I met an old friend for lunch a couple weeks ago.
I hadn’t seen him in a long time and I was psyched to get together and catch-up on things.
My friend is a successful business man and he told me that he only had an hour for lunch because he’s very busy.
I said, “No problem. It will be great to even spend even an hour together. We’ll just make the most of it. I’m looking forward to spending some time with you.”
We met at noon.
Of the hour we had together, my friend spent at least forty-five minutes of it talking to other people on his cell phone.
He took calls from clients… from his boss… from his wife… from his secretary… from a vendor… from more clients… from co-workers… from his boss again… while I sat there with no one to talk to and eating my lunch all by myself.
As soon as he got off one call, he’d get another, holding up his index finger and mouthing, “Just a minute… I’m sorry, this is important, I have to take this. Sorry, Paul…”
We never even got the chance to talk.
At the end of lunch I said, “That was great. Can we meet here again next week… same time?”
He said, “Sure. See you next week.”
Exactly one week later, just after 12:00 noon, I got a call at my house.
It was my friend.
He said, “Hey, I’m at the restaurant, where are you?”
I said, “I’m home.”
He said, “You’re home? What are you doing at home?”
I said, “I’m eating a sandwich.”
He said, “Why are you home eating a sandwich? We were supposed to meet at noon.”
I said, “I know, but last week you were so rude I figured that this was the only way I could get you to talk to me.”
He said, “Great. Now I’m sitting here all by myself like an fucking idiot.”
I said, “Really? Doesn’t that suck? I know how it feels… So, what’s new? How’s the family?”
