NaBloPoMo 2021.29 The non-incident in the parking lot

 I have my very first (since COVID) in-person work meeting tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. It's in Connecticut, this meeting, so I'm writing this from the hotel where I'm staying tonight. I drove up here earlier with a colleague. Our plan was to meet in a parking lot at 3:30 this afternoon in Jersey, and then carpool.

When I pulled up to the parking lot, there was one car in the lot. It was a blue minivan and there was a guy in it. 

Similar to this photo, there was
one car in the parking lot where
I was supposed to meet Drew.

Must be Drew, I thought. At least by the process of elimination. For a brief moment, it crossed my mind that the guy in the minivan looked kind of African American and Drew is ... not. But then my mind rationalized that the minivan must have tinted windows or something.

Anyway, I pull up and get out of the car. And the guy is with great certainty a Black man who is not Drew. He rolls down the window and says very kindly, "Can I help you?"

I say, "oh huh, I thought you were someone else who I'm meeting here."

The guy smiles and shrugs. 

I apologize and it's a little embarrassing. I get back in my car and drive around the back of the building where I find Drew in the back parking lot. I get in Drew's car and we pull out. 

When we pass the minivan, the guy and I wave at each other like we're long lost cousins.