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“Closing time!” the pub proprietor called out.
“Is it really that late?” Sybbie sighed.
“Come on, we should get home,” Sally said, gesturing toward the door.
“I’ll be right there,” Sybbie said.
Sybbie checked around their table, and then grabbed her purse to go.
Walking out the door, she saw the shadow of a man a few feet away, coming closer, and swung her purse at him, which he deflected.
“Sybbie!” It was Charlie.
“Charlie!” she exclaimed. “You didn’t tell me you were back from Italy! I should hit you again for that!”
Charlie kissed her. “I missed you, too. But I swear, they didn’t tell me I’d be back here until an hour ago. And you know how they are about telling us anything ahead of time.”
He offered her his arm. “Care for a walk?”
It was a crisp spring evening, and with the lights off everywhere, they could see the stars.
“That would be lovely,” she replied.
Sally was waiting nearby, and noticed Charlie with her.
“Sybbie, should I head on back?”
“Yes, I’ll see you in the morning, Sally.”
Sally headed off in the opposite direction toward their shared apartment.
“So…” Charlie began as they started walking.
“I am glad to see you again,” she said, pressing up against him. “But you’re not done yet, are you?”
“Of course not. I’m just done in Italy, I guess. They’ve pretty much got that secured.”
Sybbie sighed. They had plans of getting married, but she had decided they needed to wait until things settled down. It was obvious that wasn’t happening yet.
“How much time until you’re flying again here?” she asked him.
“You probably know more than I do. They can wait until we’re getting into the planes to tell us what to do, but they can’t hold off on fixing the planes.”
“Well, in that case, maybe we have a few days to enjoy this time.”