Hope from hopelessness

‘Would you like anything else?’

Katja looked up at the waiter.

‘Do you know where my date went?’

‘He’s left.’

‘Left?’

‘When you were absent.’

‘What the …’

‘He’s paid the bill.’

‘But left me sitting here like an idiot.’

‘He was just avoiding the inevitable.’

‘What?’

‘He’d ask for a second date and you’d say no.’

‘So he left?’

‘No-one has ever said yes. So he bailed early. I guess he can tell himself there might have been a faint chance rather than none.’

‘Seriously?’

‘Would you have said yes?’

‘No.’

‘Then he gained a little hope from hopelessness.’ 

A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.