High drama in a bar

Watching people is one of my favourite things to do. Especially in airports, train stations etc. Who are they and where are they going? Bars and restaurants are also fun. And with my vivid imagination everything is really possible. On Monday night in London I saw something that still makes me wonder.

After a late meeting and dinner with some colleagues we decided to do the prepping for next day’s meeting in the corner of the hotel bar (where everybody was staying besides me. In rooms that is. Not in the bar…). I’m sure it looked very ambitious with six people squeezing together in front of a small laptop at 10:30 in the evening…

A man and woman were sitting next to us and suddenly the woman starts crying. First very quiet but as time goes it gets louder and louder. The man next to her just sits there being totally calm and unconcerned, even though he goes and gets her another glass of wine. For a while she calms down, but then she starts crying again. I’m the one sitting closest to them and just to be able to concentrate on what we are talking about I turn my back to them. But now instead I can see the whole dram in the mirror in front of me. She cries, calms down, drinks some wine and starts crying again. In between she blows her nose very loud. All the time the man next to her does nothing. Totally numbed for the waterworks besides getting her a third glass of wine. Looking at my colleagues who can’t turn their backs to the drama I notice how they are having a hard time concentrating as well. Suddenly one of them says – Should we give her a sheet? And all of us crack up.

I left the drama a bit before 11 to go to my (very dodgy) hotel, but according to my colleagues it went on for another hour or so when they left. The next day neither of us could stop wondering what could have caused all those tears. Either he was breaking up with her deciding to do it in a public place to avoid a scene. Can’t say it worked… Or she was begging for forgiveness wanting to come back and he was totally cold about it. Didn’t work either… Or maybe they were not even a couple. That’s why he was so unemotional. We will never know.