Three Women by Marita Conlon-Mckenna

bathroom, leaving his laptop on – he must know and trust the staff here. She was dying to go to the bathroom herself but didn’t dare leave her seat as, knowing her rotten luck, it would be the very time her mother would arrive, look around for her and then leave. She really didn’t know what to do.
    Suddenly the laptop guy, walking back, stopped at her table.
    ‘Are you okay?’ he asked kindly. He was kind of scruffy, with thick black jeans and a jumper and thick black-rimmed glasses. He was about her age.
    ‘I was supposed to meet someone … a friend.’ Shit, he probably thought she was a right saddo and had been stood up by a boyfriend or some internet date. ‘A woman friend, but she hasn’t bothered to show, I think … unless something utterly disastrous has happened to her … I don’t know what to do.’
    ‘Maybe you could text or phone her, or you can email if you want. I have my laptop,’ he offered.
    ‘Thanks … I don’t really know her and this was a kind of first meeting.’
    ‘Like an interview?’
    ‘Yeah … I guess.’
    He hovered beside her.
    ‘I’d better stay another while,’ she sighed, ‘just in case she comes.’
    Two minutes later he had moved to the table next to hers and had opened his laptop.
    ‘I had to get out of my place,’ he explained. ‘My flatmate’s girlfriend is over from Amsterdam for the weekend, so I had to give them a bit of space. I said I’d come here to have some coffee and pasta and pass the time. I’ve a load of work to do on this new project I’m working on and if it’s not too busy this place is fine to try to do some work.’
    ‘I see.’ She smiled, not really interested. But it was a relief to have someone sitting at the table beside her; at least she didn’t look quite so awkward.
    ‘They’ll chuck us out of here in another forty minutes,’ he said matter-of-factly.
    Erin nodded. The matter at least would be taken out of her hands, and if Kate missed the deadline that was most definitely it …
    She watched as he worked away, intent on what he was doing, going between print on his screen and lots of images. It looked like film.
    After all the coffee and water she had drunk, Erin was really dying to visit the bathroom. ‘I hope I’m not interrupting you, but I wonder if you could do me a favour?’ she asked the stranger.
    He looked up from what he was doing. It was so embarrassing …
    ‘I really need to go to the loo,’ she said, blushing. ‘And I was wondering if by any chance the woman I am meant to meet turns up, could you tell her I’ll be back in a minute? Even if you see a woman on her own coming in the door, or looking around the place, can you try and talk to her, please – it’s very important. She’d be around mid-fortyish, I think. My name is Erin, by the way.’
    It was only as she said it that she realized how bizarre the whole thing sounded. He must have thought she was mad.
    ‘Sure,’ he nodded, taking a slow sip of his coffee.
    Erin raced to the bathroom. Tears overwhelmed her as she sat in the cubicle. Glancing in the mirror, she looked awful and she threw water quickly on her eyes to disguise the fact that she had been crying. Then, brushing her hair and putting another layer of lip-gloss on to her lips, she went back outside. The chefs and waiting staff were sitting down having their own meal. It was so embarrassing. She would have to leave soon.
    ‘No one came,’ he said, barely looking up at her as she slipped back into her seat.
    Erin blinked hard, trying not to cry again. She sniffed and reached for a hankie.
    ‘You okay?’ he asked, worried.
    ‘No,’ she admitted, the word coming out like a gulping sound as she tried not to break down.
    He left his laptop and came and sat beside her.
    ‘It’s a guy, isn’t it? A right shit!’
    ‘No, it’s not.’ Erin took a deep breath. She didn’t know him at all, but she couldn’t keep it up any longer. ‘I was meant to meet someone very important in my