Page 63 - Self Talk

The news came, not from Jane, but from a mutual
friend in a casual encounter on the street. The shock
was so great that David likened it to putting his wet toe in an electrical socket. The feeling alternated between
a raging burn and numbing paralysis. He had just learned that he would become a father again.
We were sitting across from each other in a small Greek restaurant picking at our food. Three hours had gone by, enough for each of us to sum up the high and low points of our lives. Until now, we knew precious little about
each other except our mutual addiction to foreign films, classical music and expensive clothes. Several months before, our eyes accidentally met as we impatiently stared at our watches in the elevator of the building where I worked and he owned a small art gallery. We both smiled a little sheepishly at our mutual preoccupation.