By Jeff Hampton
Eddy leafed through the paper, looked at his watch, and hummed nervously to himself.
He’d really gone out on a limb this time, pushing the conversation to the next level: “Would you like to have dinner sometime?” No threatening language like, “Can I pick you up at your place?” Instead they’d meet at the coffee shop at six and walk a few blocks to the restaurant.
It was a big step for Eddy, who was out of practice after twenty-five years of marriage. It had been so easy in college. “Where are you from? Where do you live? What’s your major?” – that was all he needed to break the ice and get a date to the movie at the Student Union.
The rules were different now. Either women his age no longer bought his small talk, or dating had changed completely. He’d seen how the twenty-somethings did it. A gang of ten to twelve would fill up a corner of the coffee shop and just “hang out” as they called it. There could be five men and five women in the group, and if there was a “couple” among them it wasn’t at all evident.
So it was against all odds that Eddy had connected with Julie. He was sitting at his regular table by the window one Wednesday morning when she came in and sat at the table next to his. He noticed her but was minding his own business when she asked if she could have a sugar packet from his table. A week later she was there again and Eddy offered the sugar before she could ask. She laughed at his “Boy Scout preparedness” and then she fiddled with her cell phone and he returned to his newspaper.
Another Wednesday and she was there again, and then the week after that and the next week too. In his mind she became “Wednesday Girl” until the day when one of her friends stopped by and called her by name. Seeing him watching from the next table, Julie introduced her friend and he said, “Hi, I’m Eddy.” He was speaking to the other woman, but his eyes were locked on Julie.
As several more Wednesdays went by their conversations escalated beyond the weather and the economy to little details about their lives and their jobs – hers at the brokerage and his at the department store. And then one day in the midst of a conversation about the cost of groceries Eddy blurted, “Would you like to have dinner sometime? There’s a great little bistro a couple of blocks over.”
Julie hesitated at first, surprised by his sudden proposition, but then she found her voice. “Uh, sure, how about next Wednesday after work?”
Eddy checked his watch again – 6:22 – as he turned through the paper on his way to the classifieds. He liked his job, but he was always looking for new opportunities. There, across from the sales and trades listings were the wedding announcements. His eyes caught the little headline – “Julie Miller Weds Joseph Huffman” – and he read the short paragraph detailing how the couple, both stockbrokers, were married on Saturday afternoon.
Eddy stood up, slung his satchel across his shoulder, dropped a dollar bill on the table, and walked out into the blue light of dusk.
THE END
Note: From 2009 until about 2013, NPR had a popular feature on “All Things Considered” called Three-Minute Fiction. Writers were invited to submit a story inspired by a photo prompt and short enough to be read aloud in three minutes. I wrote “Wednesday Girl” based on the photo shown above.
Copyright © Jeff Hampton 2010