Mind Your Own Business
A short story by David Grant
Mind Your Own Business.
Sometimes when I’m thinking about the present I wish that I would mind my own business. Just as sometimes when I think about the past I wish that I had minded my own business. But let me tell you about what happened today you can be the judge! I was sitting at my usual table slowly sipping my long black. A girl walked into the coffee shop and looked around her. I say she was a girl but she was closer to middle aged. I would put her at 36, I am 41. I wouldn’t say she was stunningly beautiful, but she was very attractive. Tall, slender and elegantly dressed she wore her hair very short and it framed her face. The cut of her hair drew attention to her beautiful eyes which together with her expressive mouth meant I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. ” Dammit” she said half to herself and half out loud. But loud enough for me to hear. She was annoyed there was no vacant table available. She stood there next to my table surveying the cafe. Now normally I like to keep to myself in a restaurant or Cafe. But there was something about this girl’s face that intrigued me. “Please feel free to join me at my table,” I said when she turned around and made eye contact. “Thank you, that is very kind of you!” She took the seat directly opposite mine. ” Thank you very much,” she said looking across at me, “ I’ve just ordered a flat white and I really wasn’t in any mood to drink it standing up!” I laughed. We waited in silence for her coffee to arrive. That was when I noticed she was a little upset and had been crying recently. I decided not to mention it. Eventually her flat white arrived and she took a long sip. She turned to me and smiled. “I needed that,” she said. “And I suppose we better introduce each other my name is Andrea.” “And I am Tony,” “Hello! “ There was another short silence before she asked : “How’s your day going?” “Not too bad considering it is a Friday! And how has your day been?” ” Pretty bloody awful actually now that you ask! “ “ Oh dear!” “ You can say that again I have just broken up with my partner for what seems like the hundredth time and this time I think it is for good.” “ Oh I’m sure they will be back again soon.” “ You don’t know Peter he’s a Taurus, very stubborn!” A little bit of me was pleased that her partner was male. Another bit of me hoped that Peter would meet somebody else and get out of her life. She was a far too nice a person to be wasted on a stubborn, complicated Taurean!
She gave me another one of her big smiles: “ Let’s not talk about Peter!” “ What should we talk about?” “ Well I think you could tell me a bit more about Tony! “ “ Like?” “ Is there a Mrs Tony locked away somewhere?” I laughed. “No I am single very single. I enjoy being single but I do get lonely sometimes. Do you believe in soulmates?” “No I believe everyone’s looking for a soulmate but nobody ever finds one, or one that lasts forever! Sorry I sound a bit cynical! “ “Don’t apologise I know what you are saying.” But a voice inside me said: ‘maybe this is my soulmate.’ It was an afternoon filled with conversation and discussion from both of us. I found it very easy to talk to her and I opened up completely. She was also completely open and frank with me. In fact we discussed her much more than we discussed me. She wanted to know what I thought of her ideas. A big thing which I discussed was her surprising lack of confidence. And her lack of love for herself. ” You cannot love somebody else if you don’t love yourself first.” We discussed that statement at length going through all the finer details of getting to know oneself, and getting to know what you are all about before you try and please somebody else. It was a very good and involved discussion. We went on for ages drinking 3 cups of coffee and eating 2 muffins each. Eventually the owner started to pack up the tables around us and we realised it was time to go. “Wow that was quite some afternoon” said Andrea. ” I thoroughly enjoyed it,” I replied. ” Are we going to contact each other again?” ” Let me give you my mobile number,” she said and I put it into my phone. “Now you phone me to check it is working and I will have your phone number too. I will phone you soon. But it has been great meeting you and I loved our discussion.” Then she took me by surprise. She put her hands on my shoulders and kissed me on the cheek: “Thank you Tony I will be in contact soon.” “Thank you very much,” I said. Which sounded a little bit inadequate but I was way too excited to say much more. I wasn’t really expecting her to contact me over the weekend but when the next week came I waited in eager anticipation of her phone call. I did think of phoning her, but remembered her last words on the Friday had been: “I will contact you.” However when the next week and the following weekend passed without hearing from her I thought it was time for me to act so I sent her a short SMS.: “Hi Andrea I hope you are well. What are you doing this week? I would love to catch up for another cup of coffee, regards Tony” Her reply was much longer and far more detailed : ” Hi Tony, so good to hear from you and before I go on, let me just say thank you very much for a wonderful Friday afternoon. You are a brilliant conversationalist and I loved just chatting to you. But you also are pretty good at analysing people and giving them useful advice. I’ve been to a fair number of counsellors in my day and none of them have been nearly as good as you at understanding me. In fact over the weekend I sat down and wrote down all the things you had said about me. Then I began to analyse myself and see where I had gone wrong and in which way I could improve myself. It took a while and I had to be honest with myself. But by about Tuesday or Wednesday I knew that I had got on top of my problems and that the new me had already emerged. I felt so good and empowered. Again thank you Tony. Then a really strange thing happened. On Thursday I received a phone call from Peter who said he would like to get together for a drink after work so we could discuss getting together again. Ordinarily I would have refused but the new me felt so strong and so empowered that I decided to give him another go. So we had our drink together and I told him what I needed. Most importantly I told him what I would not tolerate. Surprisingly he agreed to all my conditions without so much as a whimper. We had dinner together on Friday night and now we are together again. And so far so good. So all that is left for me to say, Tony, is thank you very much you are a very special person.”
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Again thank you to the many MEDIUM writers whose work I love especially: