Last Minute Descisions.

Henry checked his watch, he was a few minutes late, so of course his good friend Tom was already halfway into his meal. Sliding into the booth he waved down a waitress and quickly ordered his meal.

Henry looked across the table at his best friend, watching him eat a steak like it was his last meal. “Sorry I’m late, man, I cannot wait till the weekend! Got any weekend plans Tom?”

Tom stopped gorging himself, and swallowed a mouthful before he responded, “No, I was just thinking on that, you know... I want to do something wild an unexpected”

Henry laughed, “I think that is the funniest joke I ever heard you say!” Tom was not known for doing anything out of the ordinary, he always stuck to a pattern, that he followed religiously.

“I’m completely serious! I was thinking I should like to travel, maybe visit, another country”

“In one weekend? By the time you got there, you would have to turn around, your whole weekend would be spent flying and getting nowhere”

Tom shook his head, and swallowed his food “I would stay for a month, but I’m thinking, I would leave this weekend.”

Henry was in utter disbelief and began to worry his friend might be ill, this was much to out of character. “Tom are you okay? You’re not dying are you?”

Now Tom was laughing “I’m no closer to dying then you are. But think about it! My life is so dull, even you think I’m too predictable... I’m to comfortable, it’s time to test my limits, have a little excitement, you know?”

Henry, did not know. He decided, Tom’s confession was just talk, he’d never act on any of these crazy plans. But just for fun, he started listing off some wild ideas.

“Ok so one month, in another country, doing what? jumping out of planes? taking up art? learn the language? trying new foods? But really though! Even I know, idea’s like this take time to plan, not three days?

Tom shrugged “That’s the easy part” He set his phone on the table, and opened the maps app, without looking, he placed his finger randomly on the screen, a mechanic voice stated the name of the country he had touched.. “Ireland”

“Tom grinned at his friend “Looks like I’m going to Ireland”

Henry scoffed “There may not be any available flights open with such short notice” Tom picked his phone back up and began typing, he stopped for a moment and looked back up to his friend “Wanna come with me?”

“I mean that’d be great, but-” Tom cut him off “Great! that’s settled I found several different open flights, and guess what! They are really cheap because of my last minute decision!”

Henry had to be dreaming, there was no way he was hearing Tom right, should he talk him out of this? Or let him have this adventure? What if Tom changed his mind on the plane? He might have a panic attack, not only that, apparently he was going as well.

Was he supposed to pay half, or was Tom being generous?

“Its booked!”

They had already gone this far, so Henry gave in “What about a place to stay?”

Tom chuckled almost manically “Oops that would help, wouldn’t it!” He went back to typing on his phone. “Wow there is lots of Air Bnb’s, but here is a cheap one with good reviews, that should do right?”

Henry now fully invested in this venture, said. “Well, how long do you want to stay, do you want to travel and see the sights in a single town or see several?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never done this before. What would you do?”

“Since this is your first time, let’s just book a week, then we can ask the locals, and find a new place to stay, from there.”

Tom was getting excited “What should I pack?”

“Start with the amenities you use daily, find out what's allowed on the plane, and see what the Air Bnb offers. If they have a washing machine, you won’t need as much clothes... But Tom. I just thought, what are we going to do about work? We can’t leave on such short notice”

Tom had a brief moment of panic, he had already booked and paid for lodging and tickets, but then he realized all would be well. “I never taking my vacation time, so I can use it whenever I want, I’ll be fine, and I’m sure you’ll be fine too. Just tell them like it is, it was a last minute descision, and you can’t back out, the tickets are non-refundable”

Glancing at his watch, Henry shook his head in disbelief. “Yeah, no kidding! I got here at five after, and it’s only 12:08” He glanced again “Okay 12:09, but how?”

Tom shrugged “I don’t know, maybe it was the food I ate, speaking of which, where is your food? It should be here by now.”

Not able to help himself Henry nearly shouted “Tom! I haven’t even been here five minutes!”

“Well I hope it comes soon, you are obviously getting, what they call; Hangry”

What had Henry gotten into? This was supposed to be a lunch break with his buddy. But somehow Tom had lost his mind, and dragged him into the mess. Now he couldn’t back out if he wanted to, and someone needed to follow this guy, to make sure he didn’t get into any trouble. But hopefully all would go well, and hey! He had to go home and pack now, this trip could be just what they both needed. As long as he still had a job when he got back home. When Tom did something unusual, or out of the ordinary, he really went all out. “Tom, let me just get one thing straight...how much is this trip? And I’m scared to ask, but, are you paying my way, or am I”

“We are looking at roughly three grand for the airfare and lodging”

Tom said it so nonchalantly, but Henry was cringing, and becoming faint. That was only for one week of lodging, out of a month, and they still needed a return flight.

Tom was right before this could be discussed any further, he needed to eat something.