Sitting on the Bench at the History Museum Downtown

Sitting on the Bench at the History Museum Downtown

I was supposed to meet my boyfriend after work at the little history museum downtown, the one we always walk past. I got there in my office clothes and the lobby was also the hallway of my first apartment. I couldn’t find him and I kept checking my phone, except the time wouldn’t load. A tour group moved through and this man who looked like him, but in a stiff collar like the portraits on the wall, asked if I was lost. We sat on a bench that was somehow the bus stop near my place. He held my hand and I felt that teenage flutter, mixed with guilt, like I was cheating on someone. I wanted to say I missed him even though he was right there. Then the docent called my name for a lecture I hadn’t signed up for and I woke up with that hollow longing.