Leyla & I declared the 14th of November International Happy Day. It really should have been the 13th but by the time we got around to making the official proclamation it was three hours into Sunday & I had to check my phone for the official date. We were at Zablozki's with Sara, in a table in the middle of the room. Our chairs were covered with other people's coats but we were sitting on them anyway. For our own separate reasons Leyla & I had been floating on happy little clouds for hours & Sara was a little bit drunk & also very smiley & we were looking around the bar & it was bathed in a warm sort of light & it was crowded, very crowded. A lot of people were dancing & some of them were quite good. We were looking in particular at a short guy with a big grin who was a dancing machine. It was like his booty refused to not shake. It was like the only thing in the world that mattered to him was a good song, a song he could dance to.
Do you know what that guy is doing, specifically? I said to Sara.
What, she said.
It's called 'cutting a rug,' I said. That is exactly that he is doing. He is cutting a rug & he is also doing a little bit of painting the town red.
Oh! said Leyla. I want to cut a rug too!
As a matter of fact I did too but we didn't; we stayed at our table instead in our happy-day haze. We were sitting on piles of winter coats & I was passing out cigarettes & we were smoking them.
The only thing that was tearing a small snag in the fabric of Happy Day was the presence of S. at Zablozki's. I had broken a date with him earlier that day & then I had told him I couldn't see him anymore. I'd been nice about it, & honest, & quick, but suddenly here he was at my bar on my street & it was throwing me off. I didn't want to say anything to him so I'd been pretending for hours that I hadn't seen him. Sara had just arrived & I filled her in about it. I didn't think it was so awful to ignore someone in a crowded bar but she was appalled. Very decisively she said, You should go over there & say hi to him. I'll be very angry if you don't.
But Sara, I said. I really really don't want to.
Just imagine, she said, if it were you & this guy you liked dumped you, & you saw him in a bar, & he wouldn't even look at you or talk to you. He just acted like you weren't even there. Imagine how sad you would feel. How terrible it would be.
We were both quite drunk & I think we were beginning to mist up a bit.
Could you twist the knife in any deeper? I said, feeling like a shit.
If you don't do it you will break my heart Kato, she said.
OK, I said, resolved. OK. You're right, you're right, you're right.
She's right, I told Leyla, who'd taken my earlier, more ruthless view of the matter. I'm going to have to go over there.
So that is what I did, altho I did wait until the very last minute to do so. & it went very well & it was all very fast & before I knew it I was back at the happy-day table, pulling on my coat & collecting my scarf & my cigarettes because the bar was closing, the lights were already on. & then we were leaving & then we were home.
