A night after a day at work at the embassy

He picked another application form. This one was for a new passport. He threw to one side in disgust. He had four more forms in his bag he had carefully sneaked in from the embassy office while leaving work today. This form turned out to be a stupid mistake. He took another one and gave it the same fate. Peter was a man in his late 40s. The picture of the girl in the third application form he picked was rather pretty. He recalled the conversation she had had with him. He thought he was charming. She had not heard his time-tested jokes before. The “Can I have a picture of you for myself?” was a winner, he thought. She was 24 years and 8 months old. He noted down the address and also scanned for any other useful information. He messaged her, “Good night, sweet one”. For a few minutes after that, his heart pumped like hell. It was another brave attempt to escape the inglorious decline to old age. A flicker of a hope that he still had the appeal, and she, the innocence. But there was no response. The world has become too skeptical, too averse to adventure of any sorts. He stared into his mobile screen for a few minutes. “I will keep trying”, he thought to himself