What's with the Wink?

I got winked at today. I smiled back and asked myself why this nice looking man was winking at the pregnant chick at the playground? I eavesdropped into his conversation with his son and learned that he was indeed married and his wife was at jury duty that day. So what's with the wink?

Winks are meant to convey a message, symbol or suggestion. That message can be anything from "I'm an incorrigible sleaze" to "I didn't really mean it when I said I was sorry your dog got eaten by the neighbors." Generally, it's a good thing to be on the receiving end of a wink. Someone is trying to include you in some private communication so I usually just hope for the best and go with it. But what was a possible non-scummy reason this dad was winking at moms at the playground?

Back in the day, I met a girl a grade ahead of me who seemed to think I was great. She went out of her way to include me in conversations. And she winked at me a lot! I was only 15 and didn't want her to think I was naive so I just gave her a smug, knowing nod whenever she winked. After I had known her for a few months, I felt secure enough in our apparent intimate friendship to ask, "why do you wink so much?" She looked embarrassed and there was an awkward pause. "...well, I have this medical condition..." I was mortified and realized that all this time that I had thought she was drawing me into her inner circle and she had really just been having uncontrollable facial spasms. That was the last conversation I remember having with her as I was too embarrassed to talk to her afterwards.

The wink is a simple gesture, but it instantly adds an element of intrigue to any mundane interaction. As I was getting up off my bench to leave the playground today, I looked down and found some insight into this particular wink I had received from the married man. Apparently this one meant, "you're a nice enough looking lady, why don't you zip your pants up so we can focus on your lovely face instead of gawk at your underwear." I caught him watching with amusement as I zipped my fly and hurriedly dragged my toddler to the car.