DAYTON, Ohio — Regional compliance coordinator Dennis Hartwhistle, 41, was served with a notarized lunch agreement at his desk Tuesday, after coworker Brenda Quillfeather determined that his remark of “Sounds good, let’s grab lunch sometime” met all legal requirements of an offer.

The remark was made March 3 in the second-floor kitchenette. Quillfeather said she documented it on a sticky note at 10:42 a.m., which she has since submitted as Exhibit A.

“He said ‘sounds good,’ which is acceptance, and ‘let’s,’ which is plural,” said Quillfeather, who arrived at Hartwhistle’s cubicle with a printed calendar invite, a reservation for two at Gino’s Bistro & Pour, and a notary public she had hired from the lobby Cinnabon kiosk. “I was just waiting for him to follow through. Eleven weeks is generous.”

The 14-page document, titled Agreement to Grab Lunch (Sometime), specifies a date of Thursday at 12:15 p.m., a 60-minute duration, and a seating preference of “booth, not communal.” It also contains a clause stipulating that neither party may “bring up the Henderson account.”

Hartwhistle said he was stunned. “I say it to everybody,” he told reporters, still holding the papers. “I said it to the guy who fixes the printer. I said it to a man in an elevator once. I don’t know where any of them are.”

Legal observers say Hartwhistle’s defense is not without merit. Dr. Alan Fenwick-Pruitt, associate professor of Conversational Obligation at the Hollis P. Nunnery Institute for Social Lubricants, noted that “sometime” has been a term of art since 1974, when it came to mean “never, but warmly.”

“Courts have long recognized that ‘let’s grab lunch’ is a closing salutation, functionally identical to ‘take care’ or ‘anyway,’” Fenwick-Pruitt said. “Ms. Quillfeather appears to have read the phrase as a sentence. That is, regrettably, how sentences work, and it puts us in uncharted territory.”

Quillfeather rejected that reading. “‘Sometime’ is a time,” she said. “I checked.”

“I was just waiting for him to follow through. Eleven weeks is generous.”

The filing seeks specific performance, meaning lunch, with an appetizer to be shared “at the defendant’s expense, as a gesture.” Should Hartwhistle fail to appear, Quillfeather has reserved the right to escalate to coffee.

Human Resources released a brief statement saying it is aware of the situation and is reviewing whether “we should catch up” and “let’s circle back” constitute riders to the original agreement. The department added that it has already received 31 notarized requests from other employees, most citing a Feb. 12 holiday party.

At press time, Hartwhistle had reportedly agreed to the Thursday lunch but was attempting to renegotiate the booth, citing concerns about proximity. Quillfeather confirmed she would consider a table “if he puts it in writing,” and had already begun drafting an addendum.

Asked what he would order, Hartwhistle said he would be eating “quickly, and with a lawyer.”