Tuesday night: the city

In Golden Towers diner (a romantic place, it's where we went for late night beers and burgers that Comedy Festival we started dating) we are served by the friendliest of waitresses. I think she is Dutch. At the booth next to us, a woman, blonde and buxom and beautiful, her hair up in a coif, wearing elegant black with a pink silk scarf, perhaps in her mid 50s, sits down. Willie Nelson singing a cover of 'You were always on my mind' is playing on the video juke box. He sings slow and soulful. She sits alone. She orders a lemonade. It comes in a tall glass. And a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, which she eats with a knife and fork. As we leave I turn to glance at her once more. She is reading a book. It is titled 'Bereft'. And yet I can't recall when I last saw someone look so happy and content to be alone in a diner in the city on a Tuesday night.