It must've been over a year ago. I think it was summer but it wasn't yet the point where everything and everyone seethes with heat. I can't recall exactly. Simon's mom was visiting and Simon was stuck at work well after closing time...a big project or report or something. So after being out and about much of the day, MJ picked me up at the office and suggested a drink together at a restaurant down the street.
We started walking over just as fat raindrops began plopping onto sidewalks around us. We snagged a nice window seat at Grafton and two glasses of red...cozy amidst the dark skies and vague rumbles of thunder.
She saw him first. The guy seated outside at one of their cafe tables along the sidewalk. Relatively nondescript man, blonde, likely in his mid to late twenties, perhaps thirty. Alone with a chardonnay or pinot grigio or something pale yellow, the glass dripping a bit with the sweat of chilled wine and moisture from the air. The rain got heavier. He popped open his umbrella and huddled under it. Waiters offered him a spot inside as the skies opened and rain rolled down the streets. He appeared content, even happy. His little bubble under the umbrella with his wine and himself and something that kept him there despite the rain purging from the sky, spitting up from the streets, and slanting sideways in its deluge. I remember talking about it, both in that moment and again months later, marveling at his resolve and having witnessed what seemed like something for him. It's as if he said I'm doing this no matter what. This is what I'm doing.
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