Coincidence is an odd thing. I'd planned to meet Kate after work, reading in the pub to fill the gap between the end of my shift and the end of hers. I'd forgotten my book, so I popped in Waterstone's to pick something up. I was looking for something by Borges but I ended up choosing The Book Of Illusions by Paul Auster instead, and wandered over to pay.
The girl behind the counter asked me why I'd chosen my book. We'd both read Paul Auster before, although not the same books, so we talked about what we'd made of them. She was bright, articulate and confident. Our conversation seemed to last a long time, and with every second I found myself more and more impressed by (and attracted to) her. As the natural process of the transaction came to an end, I wanted to ask her to meet me again somehow, but I choked. Our conversation should have ended with "Would you like to meet up sometime," instead of "It was very nice to meet you."
I felt like there was a spark between us over the counter, but as I'm terrible at distinguishing between flirting and plain old good customer service, I didn't do anything. I felt stupid for doing nothing, and a quick straw poll by text suggested friends thought I should have said at least something. Grrr! When I explained what had happened, Kate said that I should go back there right away. "I need a book anyway," she said, "so let's both go."
She wasn't there. And Kate couldn't find her book either. We trudged off to the Britons Protection to eat flapjacks.
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