Instalment Thirty Nine

This dinner was interminable, Jeff thought. A great couple, Mick and Sal, but why did they’d talk him into this stupid date idea. You don’t meet people like this, this isn’t social, you’re meant to be out, about, a walk, party, a bar, a park. That’s social, normal, walk right up and introduce yourself. Not this pussy-footed process, awkward enquiries and weeks of furtive phonecalls. Call it as you see it, say what you want. Why did they think he’d like this girl? Something here didn’t smell right. They’re all looking towards him, what’s wrong, he’d better listen.

“Jeff, I was just saying Missy here is a Cat Person,” Sal repeats.

The hair on Jeff’s neck stood straight up.

“You didn’t tell me that,” blurts Mick, “Jeff’s a Dog Person.”

Missy contorts as if an electrical current’s shot through her chair, twisting away from the table.

Jeff stands bolt upright. “Cat,” he barks, “You set me up with a Cat Person!”

Later, retelling the story of how they meet, Jeff’s years of chasing Missy before she stopped running and he caught her heart, they would always leave out the dinning table being thrown across the restaurant and Jeff’s subsequent arrest.