After multiple lulls in their obligatory small talk at the grocery store, Sanaa Abassi and Erin Latham reached a point where they mutually decided it would be in both of their best interests to end the conversation.

“You know those posters where a 3-D image pops out if you let your eyes glaze over?” said Sanaa. “It was like that except at the end, there’s the realization that you’ve completely wasted seven minutes of your life.”

Erin agreed that ending the conversation was the right thing to do. “We’re not that close. I don’t want to talk about things with her that are real or matter.”

Both women walked away with a smile and a mutual understanding that the conversation was over. “There were no fabricated restroom excuses, no need to justify talking to a vague person ‘over there,’ just a simple pause that communicated a mutual disinterest.”

“It’s what makes the art of conversation so magical,” Erin said. “Realizing simultaneously that you both had no interest in speaking to the other person in the first place. I wish all of life could be this simple.”