Curfew
April 2021 – Cologne – Curfew – 9 pm to 5 am.
People read newspapers. They find out about current events.
It’s only natural to want to know what’s going on in the world you live in.
Personally, I lack this temperament.
Promiflash. This app expands my gossip knowledge.
Of course I get the important things. The thing with Corona, for example. She couldn’t even sneak past me.
In times of the pandemic, we should – no, must! – Dating gives way to caution. So I met Dimitri, 35, an architect, at a safe distance on the street. We went for a walk, drank our colas and pulled each other down.
“Bad with Corona, isn’t it?”
“Mhm, mhm.”
“But your parents are fine so far?”
“Mhm. Yours?”
“Mhm, mhm.”
This went on for about an hour.
Then it became even more uncomfortable, it started to rain.
We were standing outside my front door, so I gave the man without an umbrella shelter – after all, I’m not a monster.
We dried our hair with the only towels I had that hadn’t been damaged by hair dyeing. With our fuzzy heads, we drank green tea and listened to my self-made Spotify Weekend Vibes list.
We were silent until it hurt.
Fortunately, I hadn’t shaved my legs for nothing.
This trash bag should be shot down.
Unfortunately, as many Bachelor episodes have taught me, there are few charming ways to kick someone out of their apartment.
“Well… it’s getting quite late,” I blurted out, knowing full well that even youth hostels were still going strong at this time of night.
“Uh, it’s a quarter past nine.”
“I know it’s still early, but I stupidly have to go to the dentist very early tomorrow and…”
“No.”
“No?! Yes, friend! Yes!”
I could already see myself chasing after him with a rolling pin.
Dimitri laughed sheepishly.
“I mean, I’m afraid I can’t go. At least not until tomorrow morning. There’s a curfew until five. Must have noticed.”
So he stayed.
He slept on the couch, I lay in my bed with knotted cartoon eyes. Wide awake. When he said goodbye at dawn (“I’m off then!” echoed through the hallway), I pretended to be asleep – and I’m really not proud of that.
I slowly realized that I was reading the newspaper.
Even if there was no breaking news about Dimitri’s phlegmatic temperament, it is still advisable to keep yourself informed from time to time.
Writing is her hobby: Sybille Statz from Cologne loves great romances just as much as she loves horror films, cats and 90s series. You can read more of her work in her two short novels “Matches for Real – Das Dating-Desaster” and “After Sunset – Korallenrot” and here.
What does our author Sybille Statz experience when dating? Here you can find the other episodes to read, marvel at and smile about.
Text: Sybille Statz
