Just Listening In, and then ...

Yes, I was at one of my favorite coffee shops after a great tour on Wednesday last, after taking a group of four Englishwomen on a general tour of Manhattan by car, when I sat outside on the bench at Mud. I had had a nice lunch at Kenn's Broome Street Bar, thanks to my generous travelers, and afterwards it felt right to take a walk. To have my, ah, ambulatory digestif.

I walked up and over and found myself near E. 9th Street, so I walked into Mud and asked for some.

Mud

With their large cup I walked out again, and sat myself down on one of the two benches, which were empty, facing west toward the sun, and relaxed. Ahh, feeling very good. Good coffee too.

A young lady in black, wearing glasses, came out with her coffee and sat down across from me. I was paying no attention. Watching people pass. Thinking about the morrow. Computing bills to be paid.

"Can you make 3:30?"

My ears perked up.

"Then I will be there."

I asked my cross-bench companion, "What do you do when people have to change their appointments again and again?" I was really curious, because just the day before someone had been making and breaking appointments with me, and I was getting a little worried.

"Oh, it's always different. This one said he was with his friends - he had a two o'clock appointment but called just at 5 of as I was coming down his street to tell me he was with friends, could he reschedule. Well, so I said yes. I had a window of time, so there he had it."

"That's a little tight! What do you do?"

"I'm a professional dominatrix."

"Excuse me?" I didn't hear her, you see. She repeated.

We talked some more.

"And even you have a hard time controlling your clients," I said. The mind boggles.

I should have known ...