The traffic was bumper-to-bumper and the extra half hour they had given themselves was quickly going away. They were going to be late for the show at this rate.

It was the first tickets they had purchased in two years and they were excited to get back to some sort of normal. He grumbled, “I should have taken the other route. It said it would take longer, but something is obviously going on up there.”

She tried to peer around the stopped cars. “I don’t see anything at all except taillights. You could try to get off at the next street and go the other way if you think it will be faster.”

He shook his head. “It will mean backtracking and we’ll be late for sure. I’m sorry. I should have left earlier and we would have avoided all of this.”

Putting her hand on his arm, she said, “We both agreed on the timing. It’s not your fault. If we miss it, there will be another show. I’ll look online and see if I can tell what’s going on.”

About 20 seconds later, she snorted. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“Bad news…”

“We aren’t going to make it to the show on time.”

“And the good news?”

“Neither is anyone else. There’s a power outage and the show has been postponed since the power is out at the theatre. So, the good news is that you get to take me out to dinner. Let’s get out of this mess.”

He grinned. “Do I get dessert at home?”

“I think that can be arranged.”

(270 words)