4:15. My phone buzzes. It’s you. I expect it’s just the usual question of making the 4:30 train. Not today. Too much work due tomorrow.
But the txt reads “Our Irish pub. 5pm. Sit at the bar. A Guinness marking your seat.”
“Okay…” I respond. I guess work will have to wait.
And then my work concentration is totally gone with your final txt: “Pretend you don’t know me.”
Forty-five minutes can feel like years apparently…
I arrive at 5pm on the dot. I paced a bit out front to kill time. Your txt said 5pm, it didn’t sound negotiable.
I see you at the bar as soon as I come in. You’re near the corner of the bar, your back to me and the entrance I just came through. A lone Guinness sits on the first seat around the corner from your right, on the quiet side of the bar that nobody ever sits at.
The seating is strategic. I can see you clearly. Our seats are close, in that nobody can sit between us. But we are separated by the corner of the bar, and both of us a foot or so down our separate sides. Not close enough to talk.