The set of characters.
1. Eva. At the end of her mid twenties. Greg. The man who is fascinated with her, is at the end of his mid 40's, & greying.
They see each other often, late in the evenings, til late in the night, 'til the bars close shop.
They talk. They drink, & they talk. They go for long drives, without music. They lay on the grass, on blankets, with poetry & wine, and contemplate silently, separately. They go to riverside towns. They drink on the rooftop-bars of the respectable adult society.
They toast & make friendly banter with a CNN reporter, a doctor, a wife, and a somebody else. The man is charming & polite. It looks like they're going to be bantering small idle talk all evening before dinner, so his girl, is bored, and so, charmingly & decisively, says, "Babe, there's space over by the water, let's go sit." Lovebirds, you know. And to the crowd of old boring fogies, "It was such a pleasure to meet you. Have a wonderful rest of the evening." She names their names. And then she smiles at the man, and takes his hand, and leads them away from proper society's summer-dressed folk.
They sit. He says, he thinks what she just did, was so cool. He would've never done that. He would've just gritted his teeth and bullshitted & smiled his time through hanging with these boring people.
She is secretly angry. He took her here as a surprise. Dinner reservation. She wasn't prepared & was rocking her artist black jeans, and an art print on her t-shirt. She looked practically like a young teenager about to go off to college, while he had a casual blue summer button-down. He fit right in with this aging, suburban bourgeois yacht scene. She looked right out of East Village. He liked her for the rebellion he perceived, that he highlighted & enforced by context.
They're happy anyway, strangely enough. The evening is beautiful. The city is both far away, & close.
Next week, things would be different. Next week, she would be having coffee with his ex-wife.
Next week this would be over, and they would never see each other other again.