During a gentle lull in a continually pleasing, bubbling up of conversation, we looked beyond our friend’s face and shoulders, to begin a scan, the one that looks for alignment with the baseline requirements of desire. Not hungry, but light — a perusal akin to a picnic breeze. A gaze not hoping to be requited — just a soft appraisal moving through.

As they lean against bar, column or wall, we weigh the bodies and surface scenarios. Some seem fevered, others awkwardly pretending occupation — whilst others seem actually casual. Casual forms are always attractive. As it seems a mystery how anything can truly be so. We try to surmise from the context of clothes and carriage to discern if the nonchalance is genuine or constructed or perhaps carried along by some substance.

But this momentary reconnoiter ends in the bringing of glass to lips and a return to our friend on this gentle July afternoon.