Is It Actually Possible To Fall In Love On The Subway?

Sure, we've all made brief and unexpected eye contact with a sexy stranger sitting across from us on the uptown 6 train, or have earnestly ached to say something to the adorable hipster reading Infinite Jest on the L - if only to brag that you, too, have read it (well, mostly). But those romantic moments are just as fleeting as the rats on the subway tracks; he'll jump up and run through those automatic doors just as you've begun naming your third child. Le sigh. 

However, this poor luck in subterranean love is not extended to everybody. Oh, good. Today, the New York Times tells us of a real-life, normal-person relationship that was indeed sparked between strangers on a train - no awkward Missed Connections post on Craigslist involved. 

According to the rom-com worthy story, one Eugene Kolb, 28, and Clara Flaherty, 25, "met" on the Brooklyn-bound Q train back in the fall of 2011. They played a thrilling game of horse in the staring-at-each-other department until Clara had to take her leave. “I thought, ‘Say something, utter a word,’”, Eugene told the Times. “But I couldn’t. It seemed so impossible on the train.” 

Luckily, the lady's cousin stayed behind. Eugene saw his chance and passed her a note, signed "the guy in the blue hoodie."

Four and a half years later, the couple is still together and their story has been turned into a short film by Eugene, which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. Only in New York.

[Photo courtesy Getty]