Bruner had no fear of strangers, an insatiable curiosity, and an utter lack of an efficient inner monologue to stop her from saying the first thing that crossed her mind.
One day while Bruner was at Starbucks (because really, when is she not at Starbucks?) she noticed a deep looking soul sitting not too far away. She knew he was deep because of his shaggy hair, little black notebook, and self mumblings as he scrawled his deepest most profound musings into the notebook.
"I wonder what he's writing? Is he a poet? A song writer? A philosopher?. It must be deep because that's a Moleskine, used only for the deepest, most profound thoughts."
After that day she saw the deep, shaggy haired poet every so often and constantly asked herself what kinds of tragically romantic thoughts he might be scribbling that day.
Until one day...
Bruner sat across from Deep Boy. She watched him mumble to himself with furrowed brow, his lips silently composing, his hand drawing tiny circles in the air before jotting down his latest revelation. As she was studying for a Spanish exam, and he was Spanish, she found this was the perfect excuse to begin a conversation.
"Excuse me, could you explain to me what (insert Spanish idiomatic phrase here) means?"
After his polite response the two returned to their tasks. He with his deepness and her with her Spanish. Until suddenly her auto-stop failed - she could no longer resist the temptation - she gave in to her curiosity and said:
"Do you mind if I ask what you're writing?"
She prepared herself for the most philosophical of responses, most certainly far beyond her scope of understanding when he replied:
"Jokes."
Jokes?
Really?
And all that time she thought he was deep and sensitive.
Deep-Boy-Turned-Comedian was named Alvaro.
From that day on Bruner and Alvaro always found each other on the sofas and spent the evenings talking and laughing; Bruner using Alvaro as her own personal Spanish dictionary, and Alvaro using Bruner as a test audience for his jokes.
Their friendship grew and grew as each night they sipped coffee until closing time, accompanied each other home, Gchat-ed the next day and then returned to Starbucks to do it all again.
They carried on like this for months and months, but alas, all good things must come to an end.
Bruner had to return to the land of pick-up trucks and BBQ, and Alvaro got a job in another city as a comedy writer for late-night TV. All of those jokes finally paid off.
The day before he left, Alvaro took Bruner to her very first Sushi restaurant.
Not only was it her first sushi experience ever, but it was also the best in the city, making Bruner very happy when she finally tasted the more-delicious-than-she-could-imagine-raw-fish, plus she got to eat with chopsticks and we all know that Bruner loves chopsticks. Alvaro knew just what to order to please the palate.
Just as they met at Starbucks and thus began their friendship, so they must also say farewell there and thus begin a new phase - the long-distance friendship. So they went to Starbucks to enjoy one last drink together on the oft visited sofas.
As it turns out, Alvaro really is a deep, sensitive soul. But he just so happens to be a funny one, which is much better than the emotional moody poetic one she originally thought he was.
Bruner was sad to say goodbye to Alvaro, but thankful to have known him, learned from him, laughed with him, and enjoyed his friendship. And when he comes to visit her in the land of pick-ups and BBQ, she'll buy him a drink at Starbucks. :)
Thanks, Alvaro :)
