Like Jason Bourne

Ever since the last time my mum made tuna and butterbean bake, I have not been anything but incredibly excited for each and every meal. But today I was especially looking forward to re-fuelling, because one of executives from the corporate office had invited me out to lunch.

The lunch was scheduled for noon, so in the interest of punctuality I made my way down the lobby at 11.50. While I was waiting, I realized that perhaps we were supposed to be meeting at the reception on the corporate floor. AM became PM and there was still no sign of my man, so I headed upstairs. The reception area of the corporate floor was occupied by three ladies dressed in blue and the receptionist – none of whom had invited me out to lunch, as far as I was aware – so I talked to the latter who agreed to phone the executive’s assistant. Just as she was punching in the numbers, the man I was after slid through a side door that was behind me and marched straight into an elevator! I turned faster than Michael Jackson at his peak, but reached the elevator bank as the doors were agonizingly closing. The chase was on.

I hustled into the next elevator and fully expected to run into my dining partner in the lobby. But the man had not lingered for a second and was now leaving the building and hastily making his way down the street! I set off in pursuit. At this point I was well aware that the lunch arrangement was made three weeks ago and we hadn’t corresponded since, so there was a good chance that he had forgotten or something more important had come up. Furthermore, I had never been told what restaurant we were eating at, so if he was assuming I had already left (thinking we were meeting at the restaurant), how did he suppose I would know where to go?  But I decided I would follow him anyway.

It was not easy. He was now walking so fast he was practically running and as he turned onto Michigan Avenue I lost sight of my quarry. Turning the corner myself, I had to scan the crowd for a man in a suit whilst keeping my own speed up so he didn’t get further away. I managed to locate him but he was almost a block ahead of me, meaning that any slip up would almost certainly mean losing sight of my man for good. I had to up my pace further and I was now motoring across the asphalt like an Olympic walker (minus the silly arm movements). This was great. As I chased a smartly dressed businessman across a major city I felt like Jason Bourne.  

Several minutes later - with dramatic music now cascading through me head - I slowed myself down. He had been held up by stop lights and I did not want to appear abruptly at his side – if, as I suspected, the lunch was no longer on and he was rushing somewhere else, then it would have seemed a little creepy and certainly rather pathetic that I had followed him out of the office and all the way down the street. Eventually he dived into a restaurant and a few seconds later I appeared next to him by the front desk. We shook hands and had a great lunch. 

I felt like Jason Bourne for a short time today.