A maybe firm date in Paris
She's one of those frequent return-visitor friends whom I see year-in, year-out. She enjoys generous hospitality from everyone she looks up. She has, for years, been saying we should come to Paris so she could return hospitality.
The famous day of reckoning approaches. She is here, I am here. I gleefully tell her I shall, incredulous as it may seem to her, be in Paris for 5 days and 4 nights. When would she like to see me?
Now I watch her start to squirm and vacillate. Well, she begins tentatively, that's the weekend she might have to be in the UK to settle her daughter in the university. But she would be back by Monday. Tuesday at the latest. So I helpfully suggested: Shall we settle for dinner on Wednesday then, and I leave for Lyon the next day? Yes, but she isn't totally sure she'd be back by Wednesday. Is there possibly anyway I delay going to Lyon.
No, there is no way I stay on in Paris for a maybe meet-up with her.
We left it as a firm maybe for Wednesday. She will, she promised, let me know as soon as she gets back to Paris and sort things out with husband and daughter. That will be best, I expansively agreed.
Do we have a firm date in Paris finally? So she can return hospitality after all this time?
Yes. Maybe.
7 comments:
Don't you just hate to not know for sure, when you have a limited amount of time?
wouldn't you be happier to not have to meet her?
write off all these sucker friends la.
lulu - hate uncertainty, but this one really does not matter.
wildgoose - well, have to give her a chance to arrange for meetup in paris. otherwise i hear no end about come all the way and never tell her.
suziewong - cannot lah. these are people i know from childhood, and they are not bad people. after a whole lifetime, we just learn to put up with each other's crankiness :)
i think some people are like that... they have difficulty committing to meeting up with friends. but when they want something from you, they are all warm and charming. its tough to deal with these childhood friends u know for a long time, makes it difficult to be frank without being a tad rude.
im sure u will have fun in paris nonetheless!
i was just going to say don't waste your time lah! if she's sincere, she'd have set a date already. unless you both decided to play by ear to see if it happens.
luckily you won't push any plans for her. otherwise, you might just kick yourself in the butt to shift plans just for a no-fun meal.
edpj - oh yah, if not for long shared history, i would not bother with someone like that. but i will enjoy paris and france regardless. thanks.
imp - if play by ear, nothing will happen, ever. then i hear the "you never gave me a chance" nagging for the rest of my life. this way, i have tried to pin down a game plan. nothing more for me to do. and i will not be sitting around being hopeful.
Post a Comment