First day
It’s a cold cafeteria with gray walls and floors. Round and tall tables in metal. Waiters in white clothes. The building is in marble and transparent glass, wedged between a residential street and the highway. It is the only meeting place for these European Commission offices. I live alone in Brussels with my two children. After my divorce from their father, I really want to meet someone, but it’s complicated between my job and my children to manage.
I see him in the cafeteria, having breakfast with his colleagues. To whoever accompanies me, I say that I like this big boy with dark blue eyes. He answers me “Blah”. I find him sweet and romantic. The following week, he is seated alone. I see it and I don’t think much. As we jump in cold water or in a parachute, I start. I approach it. “May I? “ He lets me sit down, doesn’t seem so surprised by my daring. We then exchange banalities, the general direction in which we work, he economic policies, I environmental protection, our nationalities, since when we have been working there.
” We kiss. It’s annoying because he’s Irish, from a very Catholic family, married for ten years ”
” You are married ? “, I said, seeing her wedding ring shining on her finger. Yes, he has two children, like me. We leave without exchanging our numbers, I only showed him where I worked. Afterwards, we run into each other several times by chance in the streets of the Belgian capital. But still nothing. I am feverish, I often think of him, I like him a lot.
One day, he arrives in my office to offer me a coffee when my nephews have come to see me in Brussels. I tell him I can’t, he leaves the room. My 14 year old nephew turns to me: “He’s crazy about you, this boy, it shows”. We continue the cafeteria ballet, freeze-dried coffees on the aluminum tables. ” You’re my best friend “, he announces to me in front of the distributor another day. His naivety puzzles me.
I can’t take any more of the cafes, of my deceptively spontaneous passages in front of his office door. Finally a lunch. This time, we’re going to the Tervuren museum to see African masks. We kiss. It’s annoying because he’s Irish, from a very Catholic family, married for ten years to the first woman he met outside of his family. But I’m in love with him, so I’m taking the risk.
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