Did she just hear right?  Did he just ask her to leave with him?  Her heart rate quickened again.  At this rate she was sure he would be able to see the blood pulsing through her veins.  She worried about saying something stupid so she simply nodded and followed him out of the room.  She pinched her arm to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.  The sharp sting proved this was really happening.

The cafe, as it turned out, was the one that she had spent her lunch hour at every day for the last 20 years.  She had never seen him it, she wondered if maybe he was bluffing about knowing the place.  She started to feel hot.  What if this was all a set up, some workplace bet designed to humiliate her.  She had never been popular but she hoped that they wouldn’t stoop to that level, not on her last day.

There weren’t many people in the cafe when they walked in.  There was a few couples and some students, no doubt taking advantage of the wifi access given to all customers.  Towards the back there was a table in the corner which she liked to sit at because it gave her a view of the rest of the cafe.

A waitress came to take their order and she watched him flirt with her as she wrote in her little note pad.  She wondered if she could ever be with someone who flirted so easily with other women.  The waitress must have said something funny because all of a sudden the room was filled with a guffawing that can only be likened to a baby seal trying to find it’s mother.

She stared at him in stunned silence.  The waitress pulled on her uniform uncomfortably, obviously looking for a way out.  It was the breaking point.  How could a man so handsome, with a voice so beautifully deep, produce a noise like that?  She needed an excuse and she needed one fast.

From the depths of her bag she heard a ping.  She knew that it was probably just a notification for the new online game she was playing, but he didn’t need to know that.  She had found her out and she was going going to take the opportunity with two hands.  She sat and stared at the screen of her mobile, hoping that it would catch his attention.

It worked, and he asked her if everything was ok.  She looked at him, in what she hoped was an apologetic way, and said that she was sorry but something had come up and she needed to leave immediately.  She grabbed her things and left before he could say another thing, for fear that she would lose her nerve.

Once she was home, she lay in bed and thought about the time she had wasted fawning over him.  The man with the seal laugh.  It was her deal breaker, there was nothing she could do about it.  Nothing at all.  Or could she?