Free Write Three men, Three women

o                 Three men, Three women

An accident between a  delivery truck and a scooter meant Julia, Rick and I had to drive around many side streets to meet at the La Récrée café. We rejected using the accident as a prompt. The café was full and Julia had snagged a table where the sun wasn't in our eyes. The couches by the fireplace were taken, but after our coffee, tea and hot chocolate we selected a complicated prompt. Three men on the couches and three women on the next table.

Julia's Free Write

My friend noticed the women first: three of a certain age (like we aren’t?), gathering at a table.

Conversation seemed to flow, so obviously friends of long date.

Suddenly all three got up and looked like they were leaving. A tiff, a malaise, one spilled something? Nope – just moving to get out of the sun – ouf, conversations continue…until one gets a phone call.

Three men: to match the women? Nope, the male group has been there since we arrived – seemingly of working age and none looked handicapped either.

There too conversation flows, albeit with more looking out the window.

Where are they from?

Why are they in a coffee chop mid-morning?

Stereotypes are hard to break – seem like refugees to me, but with the wherewithal to pay fancy coffee shops?

Their phones are more in use…job seekers?

Three men, three women: two entirely different worlds.

D-L's Free Write

 

Maria, Gina and Anne squinted into the sun, well Maria and Gina did. Anne's back was to the window.

It was their regular Tuesday morning C&C, Coffee and Conversation, a ritual since their husbands retired. It got them out of the house and the disruption the retirements had created.

Normally they set on the two couches flanking the fireplace, but today Guillaume, George and Paul occupied the seats.

They were retirees, kicked out of their homes by their wives. "You're underfoot," the wives complained.

In the summer they could play golf or tennis. Today there was at least 10 centimetres of snow outside and had been since before Christmas.

"What are you doing for Valentine's Day?" Maria asked.

"We stopped bothering with that long ago," Anne said.

 

Guillaume overheard. The tables were that close. "Guys, Valentine's Day tomorrow."

"I better buy some flowers," Paul said.

"Not roses, too expensive," George said. "They jack up the prices."

"Restaurants do too," Paul said.

Maria noticed that a table out of the sun's rays had been freed. The women moved.

"Did you hear them talking about Valentine's Day?" Anne asked. "Romance is dead."

"Men," the three chorused.

Rick's Free Write

What was Volodymyr Zelenskyy doing here? The president of Ukraine? In a small café in Switzerland? Not far from Geneva?

And who were the two guys with him? (The New York Yankees baseball cap was not a very good disguise, if that was the intent.)

The third guy - with the villainous moustache, receding hairline, and cute little mullet – might be an arms dealer.

It wouldn’t be the first time quasi-diplomatic clandestine meetings were conducted in the area. The uber-rich commune of Collonge was once a haven for Saudi royalty, and now to the billionaire daughter of the former (corrupt) president of Kazakhstan.

Was that her in the group of three women at a nearby table? Were they part of a grain-for-weapons deal going down?

Or were the women your basic wealthy local residents, out for a coffee and croissant while the gardeners trimmed the 12-foot-high hedges? (Surely they’d return home in time to chat with the handsome pool boy, first time this spring.)

The women acted like they didn’t know the men. But as they changed tables to avoid the morning sun, was that a knowing glance from Mrs. Billionaire to Mr. Mullet?

Zelenskyy turned in the direction of a large dog that trotted in through the café door.

It wasn’t him.

Julia has written and taken photos all her life and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/ 

 

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices. com

 

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at:. www.dlnelsonwriter.com