Reunion

By NationChild

Created on June 19th, 2007

Sheesh. How long did it take to buy a single cup of coffee?

Eva was not in a particularly good mood. If she didn’t get her coffee in approximately six minutes, she’d be late for her meeting with her supervisor. Six minutes gave Eva just the right amount of time to guzzle her cappuccino while hurrying down the four blocks to her office building.

Luckily for her, the coffee shop employees suddenly worked with aptitude; what efficiency they lacked before suddenly appeared. Finding herself at the head of the line in a minute flat, Eva barked out her order, figuring that the faster the employees heard, the faster they could make her coffee.

Inferring that she could spare a few minutes to enjoy her coffee, Eva searched for a free table. Spotting one, she steered her way to a table near the window, collapsing on a stool. Pulling out a small container of cream she had grabbed from a nearby stand, she mixed it into her beverage.

The cappuccino was nearly all gone when Eva heard a stool scrape against the floor behind her. Turning her head, Eva found herself face-to-face with a blond woman with striking green eyes. Eva blinked. She had seen this woman somewhere… Her inward guesses were interrupted by a soft gasp from the person she was trying to figure out a second ago.

“Oh, wow! Is that really you, Eva?” The woman’s still-girlish voice triggered a memory in Eva’s head. Was that…Amina?

Amina Barkely had been Eva’s best friend, from third grade to eighth grade. After five years of friendship, Eva had moved a couple hundred miles away, to a town where her parents were needed as teachers. Amina and Eva had kept in touch for a couple years, but somewhere along the way, one of them stopped replying to the other’s emails. The two had long forgotten which one of them had severed communication. They didn’t really have anything to talk about, anyway.

“Amina Barkely?” Eva couldn’t help blurting out.

“Yes, that’s me. It’s been so long, Eva!” the smile on Amina’s face was heartwarming. It made Eva smirk just a little herself.

“How are you, Amina?”

“Oh, I’m doing good. My husband decided to open up his own restaurant. It’s a steakhouse, just a couple blocks away. If you stop in sometime, we can give you a discount, being acquainted with the owner’s wife and all…”

“Um, if your husband owns a steakhouse, why aren’t you – “

“Eating there?” Amina interrupted. “Well, after a lot of barbecue sauce ingesting, the smell can get nauseating. I just needed a break, you know?” finishing her explanation, she shrugged at her old friend with a what-can-you-do? look on her face.

Eva simply nodded. An uneasy awkwardness swept over the women, which was soon broken by Amina.

“So…what’s going on with you?”

“Well, I’m hoping to get a promotion to head photographer. Some actor’s wedding is coming up, so I thought I’d try for that.”

“Wow. Photography? That must be, um, interesting. Guess you gave up all hopes of being a doctor, huh?”

“I figured out it just wasn’t my thing. Besides, I still hate needles. And in photography, you can create a special atmosphere by yourself. You know, how you rearrange things in the background, that sort of stuff.”

“Ah.” Amina wished she could express her enthusiasm, but one can’t show what’s not there, can they?

The two women sat in more uncomfortable silence, each unsure of what to say. They seemed to have lost the deep connection they used to have in their youth. Now there was nothing to ask, nothing to answer.

A beep from Eva’s watch signified the arrival of the new hour, each woman jumping at the intervention of their reunion.

Finding an excuse to get away, Eva hastily snatched her still-almost-empty coffee and dumped it into the trashcan situated behind her.

“I’ve got to get to a meeting in a few minutes,” Eva explained to her acquaintance.

“Oh, alright. Listen, you can stop by the steakhouse anytime. It’s called Billy’s, by the way.”

“Well, thanks. And if you ever need a photographer, look me up.”

“Will do. It was nice seeing you,” Amina smiled nervously, not sure what good-bye gesture would be appropriate. A hug? Perhaps a kiss on the cheek? Much to her relief, Eva simply nodded briskly after delivering her own “good-bye”. Then she made her exit, although somewhat casually, as if she wasn’t just reunited with one of her old friends.

As the years passed, both women continued their lives. They thought of each other more often after their encounter, and both of them thought, at one point or another, I really must call her and set up a little get-together. We should catch up a bit. Yet neither thumbed through the phonebook and picked up the phone to call. And they never once saw the other again.