The Ticking Watch

She sat awkwardly ankles crossed, glancing frequently at her left hand. Was she early or was he late? Her immaculately manicured fingernails strummed edgily on the half empty lipstick stained chardonnay glass.

"Another glass of wine ma'am?" said the waiter, nodding his head condescendingly.

With a fake smile and the shake of a head she brushed him away and returned to her job of actively waiting for her date to arrive. Surrounding her table the restaurant hummed with the gentle sounds of chatter and laughter accompanied by the mellow tunes of the jazz quartet playing in the corner. But all she heard was the persistent beat of her ticking watch. Feeling somewhat nervous she took another sip of her chardonnay and re-adjusted the clip in her hair, which in fact made no difference what so ever to her appearance but somehow protruded a sense of satisfaction on her face.

Couples were all around the restaurant, encircling her table. She sunk a little in her chair so as not to draw attention to herself and the empty seat opposite her. The only thing that brought comfort was the exciting possibility of rekindling a past love. It had been quite some time since her last date but the fact that she was seeing her ex-husband this night made it a little less scary. She was over the moon when he called her up to arrange the date, truth be told, she longed for the security of a relationship again. It's not that she loved to clean and serve or even cook for the man, but she loved to be needed. She needed to be needed. For this very reason, the separation had been very tough to deal with and to temporarily fill this void during her separation she had become increasingly dependent on others in her life.

She'd often confide in her close friends over these relationship blues, or she'd confide in her not so close friends. In fact pretty much anyone who'd listen she'd confide in. Her therapist narrowed it down to:

"Depression— you're moving into a difficult stage of your life, it's only natural you're feeling so needy." He'd say

Her Chinese acupuncturist concluded: "your yin and yang need balance! No balance mean great upset."

And her accountant said based on her financial situation he wasn't surprised she wanted a husband again. Oddly enough none of these answers seemed to be right.