Say hello to my shisha friend

The first time I met him was in a coffee shop somewhere in cleveland. It was all coincidence. One snowy night, I went to this coffee shop and as I was entering the coffee shop, I looked around searching for a table to sit. All were full. So, I have to chose who’s gonna be my "coffee-shop partner" in this very cold night. Then I saw him sitting very quiet in the farthest table inside. So I went to him. "may I join you please" I asked, and he agreed. However, I could sense in his acceptance that he was not happy at all for this companionship. I mean who would be happy sitting with strangers. I wouldn’t. But it was too late now, and I can not simply get up and walk to another table.
He didn’t seem to want to talk too much. But come one, this is shisha time, and a shisha likes to be in a social atmosphere, so I decided to create one.
I kept asking him questions, and he kept answering them with very short answers, a yes/no type. I can tell that he will make a good witness in a courtroom.
Eventually, he gave in, and started to talk more openly with me. I know I am good in that. He told me about his past, life, family troubles, financial troubles, and the atmosphere was so open that we joked about many things that strangers wouldn’t.
It was a good quality shisha time, where guys talk about guys stuff. The sad part is after this shisha time is over, no one knows if they will ever meet the same people again. You see, I don’t like to have shisha friends. But I love to have short term shisha friends. Confusing, yes I know.
A shisha friend is a person you meet by accident, get to know that evening, and in the end, each side goes his/her way not knowing if they ever gonna meet again. The minute you take that person’s phone number, then he becomes your friend, not a shisha friend.
You get to talk about so many things with a shisha friend, make up stories, hide your true identity, come up with whatever u wish, for one purpose only, and that is to enjoy the shisha that evening.
If you meet the same person again, then you start where u stopped the last meeting. But there is that nice wall that separates you from that shisha friend. Call it a mask, and I know many of my friends hate me for using such word. I love it. I have met so many shisha friends that I don’t know which mask I used in every meeting. But who cares, they won’t even remember me. All I know is that I never seen him again, even after 11 years.