Disclaimer: Credit to Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, and the POI writing team for these lovely characters (though Elena is mine). Any bolded sections come straight from the episodes.

DETECTIVE AND MRS. RILEY

Brief Encounters (Part 2 - Election Night)

Also known as: The five times Elena and John met before Queensbridge Park and didn't know it,
and the one time she almost met Harold

Timeline
• BRIEF ENCOUNTERS
• Queensbridge Park
• The Night Watch (ch 29)
• Elena Cassidy's Home for Retired Assassins (ch 3)
• Fusco Meets the Rileys (ch 4)
• Little Mistress Normal (ch 5)
• Drinks (ch 10)
• Detective Darkness and Little Miss Sunshine (ch 12)
• Bear's Collection (ch 2)
• Home Safe Home (ch 9)
• Hell in the Hamptons (ch 13-16)
• Risque Business (ch 20)
• Detective Cassidy (ch 21)
• Bets on Broadway (ch 11)
• Toast (ch 19)
• Friendsgiving (ch 24)
• Shootin' Around the Christmas Tree (ch 25)
• Nicknames (ch 22)
• Man in the Suit and Wife (ch 26)
• We Wish You a Merry Reesemas (ch 28)
• To Each His Own (ch 27)
• Swingers Cruise (ch 6)
• Knockout (ch 8)
• Ellie with the Pink Hair (ch 18)
• Queen E (ch 1)
• Toxic (ch 17)
• Get to the Chopper! (ch 7)
• Meat Me in St. Louis (ch 23)
• Queensbridge Park epilogue

The first time Elena Cassidy checked out John Reese wasn't in New York's Queensbridge Park.

It was at a bar in New York in 2008. She just didn't know it.

It happened the night Barack Obama was elected president. She was in the middle of her first semester of grad school, her first attempt at that master's degree she never would finish. She, Ken, and a friend of theirs had ducked into the closest bar when the winner was about to be declared.

Her boyfriend is practically giddy as he discusses all the possibilities and implications, the dawn of a new era of politics.

"We could be talking JFK level here, right?"

She lets her gaze and attention wander to the screen above the bar to watch Obama's speech. Ken could go on for hours, but luckily his fellow political nerd friend is just as enthused.

A dark-haired man arrives and takes a seat at the bar, partially blocking her view of the TV. He strikes up a conversation with another man nearby. She doesn't mean to eavesdrop, but their words come across clearer than the TV.

"I travel for work," the dark-haired man is saying.

Elena sighs a bit wistfully. She'd love to travel for work. After she graduates, she hopes she can get a job that requires travel. Maybe be part of an acquisitions team for a museum, trotting around the globe looking for items to add to the museum's collection.

"Ah, I used to do that. It's brutal," the other man replies. "Not anymore. Me and the wife just put a down payment on our first house up in New Rochelle."

"You don't say? That sounds nice."

The answer is polite, but there's something ... not truthful about the tone. Elena silently agrees and inwardly shudders. The suburbs? She hopes she and Ken are years and years away from that.

"You know what? My wife's running late as usual. I'd better give her a call, make sure she's okay."

Ugh, she hopes she and Ken never reach the point of always keeping tabs on each other.

The dark-haired man now sitting alone at the bar is older but ... striking. Elena shakes her head as she take a sip of beer. Lionel's right. She does have a thing for pretty boys who wear too much hair gel.

She sighs again a bit wistfully when a woman appears and takes a seat next to him.

"But JFK had the hotness factor," Ken's friend is saying. "The ladies were swooning over him. The style, the hair. I don't think Obama's got that."

"It's the 21st century, not the 1960s. Looks aren't everything anymore."

"Spoken like a man who has the style, the hair, and the prettiest girl to ever take a poli sci class at NYU."

"Well, let's ask her then. What do you think, Lane?" Ken says, drawing her back into the conversation. "Obama: hot or not?"

Elena looks up thoughtfully at the man on the screen. "Hot," she says decisively. "I like the salt-and-pepper look. And he wears a suit really well. And ... he's tall," she adds.

Ken frowns. "You've given this a lot of thought. Are you trying to make me jealous?"

"Is it working?"

"No, I totally agree with you, babe. Obama's hot. I'd do him."

"Yeah, but for his politics, right? Not his looks?" she teases, looking back up at the TV screen, which she can clearly see now because the tall man at the bar is gone.