Economically challenged...

The coffee shop was almost empty, but he was still there. What are the odds of running into the same person over and over again?

Last week I met him at the restaurant, the week before he happened to be at my house, and the week before that, someone had invited him to come to my birthday party. It's not that I minded having him there.

He was a really nice guy, with black unmanageable hair, tall and lanky and forever wearing jeans. He had the best deep voice ever which made listening to him actually fun. It was always nice to talk with him, figure out what his take is on stuff. He seems to really care about everything that's going on. It's a little freaky at times. But it's also what makes him approachable and fun.

As I was walking into the coffee shop I stopped at his table and chatted for a minute.'What's going on with you' he asked. 'Nothing much' I replied, the standard reply these days. 'Yeah right' he smiled.I went up front to get my coffee. With the coffee in hand I started to look for a good place to sit and just let the day go past. It had been one of those days and the only thing I wanted to do was to relax, drink coffee and not think about the stuff going on in my life.

There was a comfy chair open right next to him and I asked if he would mind if I sat there. He looked up from his computer, almost puzzled to still see me.
'Go ahead. I wish you would' he said and smiled.
Then he got right back into whatever he was doing on the computer.

I settled into my chair and took out my handy dandy journal. It helped me work through stuff if I wrote it down and for the next half hour I was furiously writing whatever came to my mind. The stuff with my family, my friends, disappointments with un-kept promises... It all seemed so messy.

After half an hour I looked up and found him looking at me. 'What?' I said almost irritated.
'You ok?' he asked. 'You seem sad. A lot going on right now eh?'
I sighed. 'Yeah. It all seems so messy and out of my control. I wish I could do stuff, but there's nothing. I tried.'
'I know how that feels' he said and I could only imagine.
In his position I would have probably given up. The fact that he was sitting here chatting with me was a miracle, considering I was sure that his computer probably demanded his attention ten times more.
Come to think of it, his phone had gone off at least 3 times since we started the chat and not once had he looked down to check who was calling or texting him. I remembered how much I hated it when my friend looked at his phone, rather than me in the middle of a conversation.I began to tell him more of the details of what was going on. He listened, looked at me and seemed so concerned for me. It felt good. My family was far away and a lot of my friends had so much going on, that I didn't want to bother them with my stuff as well. But I missed this. This feeling of being taken care of. The feeling that there is someone who listens.
Even though I was pretty sure nothing was going to change the situation right now. But he cared and that's all that counts.

We ended up talking for almost an hour. He never once looked at his phone or the computer, even though both were furiously ringing and dinging, demanding his attention. I had told him several times that he could take it if he needed to, but he insisted that he would get to it in due time.

I stood up to leave and we hugged. 'Hang in there girl. Don't give up. I'm with you in this, ok?' I smiled.
'I know, Jesus. Thank you. It's always good to talk to you. See ya around?!'


I was still smiling when I finally left the coffee shop. So glad I met him there.