We'll See (We Went)

Tuesday climbing session ended and Simone said there was a thing at the bar on the corner, not a big thing, just a thing, and I said what I always say when I don't want to commit yet, which is 'we'll see.'

By eight I'd texted her I was going. I don't know what changed. I changed into the burgundy top, switched to the ankle boots, looked at myself in the bathroom mirror for about four seconds, and left. The air outside was that specific early October air that feels like an argument for going places, and I walked the six blocks thinking about how I almost didn't.

Simone was already there, standing at the bar with her elbow on the counter, looking like someone who had not spent any time at all deliberating in front of a mirror. We ended up staying two hours past when either of us said we would. She was mid-sentence about something I won't repeat here when I realized I was genuinely glad I'd come, which is different from being glad you went, it's glad in the present tense, in the room, with the noise around you and the amber lights and the specific warmth of a conversation you didn't have to work for.

Mid-sentence at the bar, which is the only honest way to photograph a conversation

We walked back toward the bus stop afterward and I looked up and thought: yes, okay, good. That's about all there is to say about it.

The part of the night where nobody's going home yet