she’s being stood up.

Kristen Bellweather is being stood up.  She doesn’t know it yet, but as she is putting on her expensive lipstick and pointy shoes, covering her body in Oil of Olay, soaking in the tub for an extra ten minutes, Mike Willford is getting asked to work late.  She will go to the bar in the West Village that they agreed to meet up at, and try to be casually late, but it’s hard, because Kristen has been waiting for this date all week.  So instead of getting there about 10 minutes late, she’s actually early.  She’ll walk by the book store and stare in the window for a few minutes, making a mental note to read more, and not just gossip magazines, before she decides she’s kept him waiting long enough.

Mike is sitting at his desk, trying to finish up his last report for the day, when his editor comes in and gives him a “scoop,” a real live hot story.  Before he has time to even think, “I have a date,” or “this is bad timing” his boss hands him a dossier and the company card to cover his expenses.  ”Good thing you were here right now, Willford, or I would have given this story to John.”

When Kristen goes into the bar, she will see others like her: young, attractive, made up.  She will see other publicists and junior ad executives, a bevy of girls that look like they fell out of a Sex and the City doppelganger game and they will all be chattering at ridiculously high levels.  She will wonder why they chose this bar, why she was so excited about this place.  She will briefly consider canceling her subscription to New York Magazine.  But then she will remember the Matrix section in the back, and how much she likes that.  She’ll order one drink, as it’s been 10 minutes already, and she doesn’t want to just sit there; that seems rude.  She will order one Martini, dry, but then look over at the Sex and the City group and change it to a white wine.

Mike is in a cab going across town.  He is hurriedly calling his sources.  He is planning on calling Kristen.  He is thinking about how much he liked her legs.  And when she smiled, the way her teeth were slightly crooked.  That was charming.  Somehow it made her more real.  He will think briefly, in between calling his sources, waiting for them to pick up, and giving the driver directions, that he will have to do something big, something momentous to make up for this, though he is notoriously bad at gift giving, and surprise making.  All that will flash across his mind is chocolates and teddy bears, and he instinctively knows that is a bad idea.

Kristen will go to call Mike, and think better of it.  She decides she will text him.  She will think about the text for too long.  She will debate the merits of sending a text to check in:  Is it too soon?  Will I seem needy?  What is the best way to come across as irritated, but in a fun way!  She will look at her watch, thin, and dangling from her wrist, decide it is too hard to read, and check the time on her phone.  He is 25 minutes late.

Mike will be whisked upstairs to a press conference.  He will be yelled at for trying to make a phone call by one of the other reporters.  It is bad etiquette.  Mike, being a rookie, will not know this is a joke, that reporters often text and call trying to out-scoop each other.  He will wait there nervously, and try to text Kristen, slyly, but as he gets through the better part of a sentence, the Mayor starts taking questions from the press corp.

Kristen, will send, ultimately, three texts, each increasing in hostility and decreasing in length.  She will order two more glasses of wine, and a small appetizer, incredulous that she, she of all people is being stood up.  She will think of how Mike smiled at her when they were exchanging information at Whole Foods, and that smile will suddenly look sinister.  She will think about how he probably does this all the time, and when she realizes that she has been at the bar for almost an hour, she will pay her tab, and go outside to hail a cab.

By the time Mike calls in his story, and calls Kristen, she will be in bed.  She will have taken off all of her makeup, a painstaking process, as she rarely wears much.  He will apologize profusely, and try to make it up to her, but in spite of her understanding tone, he knows she is pissed.  He will offer to take her out now, trying to salvage the night, but it will come across as a booty call, and she will politely decline.

Kristen will allow Mike a few more phone calls and texts before she phases him out.  She’s decided that for the next month she is busy, but, and a big but here, if he is persistant enough, it will show character, and endear her to him.  Like a movie.

Mike will decide after his fourth attempt that month in trying to get together, that she’s no longer into him.  He will delete her number from his phone to avoid the awkward habit he has of calling people who clearly don’t want to be called, when he is drunk or feeling lonely.

They will never get drinks together.  But she will go back to that place with her girlfriends.  It seemed fun, in hindsight, to go with a group.

When she goes back, she will order a martini.