“I know you don’t want to talk business tonight, but Ocean City is a problem,” he said.
“They still didn’t approve the plans? Wait, no, don’t answer that. It wouldn’t be a problem if they had. Regardless, it’s a problem that can wait until Monday.” I motioned for the bartender. “Whiskey, neat.”
“There’s a reason why I’m bringing it up. I think we need some of that magic from when we started the company.”
“Magic? I think you’re exaggerating.”
“Oscar, you have to admit that those are the best floor plans and exterior designs we've ever made. They’re why we’re here today.”
I took a sip from the glass the bartender set in front of me and savored the aged notes of the whiskey. Adam was right. Those were some of our best designs. We even still used some of them. But I thought of that period of time as lightning. There was nothing we could do to get it to strike twice.
“Monday, Adam. Tonight is about celebrating, not about problems.”
“Where’s Ruby? I want to say hello.”
“Oh, she’s around here somewhere.” I turned from the bar and started to search the room for her. Ruby chose Cipriani Wall Street when we first came up with the idea to celebrate our company wins annually. She loved how elegant the room was with its marble floors, Grecian columns, and soaring coffered ceilings.
It took me a moment to find her. She was standing near the far end of the room, close to a tall column I knew she would want to lean against, but wouldn’t. She had a glass of something in her hand that I knew would go untouched. She was looking out at the crowded room with an expression I recognized. It was the one she got when she was somewhere else entirely in her head.
She looked beautiful. The black dress, the way her hair fell, everything. I noticed, even if I didn't say so. I always noticed.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her. It brought me back to that night, twenty-three years ago, the first time I couldn’t stop staring at her.
* * *
The bar had no name worth remembering, but it was somewhere in the East Village, down a half-flight of stairs, with sticky floors and a DJ who played whatever he wanted. Adam had insisted on it, the way Adam always insisted on things, with complete confidence that he was right.
"Trust me," he said. "Best people-watching in the city."
He wasn't wrong.
I was three weeks into a temp job filing documents for a law firm. Adam was doing something in finance that he made sound more impressive than it was. We were twenty-two years old, just out of college, and we thought we were on the verge of something, though neither of us knew what it was.
That was when I saw her.
She was standing at the edge of the small dance floor with a friend, watching people dance as she laughed at something her friend said. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, as if she planned a night at home, but ended up here instead. As she laughed, her hair fell onto her face. She pushed the hair back behind her ear and then looked in my direction.
Time stood still.
"Go talk to her," Adam said.
"I'm thinking about it."
"You've been thinking about it for ten minutes. Go."
I went. Adam came with me, because that was also something Adam did.
The song that was playing when we walked over ended before I got two sentences out, and then something slower came on. If I believed in luck, I would’ve thought I got lucky.
“Hi, do you want to dance?" I asked her.
She looked at me for a moment, like she was making a calculation, and then she said, "Sure."
Her name was Ruby. She had just finished her architecture degree and was about to start an internship to complete it. Her face lit up every time she spoke about it.
When the song ended, I didn't want to stop talking to her.
"Can I get you a drink?" I asked.
