Skim cappuccino

He said, "I don't know if I want you to come. I need to know a lot more about you first."

I said, "I don't know if I want to come. I need to know a lot more about you first."

And so it began.

My friend Glen has kept me sane over the past two years. We met before that, but it wasn't until he decided to go to law school that I really took an interest in his work. At that time, we were in similar jobs, but we worked for different employers. Things were rapidly going sour at my office and I was keen for a change. He was trying to plan out his future without leaving people at his office in a bind.

I don't remember who came up with this plan, but we agreed to meet in a local coffee shop to talk about whether it would be a good idea for me to take over his job about six months later. Neither of us wanted to make any promises to the other. We talked for a long time about what we liked, what we hated, and what we wanted from a job.

That was the beginning of about two months of furtive telephone calls. Then one morning we met in a dark street near my office. He said that things were changing. He said that he might be leaving his job sooner than he had thought. He said he'd call when he had more information.

It turned out that he was not going to law school after all. He was being promoted and needed someone to take over his job right away. I started a few weeks later.

Glen and I are very similar. During my first month on the job, several people asked if I was his sister. We have the same sense of humour, and even look alike, right down to the spiky hair. We would argue constantly, even when we didn't really disagree. It was fun to provoke each other. When I got mad, I'd stomp my foot and shout. When he got mad, he'd pant and whine. He does have a serious face. It's a combination of a tilted head and an eyebrow movement -- wait, we look just alike. I can show you:



That's it. That's Glen thinking What do you mean, you broke an oath of office? Can't you just say you're pregnant or something? Good Lord, I can't be called to testify. Maybe we can pretend this never happened.

He ended up staying a year longer than he had originally planned, and went to law school a few months ago. I really miss him. I'm sure he'll pop up and say that there is some legal phrase that describes this emotion much more precisely, like "loss of care, companionship and guidance", and that I may have an actionable case. Then I'll correct his grammar, and he'll tell me not to stomp my foot so loud.