"Is This Seat Taken?"

He walked through the doors not entirely sure why hed had bothered to show up in the first place. He really hated events like this. He could've been sitting at home in his underwear watching a stupid movie while eating popcorn. He was tired after a day of work, but he had gone home, showered and even put on cologne. He'd gotten into his car and driven 30 minutes into town and had reached the little bookshop and parked around the corner. He looked around the room. There were hipsters everywhere. Short fringes, nose rings, people talking about veganism. It really wasn't his scene. A middle aged man wearing a checkered wool suit tapped lightly on the microphone in front of the rows of chairs. It made a 'thump thump' sound and the man blushed. "I guess it's on! And so is the event. So if you'd please take a seat." People sat down. He scanned the room again but an old lady started chatting to him and distracted him. "Are you a fan too?" she asked, politely trying to make conversation while everybody found a seat. "Ehm, not really." he answered still looking around. His heart started beating faster and he was getting a bit nervous the longer he looked. "Oh... Why are you here then? Just interested?" the old woman asked him. He was too busy looking around to answer her. "Such a lovely sweater you have on," she continued: "- who knitted it for you?" "Ehm, no one. I bought it." Still looking, heart beating. "Oh, yes." the old woman chuckled. "You young people buy everything nowadays." She sat back in her seat and folded her hands and smiled. "Yeah, I guess." he said and sat back too and sighed. "Were you waiting for somebody, dear?" the woman asked and smiled at him. "Not really. I mean, kind of." "You're a man of few and vague words." the old woman said and continued: "You never know, she might suddenly show up." He looked at the old woman who shrugged her shoulders with a smug look on her face. "How do you know it's a she?" he asked her. "It was quite easy to guess, my dear." the old woman said and looked straight ahead. He was just about to kindly ask her to mind her own business when somebody gently tapped him on the shoulder and a soft female voice said: "Hey, is this seat taken?" and his heart stopped for a split second.