When the flight was delayed a second time, Dalia stopped counting messages on the screen and began walking laps of the small airport. On her third circuit, a man from the coffee queue asked whether she was training or looking for an exit. She said she was trying not to eat a third sandwich out of boredom. He displayed his second and suggested she warn him before he crossed that line too. His name was Leon, he was forty six, and he was traveling to visit his brother.
Dalia was going to a job interview. She was not certain she wanted the job. In her hometown she had an apartment, friends, and a relationship that had ended neatly only on paper. Leon said he had recently broken off an engagement. They could have turned the conversation into a competition over whose past was harder, but a boy dropping a ball beneath a bench interrupted. They helped find it and afterward discussed things less like opening statements before a court.
They discovered both disliked voice messages longer than a minute, that she liked cold pizza, and he read a book's ending before its beginning. Dalia said the last was a serious flaw. Leon defended himself so badly that she thought she would like to hear his other unsuccessful defenses. When a new departure time was announced, she felt no relief. She looked at her ticket and realized they were seated at opposite ends of the aircraft, which suddenly seemed an unnecessary administrative separation.
Before boarding they exchanged numbers. Leon said he did not want to promise a call merely because the airport had created a pleasant pause in the day. He genuinely wanted to call her. Dalia replied that she would answer but might have no interesting report after the job interview. He said a boring one interested him too. On the flight, she nevertheless opened her interview notes. She did not want the possibility of a new relationship to make her forget why she had set out.
She declined the job but accepted Leon's call. They talked briefly, then again the next day. Once home, they arranged a walk through a neighborhood both knew, without delays, travel bags, or the special lighting of departures. Their conversation paused several times. Leon was quieter than at the airport; Dalia was more tired. Still, at the end she suggested another circuit of the park. He accepted. They did not have to reproduce the coincidence to discover whether there was something they could also choose entirely deliberately.