You are a positive motivati...

“He’s in a searching place right now.”

I pretended to reach into my pocket for my keys just so I could turn around to see who had said this. It was a middle aged woman in casual attire, but she was a little too well coiffed to pull off the laid-back crunchy housewife act. Across the table, her friend’s furrowed brow conveyed both sympathy and concern.

I interpreted it to mean her old man was having an affair. I turned back to my fish tacos and Kindle. I’d put too much lime juice and hot sauce on my tacos, so with each bite, a spurt of watery orange fish juice leaked out the other end. I had to lean over the plate so as not to soil my trousers.

“He’s starting to look inside himself.”

This stopped me in mid chew, with a length of shredded cabbage hanging from my lips. It was a younger woman, no doubt, probably someone he’d met at church.

On my plate the pool was growing and now I was worried about splattering fish juice all over my oatmeal-colored cardigan. I slid the plate over a bit so the next drop would land more toward the edge. On my Kindle I was reading about the fall of the Berlin Wall, and I was just getting to the good part where Lech Walesa pretends he knows how to read.

“He’s beginning to notice himself.”

Uh-oh. Dude’s already talked to a lawyer.

I finished the last bite and wiped my hands on my napkin. I rose and inspected myself. No stains.