Cut to a few weeks ago: I was eating some stir fried veges in a Malaysian place in the city on a Monday night - sitting about 10 metres back, inside, from the street. I was creating some artworks. I looked up and someone was waving enthusiastically. I could not recognize who it was. She came in. It was her. She told me her name, we bantered a bit and she left. She was wearing pink shorts and a cut-off top and I must say looked pretty good out of the work environment.
A few Sundays later, I decided to go in for a sit down coffee. She was friendly at first - remembering my name - but then suddenly became quite stalted and weird. I shrugged it off. The following week I went in again and she was polite but cold - no eye contact.
I hadn't come on to her in any way or put any pressure on, so it was a bit confusing. If I was younger or had invested any real emotion I might have felt upset. I was miffed and a bit disappointed but shrugged it off - went back to making my art and enjoying my coffee.
She had definitely turned it on originally, then turned it off. Girls like that, I learnt from experience in younger years, are not worth the heartache.
I'll still go in for my coffees on Sundays. Maybe.
Anyway, this artwork is made from a photo of the alley nearby that cafe. I took it after leaving the second time. It was empty. I filled it.