She only wanted a slice of pizza.
She learned of the pizza popup through Instagram, and in early evening walked to the location, which happened to be in her neighborhood. There she saw around twenty people at closely placed tables in a small space. The proximity to so many people made her nervous. They appeared to be enjoying a night out. She should have gone earlier, in retrospect, to avoid the crowd, but wanted the outing to coincide with her second daily walk.
She waited to order at the window. There was not much space to stand, so she stood apart from the other two people. After she paid, the server said to wait to the right, across the alley. As five or ten minutes passed, she decided to leave and return, since it became windy and cold, and she saw a group receive an entire pizza, which made her think she would have to wait for a while. She thought they would save the slice for her when she returned in about twenty minutes.
When she returned, the server said, "We looked for you, but couldn't find you." He said to have a seat and the Chef (the reason for her visit) would make her a new slice. She waited, and received a beautiful slice. Due to her nervousness from being close to others during COVID-19, she decided to return home. Upon her return, she noticed the slice had meat on it, which she hadn't seen in the dark, and which she couldn't eat, as a vegetarian.
She returned to the bar's window with the slice, and told the server. He apologized profusely and refunded her money, since they no longer had the vegetarian pizza. Later she messaged the Chef about the mixup, and he nicely offered her a pizza pie at his next popup.
She longed for the days when one could enter a pizzeria, pay, and leave with a slice. Without social distancing. Without fear of others being infected. Without discomfort.
