The Coffee

Short Story Day 57 of 365

Photo by chico明 on Pixabay

Tim and Russ hadn’t seen other since they were roommates in college 25 years ago.

They hadn’t planned to lose track of each other; it just happened. In fact, right before they parted ways after graduation, they exchanged home addresses and phone numbers so at least each of their parents had the correct address and phone numbers at any given time.

But the years passed and they did catch up those first two years, near the New Year holiday and only a quick 10-minute call at that.

Then email came along, and that seemed to change everything. People who weren’t accessible before showed up in your inbox, that is, if they could find your address.

But as the internet matured, so did the ways of finding someone. If you had a common name, for example, the chances of you being found was still slim. If, however, there are only ten of you with the same name, then anybody could find you.

So it was with Tim and Russ.

Tim Smith is an extremely common name to have and there are 27,000 in the United States alone.

Russ Ginart, on the other hand, is a very rare name despite the simplicity of the surname.

Married with three grown children and all of them at college, Tim was growing more nostalgic as an empty-nester, so he hit the search engines looking for old high school and college buddies.

How did they do in life?

Or better yet, how where doing in life compared to me?

The email Tim sent Russ was cordial, first to see if this was same Russ Ginart he had known at college and then to see if there was any interest in reconnecting.

Hi Russ!

Long time no see, buddy. This is the same Russ Ginart that roomed with me at Marsbury University, isn’t it? I see you’re in the Dallas Fort Worth area. So am I.

Let me know if you want to grab a coffee some time to catch up.

Tim ‘Smitty’ Smith

214-555-2203

Three days later, an email from Ginart, RG showed up in Tim’s inbox.

Tim,

Great to hear from you. Yep, same Russ! Life’s hectic around here lately. Crazy busy.

Sorry, I don’t drink coffee. We’ll catch up later.

Russ

“Bummer,” Tim thought. “Just bummer.”