- My annulled wife called you, right? Warned you against seeing me. That's why I never heard from you.
- Yes.
- What did she say?
- She told me you went to the Odeon to pick up girls . That our friendship was ruining her relationship.
- This while she was flying to Oslo, London, who knows where to meet men chatted with on the internet and con money out of them telling them one story or another. We were living in her family's house in the country. I was spending most days sitting in the garden reading Shakespeare.
- She was frightening.
- She said the same to Liia.
- Did you meet Liia at the Odeon?
- At McDonalds. And Liia introduced you and me.
- What is your wife doing now? Where is she?
- Going to school in L.A. Pre-Veterinary studies. And on the weekends flying around the U.S. to confer with potential contributors to her growing bank accounts.
Hrisztina had said hello to me and passed on by as I was talking with the friendly guards at the lobby of Budapest's Central European University. It's been a couple of years since she and I have seen each other. (The annulled wife had deleted the addresses and messages in all my email accounts, probably with the help of her internet expert brother.) I run after Hrisztina.
She's waiting for her friend, she says when I ask her to join me for coffee. He arrives, a graduate student like her, offers me a drink from his hip flask of Palinka, and we three take the elevator to the CEU's top floor cafe.
Hrisztina and I attempt to assign a meaning each others reappearance. I am more happy about it than she is. But that was more or less how it always was with us, so I am not disappointed.
