She considered declining, but Michael’s odd request provided her with the rare opportunity to forgo lunch with her boss, who always ordered the most expensive dishes on the menu and then insisted they split the bill. She told Michael she would have an hour-long break during the seminar, to which he replied that he wouldn’t need more than that. He gave her the address of a café, asked her not to talk about their impending meeting, and once again ended their conversation abruptly. She tried to continue watching TV, but couldn’t stop wondering what he wanted from her. Even if she wouldn’t admit it, this sudden interest that crept into her life was not unsatisfying.

3.

THEY AGREED TO meet at one of those health cafés Tamara was sure existed only in Tel Aviv. It started to drizzle on her way there, and she wondered whether it was a good or bad sign. She sat at a window-side table. The walls were covered in light green wallpaper scribbled with tips for good living: “Switch to Soy, Go with the Flow, Communication Is Key.” She had no intention of implementing any of them. In honor of the occasion, she wore a thin gold necklace with an antique coin pendant, which she now played with, sliding it from side to side.

He arrived wearing the black jacket from the photos, sat in front of her, and smiled.

“Pretty swanky for lunch in Hadera,” she smirked. “Add a top hat and you’d look like a bona fide English gentleman.”

He laughed and said he had left his pipe at home. He signaled to the waiter and ordered a spicy shakshouka with homemade bread. She felt like ordering the same thing but chose the lentil salad. The waiter cleared the menus, and the first thirty minutes of their conversation were dedicated to her impressive-but-entirely-made-up career aspirations and to his decision to move to Germany.

“I started toying with the idea the summer before I moved,” he said, and told her he had spent the entire month of August on Rothschild Boulevard, two tents away from Daphni Leef. He had been hoping the protest would finally change things in the country, but once the tents had been taken down he realized that wasn’t about to happen. Had she been in a more argumentative mood, she would have told him he sounded like a soccer fan who switches teams after one loss. But she wasn’t.

“You want to explain why we’re here?”

“It’s kind of complicated,” he replied.

“Hence the explain.”

He silently dipped his fork into the tomato sauce and dragged it over some egg white. “I wasn’t supposed to be here yesterday,” he said, and looked up at her.

“No one’s ever supposed to be in Hadera,” she said, happy when she got a laugh out of him.