Chapter 265

• My unexpected dinner companion
• I travel a lot for work and spend half my life in hotels. It’s a solitary existence, but I enjoy it. One evening, my train was delayed. By the time I had checked into my hotel, found my room, texted the wife to let her know I’d arrived, and gone downstairs to eat, the restaurant was packed.
• There was only one free seat left in the whole room, and the other seat at the table was occupied by a blonde woman, about the same age as me; fortyish. When the waiter approached her and explained my predicament, she looked at me for a moment and smiled, then she nodded to the waiter.