Preserving a Meal Commitment

Well, of course, of course, no apology required.

I am sitting at my writing desk, at this very moment, instead of having lunch with a good friend, as planned. Not to embarrass anyone I will change my friend's name to Del, as I relate the story.

There was a time when Del and I shared lunch regularly; once a month or so. We would meet at a pizza place near my home, order a spinach-artichoke dip appetizer to share, a beverage ( or two ) and an entree. The spinach-artichoke dip is the best either of us have found … hot, a large serving, lots of toasted bread slices on which to put it, and just the right spicy zip both of us enjoy.

I remember one time he beat me to the restaurant. As I slid into my seat in the booth, he looked at me dead(ly) serious. and whispered, "I have some very bad news."

My gosh; "Who's sick? Who died? Did you lose your job? An auto accident? What??"

"They don't have any artichoke dip today … the artichokes weren't delivered."

I exhaled. "Oh, no … that's bad enough but it's better than some of he awful things I was thinking." 

That time together, while very good, was not the same without sharing the dip we so enjoyed.

Both our lives have gotten busier and we have found it harder and harder to keep up with our monthly lunch. Our last lunch together was in
mid-February and Del confessed to having a particularly difficult and busy time since the beginning of the year. He also assured me things had smoothed significantly, and he was again wanting to lunch monthly. He remains a busy guy, I'm reasonably busy and it has just not worked out.

Since my retreat the weekend following Easter, we had unsuccessfully tried to arrange lunch; slightly over two weeks ago we agreed on today, normal time and place. I salivated; it had been a long time since tasting that dip. Last night he texted me … a work emergency that he could not get out of had come up and he cannot make our lunch date … can we reschedule, please, sorry.

Well, of course, of course, no apology required. Work emergencies happen. I get it. While I am deeply disappointed, we are having dinner tomorrow night, I have found time to write a blog post, and I have a story about which to write. Phoenix rises out of the ashes.

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