Monday, August 24, 2009

Table for Two


After a full day of visiting some great friends and rescuing some other great friends, Jimmy and I were looking forward to the opportunity to grab a nice dinner and go for an evening walk downtown in Hallifax. We decided to also endulge ourselves with some dessert. It took a couple failed attempts but we finally ended up at this little patio at The Carleton restaurant (which has fantastic desserts by the way - just in case anyone is interested).


As we were being seated I noticed a girl sitting at a table by herself. She was wearing a cute little dress and wrapped in a shawl. In front of her was a glass of wine, a glass of water and a basket of partially eaten fries. She seemed to be intently reading the paper and keeping abreast with her friends on her blackberry.


At first glance, it was a familiar scene. As I travel for work, I quite often find myself enjoying dinner by myself with texts home to friends and family and a good book or the local paper. Suddenly we hear a frantic male voice asking her if she had been waiting long. My heart sank as I realized her look of 'intensity' as she perused the paper was more a look of controlled frustration.


And than the dreaded response: 'About an hour and a half'. The rest of the conversation was him nervously chatting as she pressed him on why he was late. The story that followed was certainly not an academy award winner but involved tales of his cell phone dying, a trip out of town, relying on someone else to drive him downtown . . . blah blah blah


Finally she stated, 'Well I am freezing so let's get out of here. I just have to pay my bill.' He proceeded to sit their while she went in search of her waitress to settle up. After all of that - she still paid her own bill.


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