She joined him for lunch in one of those outdoor restaurants that seemingly crowd midtown Manhattan. Lunch was one of their few favorite pasttimes -- to catch up, enjoy the scenery if things got boring, and try a new place they could tell their other friends in passing later. She noticed him already seated, and he was looking for her. He waved to her and she picked up her walk speed. She sat and grinned at him, as he was already staring at his latest new electronic toy, an e-pad, and he was focusing on the touch screen, moving things quickly across the liquid touch sensitive screen. She waited quietly, she had time to take off her jacket and rest her purse on the table and make herself comfortable. A waiter came over and quickly poured fresh water into a clear glass by her. He meanwhile, continued to tap the screen, making his last minute changes and updates. She inwardly sighed. What could be so important that it needed a last minute tie-up, she wondered, then another thought intruded, as if scolding herself, 'oh why bother, he does this almost all the time, nothing new' and she reached for the menu and silently read it over. She was here to see him and enjoy their time together, however short. Time was about quality not quantity and she wanted to keep things light and civil.
After a minute, he then disengaged from the computer for a couple of seconds to say, "Almost done," and continued to tap his screen. She said calmly, "Take your time," and her voice sounded calm, almost breezy. Proud of herself, she pulled out her Blackberry and checked for any new emails. She quickly started to delete some unnecessary ones, to clean out her email inbox, and that is when she finally heard him focus on her. He had stopped tapping his electronic screen and put it away in his briefcase and set the case under the table by his feet.
She casually looked up, and smiled, expectantly. "Hey, how are you?" he asked, taking a sip of water from his own glass. She answered, "I'm good, thanks. How are you?" "Good." he answered. She took her glass and took a couple of sips of the cool water. It felt good and refreshing. "Have you decided what you wanted?" he asked. "Actually, I barely glanced at it. What are you having?" she asked. "I already ordered some chicken and mushrooms. I've had it before, it's pretty good." "Oh," she said, surprised. She was barely five minutes late and he already got his order in. He must be in a rush, she thought.
She found a grilled salmon and vegetable with rice dish and he motioned for the waiter who took her order along with a glass of wine and disappeared just as quickly as he came.
So he had been here before. Hm, she thought. She glanced around and looked at their fellow 9 to 5-ers, who were there in their crisp suits and dresses and smart haircuts and shoes, talking together and forming an anxious buzz as they tried to make or break a deal.
"So how has your week been? How's work?" she asked. She kept their conversation to topics that she knew he would be comfortable with. Not to say she wasn't genuinely interested, she always was, but she also knew that only so much of a more personal connection was going to be made over a hurried lunch in the middle of a workday. It was enough that they had taken time out of their day and made their way out of their respective offices to meet halfway at this place.
Well, technically, the place was only an avenue and some blocks away from where he worked. She would have a train or taxi ride to get her back further uptown to where her job was situated -- which cut the lunch time down another fifteen minutes if she wanted to make headway on the cab getting her back in decent time.
He noticed thoughts passing through her face quickly, her face getting anxious, serious, thoughtful, then lightening. Sometimes he wondered if she even paid attention to what he said, but he knew the answer. She heard a lot, sometimes, more than she cared to admit. She never made a move, she never pushed, and in that respect she was very easy to get along with. She didn't place demands on him, and any time he had she was willing to work with. Any time he wanted a non dramatic hangout, he knew he could call on her and 9 times out of 10 she would agree to hang out.
She prided herself on not being too high maintenance but in reality, she was in a few ways. She didn't like anyone being late, she didn't like being lied to, and after canceling on her a few times, she will eventually make her anger known. He liked to push anyway, because in the end, she knew they were friends and that there was not much she was going to demand because of that.
After fifteen minutes, their food finally came out. He had taken it upon himself to order a simple salad appetizer, and they picked at it. "Work is work, same old same old," he said, with a shrug. "How is married life?" she asked, as she went to take a healthy bite of salad. "It's OK. She's OK. It's all good." He ended the sentence with a deep thud, as if to say, "Don't ask anymore beyond that because the wife doesn't like you to know and you know it," and she made a little satisfied sound, "That's good about work and the wife. Let her know I said hi," she said brightly. What she really meant was, "Say hi to her to let her know I'm still here."
His latest love was a bit of a screecher in that she seemed to yell at him at whatever he was planning to do, whether it was to work, look for a new job, or figure out what his next steps were going to be in anything. They weren't officially married, but as far as she was concerned, they might as well be. She made it clear to him that she wasn't going anywhere and that she was staying in his life forever. She then made a point to tell his female friend that too, and then politely stated that she was going to take care of him.
Being his friend, she knew better than to say anything, so she just smiled and nodded, and said that's good, and left it at that. As far as she was concerned, this wasn't a competition contest and she was never in the running anyway. Being his friend was better than being in his bed, time had shown her all the ones just like her that came before her, all professing their undying love, only for him to get bored or somehow things just fell apart and then it was just him and her again, friends.
"How is work for you?" he asked gently, as if to nudge her from her thoughts. She was smiling to herself. He loved her smile, he just wished she wasn't so guarded about her smile and smiled more often. "Busy, of course. Learning all new terms, then figuring out when I'm going to pull this altogether because there is no official training, I'm just hitting the ground running, following the senior secretary around." She explained. Her new job had started over a week ago, and so far she had yet to sit with her supposed new boss to go over what he wanted.
She did, however, show up the secretary who had been sniffing up her new boss' behind being ever so helpful to discuss what exactly she did for her own boss, who had an office two doors down. Sniffy secretary had provided a helpful link to something that she had clearly had a chance to see was not what her boss was inquiring about, and she managed to send the link she had that was the correct one to him. She also drove the point home when she asked if he got her email and was it what he wanted, and he said that it was "similar to what the" sniffy secretary sent and she politely disagreed. When he pulled up sniffy secretary's link to make his point, it was the wrong link. "Please pull up the email I sent you," she stated sweetly, inwardly smiling that sniffy had struck out. He immediately pulled her email up with her link and he had to acknowledge the link was indeed the correct one he needed. "It's the right one you need? Oh good, I'm glad," she had said, and turned on her heel and went back to her work. It was not a big deal but it was relevant as it was the first time in her time with him that she had shown some knowledge that the sniffy secretary lacked.
"It's clear she had an interest, she seems to always be around explaining things to him, but can never get the time to write things down and talk to me, you know, in the interest of helping a fellow secretary" she went on. She shrugged as she pulled a piece of fresh soft bread and liberally spread some butter on it and took a bite. "Well, you've done this before, it's a walk in the park, you know how to handle bosses," he said, "You are a hard worker and will figure it all out in due time. It's only been a week, don't be so hard on yourself." His phone buzzed and he checked it briefly.
Despite loving technology and electronic toys, she had sometimes wished that they had not been so reliant on them and could have a conversation with relatively few electronic interruptions. It was hard, because he was always 'on call' with his job, and she believed, he liked being relied upon and being reliable.
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