THE PIZZERIA WHAT UP AND LEFT...

** Warning! Melodrama ahead. **

So I was at Forbidden Planet the other day, checking out the latest comic books I had no intention of buying. After exiting Forbidden Planet, I walked up a block to Union Square, then hung a left at the Virgin Megastore. (Prior to checking out all the latest comic books I had no intention of buying, I stopped here at the Virgin Megastore, where I perused the various discounted DVD's, which I also had no intention of buying.) Money still in my pocket, I was going to stop by this pizza place where I had lunch almost every day last summer. This would have been summer 2002, when I was still employed by NYU Press.

To my surprise, my once-favorite cozy little pizza place was now under new management. The change had taken place sometime in the last year. Whether it had been a sudden upheaval or a gradual phasing out of the old guard remains a mystery. What cannot be denied, though, is that the small group of Asian staffers who once worked there were now gone. That included this cute Chinese girl who always stood behind the cash register.

It's actually kind of funny. Since I got food there every day, I started saying hello, expressing pleasantries. One day she informed me that we lived on the same block in Brooklyn. As people who have gotten to know each other tend to do, I asked her when her shift ended, and offered to walk her home. She gave me this slightly askew look, and asked if I had a job. I told her I was an office monkey for NYU Press. Then she asked me if I was still in college. I told her I had graduated NYU. She quickly shook her head and said, Sorry, I prefer to go home by myself.

Now contrary to what the newspapers may have reported, I did not go stalker on her. Nor did I pursue her any further, seeing as how I still had every intention of eating there every day. The food, after all, was very good and reasonably priced. For the remaining month I worked at NYU Press, the cashier girl and I stayed on friendly terms.

Still, I sometimes wonder what went wrong. Was it the office monkey bit? Was it the NYU? Maybe she thought I was too good for her, given my much-vaulted education, and her being just a lowly pizzeria worker. I probably should have mentioned that I delivered pizzas for two years myself, and that there is nothing shameful in it. Or maybe it was just because I'm a green man.