"I have to go to the ladies' room," I said.
Anyone who has ever been single knows how to use the restroom to take the measure of an old lover's new love.
In nicer restaurants, there are mirrors over the bar and the plate-glass window facing the street that reflect nearly as well as the mirrors do. Arbitrary room dividers make it possible to stand behind the delphiniums and hide in plain site. One of the large floral arrangements served.
I wanted to see if she was one of my hiking partners. Three weeks after my hiking partner Karen's husband died, Nick drove to her house and pushed romantic moves on her. Karen rejected him. Good.
Nick's companion was small and wiry with enormous blue eyes and a funny fish mouth. He talked, she laughed. In only a few months, he apparently had become hilarious.
I watched the door as I washed my hands. I imagined saying, "Good luck with Nick's lies," if she walked in. Instead I slunk out. Brave in imagination only.