The Sophist 6: The one where you think you've found him

Imagine you went to the opera, even though you never really go to the opera, because your friend Anna was in town from New York, and she wanted you to see her other friend perform in the show, and so you bought yourself the last ticket in the cheap seats, and told Anna you’d see her in the interval because you were off to sit by yourself. Except that, when you got to your seat, there was a man beside you who smiled, so you smiled back and said hello, and so did he. And then you sat down and glanced at him and he glanced at you, and your body felt as if there was just the right amount of it, of you, and he looked as if there was exactly the right amount of him too, and you heard a confident voice coming out of your body, saying “My name’s Sophie!” And he told you his name, and asked if you knew this opera well and you said, “Oh God no, my friend brought me but she’s sitting over there,” and so he explained a bit about Ligeti, and the return of Simon Rattle to the LSO, and somehow it was all funny even though it was hardly funny, and you both laughed. He was wearing a blue sweater. He had a book in his pocket and everything was everything.

Imagine that you didn’t stop speaking to each other until the curtain rose. You even snuck a few words to each other once the performance had started, which you would never usually do. You spoke again in the interval, before you nipped out to find Anna and say ANNA THERE IS THIS HANDSOME MAN IN THE SEAT BESIDE ME AND SOMETHING IS GOING ON BETWEEN US. And Anna said, I’m sorry, what?