Last Friday night we had a strange and lovely encounter with a random Dutch guy at two o’clock in the morning.

Belén and Marijn and myself, we were sitting outside a pub in De Pijp, we’d had enough of the music and the crush so we just sat in the dark talking until after closing time. And this guy came past on his bicycle, and asked us if he could talk to us. You never know where that sort of thing is going, but it wasn’t anything like that at all.

The guy is about to become a father; his girlfriend is pregnant, unplanned but they’re pleased about it, and they’re going to have a baby boy sometime in August. They’re moving out of town, somewhere they can have their own house with a garden, and that night was his farewell to his favourite pub, to all his mates in the area, to De Pijp itself. He said he’d promised to be home at midnight, but this was the last time, after this he’s settling down, so this one last time he let himself go a bit.

I figured it out later, all his friends already know the deal, so there’s nobody he can tell the story to who won’t already have heard it. He saw us sitting in the dark and I guess he wanted somebody to hear it all fresh. He told us the names they’re planning, and he asked what my name was and said he’d keep it in reserve, in case they couldn’t agree.

And Belén said after he left, he told us how happy he was and how much he’s looking forward to being a father, but his face and his voice were saying something different to the words. He’s terrified, and sad, and maybe he needed to tell somebody new to convince himself all over again that it’s really happening.

Two in the morning, in the dark outside after closing, and this man we don’t know telling us how his life is changing.