An unseen piano player in some other part of the restaurant was tinkling away a familiar tune. ‘What song is that?’ Sarah wondered. It sounded like it might be a Beatles song, maybe one written by George Harrison. He was always her favorite Beatle…
Sarah silently scolded herself for her moment of distraction. Gus was leaning across the table towards her, one arm outstretched as if waiting for her to place her hand in his. He was obviously saying something important. She could tell because he kept breaking eye contact to stare at the tablecloth. Sarah tried to pull her attention back to Gus when it hit her.
Here, There, Everywhere! She knew it was a Beatles song! Sarah tried to recall if she had ever heard this particular song played by a piano soloist before. She shoveled another forkful of chocolate silk pie into her mouth and concluded that no, she had never heard the song played quite like this before. This pianist was pretty good.
“…so as I was saying, these past six months with you have been wonderful. That’s why I brought you here tonight.” Gus was looking at her with eyes the size of dinner plates. Sarah realized he was waiting for her to say something.
“Oh, Gus. Yeah, things have been great. You’re a lot of fun to hang out with. Still, I can’t believe you took me to Farro’s. It’s way to pricey.”
Gus’s eyes went back to the tablecloth. Apparently her response wasn’t quite the one he was looking for. “You’re worth it, you know,” he muttered between spoonfuls of champagne sorbet. “It’s our six-month anniversary. I wanted it to be special.”
His arm lingered on the table, flat and still like an unused salad fork. She reached out and gave his hand a quick squeeze. “Everything is great, Gus, just great.”
They finished their desserts in silence. The music had stopped. Sarah decided the pianist must have gone on a break or something. As the silence between she and Gus grew longer and more awkward, she began to pick up fragments of conversation from the nearby tables.
The couple in the corner were engaged in a debate over sending their child to public or private school. At another table, an Asian family loudly chattered in a rapid language that Sarah thought might be Mandarin, but she couldn’t say for sure. Laughter from a number of tables fluttered around the restaurant and seemed to hover all around her. As a busboy hurried past with a basket of bread, Sarah distinctly heard the swish-swish of his pants as they brushed against his apron.
Gus was focused on his sorbet. His head was lowered so closely to the dessert dish, Sarah thought he could lose the spoon and just shove his whole face in there. She swore she could even hear him slurping away at the sorbet. She couldn’t bear to look at him again until he was finished with it.
Silverware clattered to the floor as the busboy dropped a tray. The laughter in the room changed from the kind shared privately between couples to a slightly more mocking kind. All the sounds seemed to rise in volume. Swish-Cackle-Slurp. A knife scraped across a plate like nails on a blackboard. Swish-Cackle-Slurp.
Sarah could stand it no longer. Where in the world was the piano player? She started to get up from her chair. She was going to find the manager and…and…
Suddenly all was quiet. Sarah turned to Gus and found him next to the table, kneeling in the aisle on one knee. He held a hinged velvet box out to her as he looked up with watery eyes.
The conversations at all the other tables stopped. All the eyes in the room were on the two of them, on her! Sarah fell back into her seat and raised a hand to her face to conceal the shock that she was experiencing.
“Sarah, I have something I want to ask you.”
This can’t be happening! Not here! Not now! Not…Gus! Sarah closed her eyes tight in the hopes that when she opened them, Gus would be just sitting there, slurping up his sorbet.
But Gus was still on one knee, still reaching out to her, still wanting to ask her a question. Sarah could feel the expectant eyes of those around her. This was too much to take.
“I’m sorry, Gus.”
The words came out of her mouth before Sarah even knew she had said them. She leapt from her chair and started running. Everything was moving in slow motion.
Just then, the unseen pianist began to play. Finding her way to the door, Sarah paused, thinking, ‘What song is that? It sounds so familiar.’
She opened the door and never looked back.