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.