Here it goes again…

I ran into myself at a bar last night. It was an unsettling experience to say the least.

“Hello!” he said, quite cheerfully.

“Hello,” I replied, trying to look busy with my phone, “how’s it going?”

“Pretty good actually!” he said, annoyingly cheerily. “I’m just having a few drinks. Care to join me?”

I tried to shuffle away but he wrapped a strong, snake-like arm round my shoulders and guided me to a table. We sat across from each other and he slid a beer towards me, which I sipped grudgingly. A group of girls walked past and he eyed them up with a lofty little smile on his face. One of them glanced at him and he raised his glass in a toast, to which she giggled and returned to her friends.

“You have a girlfriend,” I reminded him.

“I know, but there’s no harm in being friendly,” he laughed.

This was getting on my nerves now. I was ready to stand up from the table and just leave right then but… well, he was irresistibly handsome. I couldn’t do anything but stay.

“So what’s up? You seem a bit weird lately. Not bad weird, just weird weird.”

I sipped on my beer while contemplating the answer. “True. I’m just a bit disillusion at the moment. Don’t worry, give it a month or two and I’ll be normal.”

“Why’re you disillusioned? Watched the back of a magic show again?”

“Smart arse. Remember that party?”

“Oh God yeah. What an awesome night. And morning. Not the best afternoon though.”

“That’s not the point. That walk-”

“-and that epiphany.”

“Yeah, I tried to recreate it.”

He paused in mid sip of his drink. A smile spread across his face.

“You cock. You know how it works. A moment’s all you can ever expect from perfection. Anything else is greedy.”

“Yeah, I know it was stupid. But the feeling’s gone now. I just wanted it back.”

“It’ll come. You know it will.”

“Yeah, I know. Like I said, I’d be better eventually.”

We clinked bottles and finished them off. At that moment a girl wearing a short, thin white skirt came over to our table and flashed a pearly smile at us. Her fingernails were tinted pink and a waft of flowers emanated from her soft blonde hair.

“Excuse me,” she asked, “do you have a cigarette?”

In less than an instant we had both produced cigarettes for her.

“I only need one.” She smiled.

“Yeah,” I said, “but you might need one later.”

“Oh, it’s not for me. It’s for my friend over there.”

“Oh,” my counterpart commented, “take two anyway. As a gift.”

“Thank you!” she giggled. She walked away a few steps before turning on her heel and coming back. “So, tell me, why did you start smoking in the first place?”

There was a pause as I looked at myself, and then, almost synchronised, we both chorused “He has a girlfriend.”

“Oh, ok,” she blushed, “have a good night then.”

And she left.

“My round?” I asked, and left the table to buy more drinks. When I returned he was gone.