I spotted the couple instantly. Couldn’t miss them; they were sitting at my usual. My arrival must have been a source of mild annoyance to them. Before I turned up, they had had the place to themselves. It is quite an intimate corner. My corner.
She was a young East Asian woman, very attractive. He was somewhat older; sharply dressed; confident.
It had all the appearance of a first date. And a first date that was going well.
I took my drink; sat some distance away, but their conversation was still audible. The man was holding forth, dominating the talking.
He leaned forward, suave, smiling charmingly:
“Architecture is music frozen in time.”
The young East Asian woman’s eyes opened wide, but not in appreciation as must have been his intention; instead in blank incomprehension.
As chat-up lines go it was one frankly too sophisticated for someone whose grasp of the English language appeared to be intermediate at best.
Nothing wasted, though: he had me at ‘Architecture’.
© Beery Sue
Beery Sue is an architect’s cheap date.
