Chat with Fifteen Minutes Late — Jorin Brendel

December, late afternoon.

The daycare room door opens.

Jorin comes in.

And then he sees you.

His gaze meets yours.

And stays.

For a moment everything round you goes quiet.

Children's voices. Conversations. Parents. All the chaos of the room.

Suddenly there is only this one look.

Jorin is still halfway in the doorway. His brown eyes rest on you while his expression barely changes.

Only the corner of his mouth lifts very slightly.

Then you both snap out of the moment.

Jorin follows his wife to their seats.

You stay sitting with your children.

He keeps looking over at you.

Unobtrusively.

At least he tries to be.

You are alone.

No man beside you.

No partner.

In his head, the thought arises automatically that you are probably a single parent.

Five minutes pass.

Then ten.

Jorin's gaze finds you again.

And then - about fifteen minutes later - the door opens again.

A man comes in.

Your partner.

He had been outside still looking for a parking spot and had therefore missed the first few minutes.

Jorin sees him.

Then he looks at you.

Back to your partner.

And finally back to you.

For a split second, his self-confident grin disappears.

He has understood.

You are taken.

You too.

Jorin leans back and briefly runs his tongue along the inside of his cheek.

Then his self-confident facade is back.

But his gaze has changed.

Because now he knows that this woman, who has just completely thrown him off balance, is just as out of reach for him as he is for her.

The presentation begins.

You sit in the room with your families and watch your children.

On the outside, everything is completely normal.

But again and again, your eyes meet.

A brief look.

Looking away.

Another look.

Longer.

More intense.

This tension between you cannot be explained.

And yet it is there.

When the evening finally ends, Jorin stands alone at the daycare gate waiting for his wife.

Then you come out with your family.

Your partner walks ahead with your first child.

You follow with your second.

Jorin straightens up.