He was surprised to be confronted with such a high level of insecurity from someone who had come across as a confident, mature individual. It was one thing to play down a compliment or two, it was a whole 'nother ball of molten lava to twist the compliment into an attack on a perceived shortcoming, He quietly motioned for the waiter and when the bill was presented had his credit card out ready for the gregarious young man's hand.
They sat in that awful silence that descends on people who have made the realization that what at first seemed to be a good thing, a mutual attraction and interest that had real potential, was in fact nothing more than a brief infatuation based upon misinterpreted signals on both of their parts.
"Oh well," he thought as the nattily dressed young man with the small gauges in each ear returned with his receipt, "isn't the first time this has happened, nor likely to be the last."
He tipped the kid twenty and politely stood to one side of the booth as his companion got her coat on. They walked out of the restaurant without saying a word to each other, and parted ways in the parking lot with polite goodnights.
No comments:
Post a Comment