“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 745 (Thursday) – pseudo social

Book club snacks.

This was the one night of the month that my pseudo social life occurs. For one hour and 15 minutes (because the waitress was lagging in getting to the table with our checks), I was in the company of a group of people to discuss the month’s book, The Vanishing Half. None of us thought the book was “Breathtaking,” as declared in the one-word snippet from People on the cover. The book matters, but not as much to me as a night of fellowship and something fun to do. 

While walking from the car to the book shop to pick up next month’s selection before going next door for the night’s meeting, there was a guy standing on the sidewalk. As I walked past him, I said “Hi!” like I do to practically everyone I pass on the sidewalk. He wore jeans with the bottoms folded in a cuff of several inches and an Irish style wool cap. He had a nice face. He returned my greeting.

In speed-walking “I have someplace to be” mode, I continued around the block past Athenian Corner and on to Lala Books. While I was standing at the counter paying for the April book club selection, the door opened, and the guy with the nice face from one block away walked in. Feeling much bolder than usual, I pointed at him and said, “Hey, didn’t I just see you?” He laughed and said, yes, and that he was meeting friends, and something about Northampton and being late, but I couldn’t tell if he had come from there or if the friends were coming from there.

After completing the transaction, I headed next door to Warp & Weft. The table reserved for the book club was in the usual spot near the entrance and I grabbed a seat. A few minutes later, the door opened and in walked the guy with the nice face. He looked at me and we laughed and he said, “I promise I’m not following you. I’m here to meet friends. I’ll be here about an hour.” He sat at a tall table along the wall with his newly purchased book. It was the third time and third location I'd seen him in about six minutes, and it felt a bit like something in a book or a movie.

The book club people ate appetizers, sipped our drinks, and talked about the book with offshoot conversations about family and mother-daughter relationships and parts of our own lives that helped us to either relate to the book or not. It was nice.

When book club was done chatting and eating, there was a trip to the restroom to avoid a speeding ticket on my brief trip across the river to home. Two friends had joined the man with the nice face and they were eating at the table along the wall, which was on the way to and from the restroom. For a fleeting nano-second, I considered pausing at the table to drop a wise crack or phone digits as I passed by. Maybe, if more than one beer had been consumed, or if was more like one of my more outgoing cousins or colleagues or if I was anybody else at all, it might have happened. But old habits and personality traits die hard and I am not that fearless and spontaneous person, which probably explains the 12-year gap since my last relationship. I really need a wing woman. Or a matchmaker. Or maybe a miracle.