule of eye contact- never more than 1.8 seconds in a narrow hall!
Whew. You're done. Both parties are safely out of the hallway- done with the most awkward stretch of 20 feet in the entire office.