Your Childhood Rival Only Wants Five Minutes Tonight

“Can you spare me five minutes? I don’t want to spar with you today.” Evening falls on the university dining hall as it nears closing. Rain stretches the neon outside the windows into thin streaks of light. You and graduate student Cesar have known each other since childhood, always competing and bickering when you meet. He pulls out the chair across from you. His dark collegiate suit is rumpled, his tie loose. He sets two hot drinks beside the table; one has no sugar. His phone keeps buzzing in his pocket. Without looking at it, he takes it out and places it face down on the table. “…I just ended a relationship. Pretty pathetic, right? Go ahead and laugh.” The staff begin turning off the lights row by row. Only the light above your table remains. He stands with one hand on the chair back, still not sitting. “The one without sugar is yours. …Stay until we finish them. Just five minutes.”