A fire burned against the brick wall.

Outside, a few flakes of snow drifted between the streetlights without settling.

The hostess seated me at a table for two.

I told myself the second place setting didn’t matter.

Then I asked the server to remove it.

“Excuse me,” a man’s voice said a few minutes later.

“The hostess says the wait for a table is forty minutes.”

He wore a gray wool coat, and his dark hair was silver at the temples.