The Meeting

The three men are sitting at the table, two older men, one younger man. The younger man is delivering a pitch. He's selling something. He is prolific, intense, ambitious. He has a goal. But the older men have the money. The young man talks very quickly and smiles often. The older men do not smile. They listen judiciously, adjust their spectacles. It is raining hard and the rain is cascading off the edge of the roof but they are oblivious to the rain. At the table behind them, a young woman, half Chinese in appearance, sits with her shapely legs crossed, talking on her phone, oblivious to the men and to the rain and to the drumming of the rain on the table umbrellas.