You are sitting in a nice restaurant, checking the clock on the wall for what feels like the thousandth time since you arrived. You were supposed to meet your date forty-five minutes ago. Surely the wait staff will make you give up your table soon.

Humiliated, you reach for your bag, about to admit defeat when a man approaches from the bar area. He gestures toward the seat across from you.

"Excuse me. Is this seat taken?"