The couples at the back of the bus

I encountered an amusing happenstance on my return bus journey this afternoon. When I boarded the bus, I sat at the back, where it was empty; within a minute, not one, but three couples - all of whom appeared to be close to my age - then sat at the back with me; this meant that all of the seats surrounding me excluding the one on my immediate left were occupied by happy couples.

Just as I was thinking about how I was the odd one out, one more person boarded the bus: a woman, who could easily have chosen a seat close to the door but instead opted to come to the back and sit next to me. Now, she and I looked like a couple among the other three couples; I didn't look out of place anymore!

Neither the woman nor I spoke to each other for the duration of the journey. Some might call that a missed opportunity but there wasn't any moment that would have prompted a conversation and her sitting next to me didn't necessarily mean that she wanted to talk. At any rate, I was amused by how I went from an empty back of the bus to being sat among three couples, to having having a woman sit next to me, which gave us the appearance of us being a couple sat with other couples - all of which happened in the space of a minute.