Left foot left foot left foot right

Yesterday I inadvertently told an old friend of mine in a rather offhanded way that a mutual acquaintance of ours had died.

I was standing there waiting for a really crappy sandwich to be "made to order" (they always get at least one thing wrong; yesterday she slapped this big gross pickle on my plate and I never, ever eat those things-- she always asks "Dill or sweet" and I say "no pickle" and she says "No pickle??" like I'm asking for dry coffee mixed into curdled milk. Dammit.)

Anyway. Back to me putting my foot in my mouth.

M walked up and said hello. I said hi and gee, I'm sorry to hear about your friend, your employee. (About a month ago one of her staff died very suddenly and I haven't seen her since then.) She said "Yes, HR told me it was a terrible week, there were four employees that died right around the same time."

So then I said "oh, I know, I was just talking to XYZ the day he died. It was so sad." Then I noticed the blink, the double take.

Crap.

Crap.