I did something very out of character last week.

I approached a strange man in a café.

Alright, I probably should qualify this a little. The man in question is a bit of a local fixture in the area, as he has a rather noticable dog and attracts a lot of attention because of that. I see him in the local cafés on a fairly regular basis.

And I had also found out that someone I know, knew him. The little dog came up in conversation one day and that was when I discovered they had known each other for years.

So, he wasn’t exactly a stranger to me. Although, to him, I was.

I arrived after my lesson for a coffee at my preferred café, as I do each week, and it was particularly crowded. The only seat available was very close to this man and his little dog. So I took the initiative and introduced myself, saying we had a common acquaintance. I asked a few questions about his unusual dog, and it went from there. Surprising for both of us, two hours later we were still talking, and it was just the darkening sky and the café staff packing up the tables around us that really prompted the end of the conversation. It had been raucous and funny and quite that lovely mix of getting to know someone and feeling like you were old friends all at once.

It felt like there was a real potential for friendship.

Then he asked how he could see me again, and I panicked a little. I didn’t want it to seem like I had been trying to ‘pick him up’. It wasn’t at all like that. So, I told him that I was nearly always there at around 2 on Saturdays. He laughed and asked if he was expected to wait around in case I turned up. I just said it’s where I’d be, where I always was.

There’s a danger in these things. You get your hopes up.

I turned up, as per usual, this week, to discover the usual café was being renovated and wouldn’t be opening until the following day. So I sat across the road in another, much less enjoyable one. But one where I could see the comings and goings and would notice if a man and his little dog turned up.

In a Hollywood world, just as I was packing my things away, readying to leave, after waiting for an hour or so, a little dog would snuffle at my ankles and my new friend would be sitting, laughing, telling me about the comedy of errors that had made up his day.

Nothing has been lost. My day was just as it always was for a Saturday. I bought some cd’s, I wrote a little, I watched people coming and going, and I enjoyed it. But that little glimmer of hope for company had a flip side of disappointment that I can’t deny.