Alex
dropped her phone into her lap, gnawing on her lower lip. Something was going
on with him. The fact that he wouldn’t tell her what made the eternal night
seem even longer. A part of her mind worried, but another part wasn’t sure she
wanted to know.
Her heavy sigh was followed by the monotone
announcement of another departing flight crackling across the P A system. Alex
dropped the phone back into her bag with a yawn. The manuscript lay curled in her lap and she
dug through the pages in search of the last paragraph she had read. Skipping over a portion of crossed out
material, she settled into her stiff chair, bracing her back against the crisp
air still creeping through the icy windows. The slow tick of delayed flights
leaving stymied her thoughts of being patient. She could only hope to get lost
in the story if she wanted the night to pass.
#9
April4
“Just before we left the club tonight, we were all sitting in Laura’s
truck waiting for the parking lot to empty. Mel, and I were talking about the
next day’s plans when Laura suddenly interrupted us with a weird gasp.
“Trish, there’s that cute guy we met tonight.”
We meet cute guys every night we dance, that cute guy didn’t mean
anything to me so I looked to where she was staring.
His glacial blue eyes and crooked smile had not vanished into the night
after all. He was still here, leaning
against his car and flirting with a gorgeous red head. Laura looked like she
was in pain as she watched him and I thought she was jealous of the rather
sultry girl. When the girl had turned and waved goodbye to him though, I
noticed Laura was actually staring at his car.
She looked at it like it might come to life and swallow her whole, but
she quickly snapped her mouth shut and muttered under her breath.
“What is that thing he’s driving.”
While she pulled her truck up beside him
Melanie told us the story of the car. She said a few years ago when she first
met him, he told her that it was an old
body from a 79’ Ford Mustang, but it had only smatterings of primer paint and
rust still adorning it. he built the car
from spare parts and pure know how about five years earlier. Back then it had
been nothing but an empty chasy, and hours of work and patience had kept it
running.
“Are you still driving that
thing.” Melanie scolded, when we were talking to him through the trucks window.
“It was a piece of junk all those years ago, buy yourself a new car.”
I watched his face become ice hard as he glared at us.
“She, works perfectly and her name is Betsy, not ‘it’, or ‘that thing.’
Maybe I’m crazy but I thought it was so cute that he named her. The
other girls seemed more flippant than impressed and I shook my head. He named
his car, he built it, he wouldn’t give her up, no matter how out of style she
was in comparison to the fancier cars in the lot tonight.
Laura acted like she was oblivious to the
car, blowing the whole thing off. She concentrated instead on getting him
to come to church with us the next day. She told me on the way home tonight
that he had admitted to dating a girl in Las Vegas and she was not going to let
him get away. I didn’t think she had been that impressed, but she made it clear
to all of us that she wanted him and it was our job to help her. I wonder
though…can you fall for a girl that hates your car?
Alex’s nose wrinkled when she stopped reading and
shook her head again. The page was full of text, blacked out portions, and
women’s names, but as she scanned it she couldn’t see a male name besides Mike
or a subject beyond the roommates boy troubles. ‘Nice story, different book???”
She wrote, once again jumping past more
of the black marked page, still wondering where her mom was going with this.
Stretching her legs and back against the
chairs stiff frame Alex pulled the bagel and soda she bought from the all night
coffee shop out of the paper bag at her feet.
With a twist of her wrist and a sidelong glance, she opened the bottle
and checked the next flight’s departure time.
3: 20 it reminded her, one more
hour. A hunk of the cheese bagel tore
off in her frigid fingers as Alex nibbled distractedly while regaining the
journals next entry.
Entry # 13 May 7
Laura and I were gone this weekend and its only now that I realize that
what happened two days ago changed me
and I will look back and wonder why I never bothered to write it down.It didn't
seem like anything at the time, but after writing the story I will feel like
less of a dork about it and more like it was meant to be.After all, they never
call me. Not for real dates anyway. They call me for "Let me cry on your
shoulder about the girl i want, can't get, blew it with, or don't understand.
But, they never call me like ----- did. “
Alex winced as she pulled her hair
yanking the pencil from her ear. “Who, mom? Who called?” She scowled at the page
where a name had been blacked out.She glanced at her watch tempted to call her
mom and demand the guy’s name. With a tired sigh, she replaced the pencil and
went back to the manuscript.
Friday, he called me. He hadn’t been around much lately but we had spent
lots of time deep in phone conversations.
Maybe that was why I was off
guard when he asked if I would go to dinner with him. I was already
going to where he lived for a visit with Laura and I thought he wanted us all to get together. He
had quietly insisted it be just us that he needed to talk.
My new roommate Anne, teased me that this was a date, but I knew better.
Anne will soon learn that friends don’t ask me on dates. They ask for advice or
moral support but the ones that want to turn friendship into dating make me
nervous and most of them end up needing restraining orders to help them get
over it. My mom calls it my tractor beam for losers.
I wasn’t expecting anything different that night as I waited for him at
the end of the driveway. Nervous about what all this meant. The
nervousness should have been my first
clue something was off. When he hugged
me too tightly and looked at me like he could see through me, red flags
definitely went up. It was just a moment though and before long we were
laughing and talking easily and the previous all too intimate moment vanished.
Except... it didn’t, not completely.
Every now and then I caught a look on his face, a smile, some expression
that made me feel drawn to him in a way I never had before. We lingered over
dinner, we walked to a nearby park and talked. It got later and later and I
kept trying to remind myself it was time to go, but…
I didn’t want to.
It must have been about two o’clock in the morning when the warm moments
we had been sharing late into the night suddenly became charged with nervous
energy. Before I was certain of what was happening he had tangled his long
fingers into my hair and was kissing me.
Part of my mind wanted to argue at this
intimacy, but he’d been so tender, sincere, and genuine in his feelings. He
hadn’t wanted advice, or a band aid for a broken heart. He wanted to talk about
the fun and friendship we'd had for the last month or so. I allowed my heart to be swept up in the emotions
that felt as if they were burning in my chest. I wanted to fight, I knew better
than to fall for a friend, but as he released me to catch his breath, he
whispered into my ear.
“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time now.”
“How long?” I asked my voice shaking.
“ever since I found out that you were finished with Mike.”
I swear the air was vibrating all around us. Maybe it was just the blood
rushing through my ears but the way he
said it made me think he meant every word.
“Now, Its my turn to be your best
friend,” he said. “Best friends with
benefits.”
Better,
Alex murmured, lifting her concentration from the page to look at the clock on
her phone. She still had twenty minutes before boarding and she took the chance
to use the pencil once more. Nice Mom,’ Alex wrote. ‘this ties in well with
your opening paragraph. Keep this guy.’ She took a sip from her bottle of soda,
finishing off the remnants of her bagel and replacing the manuscript and pencil
in her bag. The flight was beginning its
pre-boarding announcements and Alex knew she would have to just pace anxiously
until the flight was boarded, waiting to find out whether or not she could
finish the last leg of her trip.
A part of her longed for another delay to flash across
the digital feed. It would be all she needed to go back to Las Vegas. The PA
system crackled with another flight’s boarding instructions as Alex wrapped her
fingers around the straps of the bag on her shoulder. Fate, or destiny, or
maybe just luck had rolled the die. She had to make it through this one final
flight and she could work it all out.
