After work, I meet Madeline at Mozart’s, a cool coffee shop on Lake Austin Boulevard that overlooks the water. It’s got plenty of outdoor seating but I’m happy that she’s snagged us an indoor table. I don’t mind the summer, but Austin is under a heat advisory warning and it’s hard to find 100+ degrees pleasant.
I set my bag down and then go to order an Italian Soda, raspberry, and talk myself out of one of the many enticing desserts in the display counter. We’re meeting up to write, a routine we started more than three years ago that has changed with the seasons. Actually, I can’t believe it’s been that long, but it has, spanning over a few different coffee shop meetups. Mozart’s is new for us, due to her recent move, and the time is new too, right after work so she can stay downtown and wait out the traffic.
Our writing meetups typically go like this: a couple of minutes of catch up and hellos and then an hour of writing on our own projects across the table from one another. It’s accountability, but our friendship has grown through and outside of these writing meetings. It was at one coffee meet up that she asked me to be in her wedding a couple of years ago – a joy and a surprise.
We haven’t done too much sharing of each other’s work, but she will be one of the first readers when I’m done with my current draft. And the work of hers I’ve read is wonderful and funny. She has a satirical, sometimes dark, sense of humor that I love.
As I think about my own writing, the ups and downs, I can see these meetups as a thread that kept me connected to writing when I would otherwise pull away. I’m grateful.
With Love,
Natalie