Only, he had known her name was Diandra.
He watched her now as he sat across from her
“Do they really serve coffee here?” Diandra Pim looked doubtful as she observed the length of the very bar-like counter where a friendly group were loudly talking while doing shots of something.
“You doubt my claim they have great coffee?”
His expression as he said this made her nervous as his eyes, although shadowed in the dim lighting, bore into her.
She glanced away and then back at him,
“Im just an American, what do I know? you English say you’re having tea but it turns out that actually means you’re having a major meal, what is that? I don’t get it—it’s like —eating lunch—or is it supper—what is supper anyway—is there also lunch? or no, that’s dinner, isn’t it so then what —like elevenzies?—I guess, anyway…. yeah, so, why not be drinking coffee out of shot glasses?—a nice americano with a peel of lemon, add an umbrella for some style,” and as she said this there was a loud hoot from the crowd at the bar as somebody chugged something down
“You still do that,” Greg said watching her
“What?”
But somebody showed up to take their order
But she forgot to repeat the question after he walked away
She was tapping her fingers on the table top when he reached across the table to stop her by covering her hand. Her eyes were alarmed when she looked up at him. Her eyes. They were just as he remembered them. How quickly they became wild like a trapped deer. Which is why he said,
“I lied to you.” His hand was still there.
“What?” she wasn’t sure she heard that right and …. he was still looking at her in that intense way. The same way he always had like ….the very first time she saw him in the school hallway. It made her shudder. Now too…. How could she forget ….that memory; boy-man that he was.
“I knew you would be back for Jo’s wedding,” he said and now there was an intentional glint of mischief in his eyes
Sometimes there are people you know that if you never saw them for fifty years you know you’d pick up right where you left as soon as you were in each other’s presence.
Diandra at this moment was subject to such a phenomena. And she forgot herself. In that moment she did not feel worried or nervous because ….it was as if their last conversation by the swings was only last week. And it was their separate peace because nobody ….could know….but it was Greg who had, even then, made the move
Diandra had a moment to realize now why out of nowhere Jo’s invite came. They had lost touch ages ago. And Diandra had moved so many times since Jo knew her that there was a real bewilderment over why Jo took the trouble to find her. They had not really been that close; just two student teachers who started at the same school. Sometimes they went out drinking after a day student teaching at the school or Jo would set up a double date but—no, they were never that close. She wound up staying with the school and became a teacher there while Diandra never looked back, changing fields, she became a social worker back in the states, focusing on troubled teens. But switched fields again and became a publishing editor believing it was a way in to becoming a published author, but so overworked, there was never any time to write.
“So it was you,” she said looking back up at him
He just watched her with a slight smile
“You told her to invite me—yes, now it makes sense —you know, I mean—I couldn’t imagine she’d ….”
But now Diandra drew her brows together, as a thought occurred to her
“Did you tell her?”
At first Greg only looked at her. Then slowly he smiled again,
“no….”
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