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He’d been thinking of her since that summer in Poughkeepsie, so, so long ago now. He’d played it through his head a thousand times; how they’d meet again; how he’d do it right this time.
But not now. Not like this.
Things had been hard, economic patterns had dictated the course of his life. And now he was working in a bar. Like a god damn student.
But he had to talk to her… had to…
………………………….
‘Not like this,’ she thought.
Poughkeepsie was so long ago, and barely a day had gone by when she hadn’t thought of him. She had played so many scenarios over in her mind, finding the right words, the right movements, but not like this.
Why had she come into a bar at 2pm? Who behaves like this?
‘He’s going to think I’m a lush,’ she thought. ‘Or worse than that, some cheap floozy. Oh God… I should walk out of here right now.’
………………………….
‘I should go over there right now and talk to her. Just say “Hi,” ask her what she wants. Nothing wrong with that. That’s normal… that’s normal people stuff.’
………………………….
‘Maybe he doesn’t remember me.’
………………………….
‘Maybe she doesn’t even remember me anyway. Maybe I’ve blown this all out of proportion.’
………………………….
She made her way to a table, sat down and lit a cigarette that she didn’t want to smoke. Just for something to do, play it cool.
He made his way over to her; all moisture had left his mouth, but his hands were soaked with sweat.
She exhaled in as nonchalant a manner as she could muster. The smoke burned at the back of her throat, making her want to cough, but she held onto it, kept it together.
‘Hi… Elizabeth… it’s me…’
She looked up at him, prayed that her eyes would not betray how she still felt about him. He couldn’t read the expression; a flash of panic passed through him.
‘Hold it together… hold it together…’ they thought.
Finally she parted her lips and said his name.
‘Bill? Is that you?’
He fought back the smile that tried to tear its way across his face.
‘Yes.’
A small laugh broke free from his chest.
‘I didn’t know if you’d… remember me.’
‘Poughkeepsie?’
He nodded. In a millisecond she raced through a thousand different things to say next and settled on… ‘How could I forget?’
He nodded, stood there. He had no idea what to say next, neither did she, but both of them knew that this was one of those moments in life that comes all too rarely and doesn’t last nearly as long as we would like. Whatever happened next would be what had been meant to happen, all those years ago, in Poughkeepsie.