Working the Room

You’re not half the artist he is, his work hanging, as you well know, in world-ranked museums of modern art not to mention that gallery just off Madison and he’s recently been commissioned for a new design café, I could go on, but what’s the point.

I could introduce you but it’s your responsibility to hold his attention, make yourself interesting, remember why you were invited here in the first place and why you do, in fact, still show up in searches, although no one here sees you, invites you over.

Interesting that you bring your wife to these gatherings, that although you need a bit of help to rise from your chair you still fetch drinks and bites for her from the buffet while she scans the crowd with the look of a bird who has lost its formation en route.

I do see you, might even remember you, checked your work quickly just in case before leaving to come here tonight, and though it’s disappointing to meet the face behind the canvas, like the time I met that author I used to admire, here we both are.

 

Published in Scoundrel Time, October 2024