WE AGREED TO meet on Yehuda ha-Levi Street. I couldn’t find parking nearby so I settled for a side alley where I knew they didn’t give parking tickets. It was my first time back in Tel Aviv since moving south, and I admit the mere thought of dodging parking officers made my heart flutter with joy, as if it attested to my return to a more advanced civilization. Nicolai insisted we sit at some new sandwich place, texting that they had the best roast beef in Tel Aviv. When I got there he was already sitting at the bar, holding a beer glass in his wide hands. I sat down beside him. I extended my hand, but he had other plans.

“A handshake, bro?” he said and lunged at me with a big hug. I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of the gesture. Nicolai was taller than I had remembered, over six foot three. He had short blond hair and thick black-rimmed glasses. He wore a buttoned-up yellow shirt and purple plaid shorts. Fashion isn’t my strong suit, but even I could tell it didn’t look right.

The menu was handwritten on the wall, but I wasn’t hungry so I just ordered a Coke and a glass of water.

Nicolai asked how long it took me to get there.

“Almost three hours,” I said, and showed him on my phone where the farm was, but I saw he didn’t really understand.

“I can’t believe you drove whole way to see me,” he said, and slapped me on the back. “You know that is my dream? To move to kibbutz when I’m your age? A quiet life, the outdoors. What more could a person want from life?” I nodded in hesitant agreement, preferring to spare us both from the dreary conversation about the differences between life on a kibbutz and a homestead out in the desert.

He began to vent his frustration about the company. I assumed it would only be a matter of minutes before we could move on to the subject that actually interested me, but it wasn’t that simple. Nicolai wouldn’t stop talking about his problems. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. He kept jumping from one subject to another, one moment talking about his difficulties as a development manager and the other about a new Vietnamese restaurant that opened in front of the office.