"You need to sleep," she said.

 

"I have work to do," I told her.

 

"Well, then, let me bring you some coffee."

 

I laughed. "You know, I've never had a cup of coffee in my life," I said.

 

"Impossible," she said. "It looks to me like tonight might be a good time to start."

 

"I'll give it a try," I told her, and this seemed to make her happy.

 

While I ate, I glanced through my notebook and tried to reestablish for myself the architecture of the fugue. As always, when I looked at my notes, everything was crystal clear, but when it came time to continue on the score, every potential further step seemed the wrong way to go. Somewhere in the midst of my musing, I pushed my plate away and drew toward me the cup and saucer. My usual drink was tea, and I'd forgotten I had changed my order. I took a sip, and the dark, bitter taste of black coffee startled me. I looked up, and there was Anna, staring at me, having just lowered a cup away from her lips. In her eyes I saw a glint of recognition, as if she were actually seeing me, and I'm sure she saw the same in mine.

 

I whispered, "I see you."

 

She smiled. "I see you too," she said.

 

I would have been less surprised if a dog had spoken to me. Sitting dumbfounded, I reached slowly out toward where she seemed to sit across from me in the booth. As my hand approached, she leaned back away from it.

 

"I've been watching you for years," she said.

 

"The coffee?" I said.

 

She nodded. "You are a synesthete, am I right?"

 

"Yes," I said. "But you're a figment of my imagination, a product of a neurological anomaly."

 

Here she laughed out loud. "No," she said, "you are."

 

After our initial exchange, neither of us spoke. I was in a mild state of shock, I believe. "This can't be," I kept repeating in my mind, but there she was, and I could hear her breathing. Her image appeared even sharper than it had previously under the influence of the coffee ice cream. And now, with the taste that elicited her presence uncompromised by cream and sugar and the cold, she remained without dissipating for a good few minutes before beginning to mist at the edges and I had to take another sip to sharpen the focus. When I brought my cup up to drink, she also did at the same exact time, as if she were a reflection, as if I were her reflection, and we both smiled.

 

"I can't speak to you where I am. They'll think I've lost my mind," I whispered.

 

"I'm in the same situation," she said.

 

"Give me a half hour and then have another cup of coffee, and I'll be able to speak to you in private."

 

She nodded in agreement and watched as I called for the check.

 

By the time the waitress arrived at my booth, Anna had dissolved into a vague cloud, like the exhalation of a smoker. It didn't matter, as I knew she couldn't be seen by anyone else. As my bill was being tallied, I ordered three cups of coffee to go.

 

"That coffee is something, isn't it?" said the waitress. "I swear by it. Amazing you've never had any up to this point. My blood is three-quarters coffee, I drink so much of it," she said.

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