[This is the second chapter of a short story called “Seven Days”.]

The next day was the starting day of the conference. I was the first to speak and focused all my attention on the debate. As it happened, we did not interact much. It was difficult to see him from my seat at the front row and, and when I could hear him, it was his arguments, not his person, that I cared about. I’m telling you this, reader, not to seem cold-hearted, but to highlight how extraordinary life can be sometimes. I would never have imagined him as being of any importance to me and now, the memory of him as a stranger seems absurd to me.

Lunch offered us our first break and we enjoyed the relaxation greatly. While queuing to get a warm meal he happened to be right beside me. I knew I wanted to speak English and that I liked his company, so I offered to eat together. We were joined by two other participants in our committee, one Czech and one German, and talked enthusiastically; to the point that we came close to being late for the start of the afternoon session.

I will spear you the details of our debate, dear reader. If you happen to be highly interested in the effect of corruption on economic development, then I am sorry to deprive you of a certain joy, but if you belong to the larger part of the population, then all I can say is ‘you are welcome’. We finished our day intellectually exhausted, all very relieved to rest a while before meeting up at a local bar in the evening.

Whether it is an actual cultural trait, or the snow slowing us down, or our own lack of motivation, we arrived awfully late – once again. My two friends found seats at the end of a long table and I stood next to it, expecting them to find a place for me. Once I realised they weren’t planning on doing so, I started to seek for myself and settled to join a group of French men and started to make polite conversation until I could see the Dutch man and some members of my committee right in front of me and jumped on the first occasion to join in. I was met with happy cheers and could already feel myself warming up.

After an hour, we decided to join another committee in a bar close by. It took a while to make everyone join, so we talked just the two of us as we waited. Then we continued until arriving at the bar. Then inside it. We didn’t quite flirt, or more exactly, we were not trying to. Keep in mind all my tale is stained by hindsight, as I can now confidently say that we already attracted to each other, a mundane ‘two people similar in age, wit, and interests with reasonably handsome features’ kind of attraction.

Sadly, my friends decided to leave and, not wanting to walk back all alone for half an hour in a foreign city, I joined them. I was the one to say goodbye this time and said it only to him. Once outside I was teased by my peers for having spent all my evening with him but, promptly, they moved on, and so did I.