The Reunion dinner

"If God had a name, what would it be, and would you call it to his face?"
-- What if God was One of Us, Joan Osbourne

So this was finally happening. After many postponements by Rom because people were either unavailable or unwilling, this dinner was finally approaching. To be honest, I had always had the mindset that I was going to bail at the last moment, hence when the previous postponements occurred, I didn't really give a damn. In fact, I thought it suited me.

However, this time, as usual I suppose, people were dropping left right and center. Some weren't even replying. And I could see this was causing Rom some stress. So I thought, damn, if I drop out as well, I'm gonna look like a villain. So in the end I decided to bite the bullet and turn up as socially awkward as usual.

The one small thing which did annoy me about Rom was how she took people's words literally when people said "yeah a dinner would be a good idea", not knowing they were just too polite to say "as if I'd waste my time showing up". Also, she always wanted to change the time to suit everyone, so if someone couldn't make it, she'd suggest another date, and what made it worse was the person was deliberately trying to avoid it. I've learnt when it comes to organising shit like this, you just gotta set a date and venue and tell everyone, alright, this is it, if you can make it, good, if you can't, then you can't. But I guess she's just too nice of a person.

So anyway, Friday after work, I went home, got the car and drove back out to the city. I found parking rather easily. I realised I had been chomping on some cheese flavoured Pringles and that my breath might smell, so I went to get a box of tic tacs. After that I called Rom and met up with her and Malcolm for a drink at a bar nearby. I shouted, because, well, it was the least I could do.

So we made some small chat before we headed to the restaurant next door about 15 minutes late. To our disappointment, no one was even there. We sat down and Rom was fretting over where the three of us should sit - together at the end of the table, or spread out? I mean, seriously...

We sat together and not long after, RB and his partner arrived. I had been planning this moment for a bit - do I call him Richard, or do I call him Judge? I had decided on "Mr [surname]". But when we shook hands, I had lost it all, and nothing came out except "nice to see you". Hmpf. Dumb ass.

They sat on the Rom/Malcolm side, which relieved me of any more talking than I had to. I'm always scared of saying the wrong things...especially in front of a judge. There was the usual catch up talk, and I told them I was now at the new work place. Apparently RB's partner knows someone there. So when I mentioned something about the person, I said "yeah I think she's on a different floor", not fully sure of whether it was a he or she. His partner's look kinda changed, and I thought "shit, it's a he!!!" and my face went red. But later on I discovered that it was indeed a she, so maybe the look on face was due to her difficulty in understanding English.

After a while Peter came, and he sat opposite me, and soon he went out to get some wine, lol, such a wine bug. We asked for the food to be served, since there was no point in waiting for the others. The food was pretty nice, and later DC arrived. I always crack a smile when he's around, he's just such a jolly fellow. I watched as he spoke with RB, and realised DC is actually quite good looking. I also listened intently on RB's stories he was telling. He is quite a good story teller.

One moment I will always remember about him during the trial was when we were in our defence rooms, someone said something to him about the case and he walked past me saying bluntly "bullshit!" lol. And he was doing that tonight lol!!! Like an example was, he was talking about house exchange for people who go to other countries for holidays, and he was like "for instance, you can't say 'bull shit' this pillow is dirty" lol.

It turned out that no one else was going to come. Avi said he would, but DC said he never turns up to anything lol. Avi is another person I look up to, as he is quite good in court, but does give off that sense of dodgyness.

Everything went better than I expected, and I loved watching how eloquent and witty Peter was with RB. All these guys are really on such a different level to me, something I'll probably never catch up to. RB and his partner left first, and paid way too much. I didn't even know Rom had already paid!

Peter left not long after that as he had to go back to his wife (Kate) and kids. DC moved to where Peter had been sitting, which made everyone feel more comfy. Remember how I said everyone was on a different level? Well the good thing about DC is he can easily interchange from one level to another, so now he was on our level. He was asking me about my job and seemed quite interested.

We all had dessert and then I drove them all home as they didn't drive. It was nice to finally do something for them, especially DC, who had driven me everywhere during the trial.

I dropped DC off first, and then Rom invited me into her place to check out the cats. She had a surprisingly nice place, and her two cats were very cute. I didn't want to stay for long, so I left soon after.

I drove off, now engulfed by the freedom of a Friday night. I thought about gambling, but didn't want to be seen there for work reasons. I also thought, if anything happened and this came out, it might reflect badly on everyone else, especially RB. I mean, to find out that after my dinner with them I went to the casino just doesn't sound very good.

I thought about going to the shop to see Bibi. I actually drove all the way there, still feeling uncertain. But (luckily) I had a tummy rumble and decided my body wasn't in the mood for it, so I just drove home.