“Let’s do lunch sometime!” an acquaintance says in an appropriate moment in the conversation—as both of us are leaning toward goodbye.

“Oh yes, let’s!” I respond and a moment of hesitation overcomes me. When? Where? Is this going to happen?

This is where I want to blurt out—how about next Wednesday? Noon? I’ll choose. But I let the decision fall silently back to our minds, perhaps putting a mental slot in our calendars—keep a lunch open for us.

But yet what about the times when an invitation is really a polite courtesy? An invitation is a sign of it was great seeing you again, but I only said lunch because it seemed like an appropriate way to say goodbye. It’s so much more better than saying “See you later.”

I am a closer. I hear the lingering indecision. I want to make it happen. In the last week, I have heard lunch, dinner, concerts, cat visiting, parks, bread bakery visits, bike rides but the decisions linger. And then about a year later, when we pass again, it’s why did that never happen?