This morning as I waited for my take-away coffee I couldn’t help but overhear a woman say something I have never heard before.
She was about 30, sitting by herself at a table staring at her iPhone. She was doing that thing where she continually looked up at nothing and then down at her phone. Then her friend came blustering in. Her hair, handbag and umbrella all going in different directions in her rush.
“Ooh. Sorry I’m late.”
I didn’t look up from the newspaper I was flicking through as I had heard that line so many times before.
“You’re always late.”
The friend wasn’t joking. The delivery was as steely as The Sydney Harbour bridge. I looked up. This was all going in an unexpected direction.
Holly Wainwright, Jessie Stephens and I argue about the politics of lateness on this week’s episode of Mamamia Out Loud. Post continues below.
“Well, I’m really late today. Sorry.”
That”s not going to help, I thought. The late-comer seemed very busy organising herself as she sat down and that’s why she must have missed the tone in her friend’s voice, who spoke again.
“Yeah. You’re always late.”
What? The truth and no vodka in sight.
Here was someone right in front of me telling it straight to her friend. Someone who didn’t say, “That’s okay. I had to catch up on some emails anyway … YADA YADA SEETHE YADA BIG HUGE SEETHE. How are you anyway?”