Getting It Right for Once

a majority of the details
he worked out days before

the time
the room
the chair he would be sitting in

it was his favorite chair
a baby blue sofa chair he stumbled upon
sitting in front of a duplex down the street
years ago

he didn't drive
so when he found it
he called a cab service to transport it
the five blocks back to his apartment

he fondly remembered having sex
with all of his last three girlfriends
in that chair

good memories
until he kept thinking about them

picking a song proved more difficult

the first one that came to his head was
Love Will Tear Us Apart
by Joy Division

he actually laughed
at how cliché that would be
and decided he was going to have to do
a great deal more thinking

he couldn't pick any song that correlated
with any of those past relationships
or any particular person
or event

this wasn't "a fucking statement"

he finally decided on
We Have All The Time In The World
by Louis Armstrong

it seemed a bit ironic
which is not what he was going for
but ultimately
it was a beautiful song

the perfect song

then
came the hardest part

the glass

looking in his cupboards
he was embarrassed to realize
he had mostly plastic cups

what actual glassware he did have
were pints with brewery logos on them

just more evidence that
he really didn't have his shit together

he made a last minute run
to the Target a quarter-mile away
and there he found the right glass

a short
clear
rocks glass

classy

after returning home from Target
he ordered his favorite pizza delivery
smoked a cigarette
and listened to
npr

the pizza came
he tipped the driver a twenty
ate just enough slices to feel full
and put the rest in the fridge for...

for whoever

he poured a bottle of still water
into his perfect glass
put in the Louis Armstrong cd
and pressed the Repeat 1 button

he sat down in his baby blue sofa chair
and felt relieved

like he was doing the right thing