I was coming off a 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. shift when the supervisor said I had a phone call.
I thought it was strange because no one ever called me at work and it was sort of forbidden unless it was an emergency.
“Hello.”
“Yo, dude, you won’t believe who’s here.” It was Teddy Olsen.
“Where are you?”
“At the Brickyard, man.”
“Why are you calling me? It’s supposed to be emergencies only.”
“This is an emergency. I told the fucking supervisor. You have been on one long downer that is about to end, and that serves everyone’s interest. Now, guess again, who’s here right now, nosing about for you?”
“I have no idea.”
“No idea. You’re worse than I thought. Get your butt down here now.”
“Why?”
“Because Carrie’s here.”
“So?”
“So, here’s the scoop, she dumped Jimmie Winslow. She was telling me, she was letting him sleep late when she went to work. She comes home early one day because she left a file at home she was working on, and she finds him banging her roommate. Seems he was getting her on the nightshift and her roommate on the dayshift. She had to move out, get her own place. She’s looking good, wearing a nice perfume. I think she needs the consoling of an old friend. Get down here before last call and your long nightmare may be over.”
“Or just beginning,”
“Don’t be so fatalistic. Get down here. Now I’ve got to get back to the table. I’m on the news tonight.”
I knew Carrie and knew if what Teddy said was true, I could be back in her arms again tonight. My nose filled with the ghost scent of her skin. My heart began to race. My hands began to shake. While my brain said hold on, my heart lifted with possibility. I was lonely, desperate and a dreamer. And likely not the smartest one.
I went in the side door so I could get a good view of the layout before I went in. I wanted to be casual, cool. I needed to look like I didn’t care about anything. I was just dropping in for a beer after a hard day at work. I saw Carrie sitting with some girlfriends, their table pulled over to the others. It looked like things were starting to wind down. I walked in such a way that she would see me if she was looking toward the bar, but I wouldn’t have to notice her.
I ordered a draft, and lit up a cigarette, and was just making conversation with the bartender. I wasn’t there two minutes when I felt her presence beside me. I smelled her.
“Hey, stranger,” she said.
I turned and looked at her with practiced cool. “Hey, how are you?”
“Good. I wasn’t expecting to see you here. They said you don’t come around much anymore.”
“Hey, once in a while I come in for a draft. How about you, how’s Jimmie?”
She made a face. “Don’t ask. I always end up going out with losers.”
“That makes me feel good about our time together.”
“I wasn’t including you. It’s just I feel so gullible. Jimmie was everything I wanted. And the ring he was going to get me was beautiful. It was so big it just gleamed right on my finger. He said he was making payments on it, working extra, then what does he do? He buys a Harley. I call the jeweler—he never made a single payment on the ring. They’d even sold it two months before. Can you believe that? All that time we were together, he was living a lie.”
I was going to ask her if she had warned her roommate about him, but didn’t want to rub it in her face.
“You still living on King Street?”
“No, no, I just moved. I got a new place in Windsor, my own apartment. It’s small but it’s home.”
“Good, good for you.”
“How about you?”
“Same old place. I’ve been saving up money, though. I’m thinking about moving to California.”
“California?”
“Yeah, I hear the sun shines out there damn near every day. I’m getting tired of the snow, plus nothing wrong with seeing the world. You only live once.”
“That’s right.”
I was trying hard to stay cool, but sitting there looking into her big green eyes, smelling her perfume, I was really having a hard time controlling myself. Even though I still had resentment toward her, I wanted to kiss her.
“You want a drink?”
“I was going to be going, but sure.”
“I’ll give you a ride home if your friend needs to go.”
“Okay, let me just talk to her.”
I saw her go over and talk to her friend. I saw her friend crack a smile and look over at me.
We had a beer and made small talk. “I’m not dating cops anymore,” she said. “It’s like they put on a badge and it’s all about them. It’s like I’m special only because I’m with one of them. It’s bullshit. I’m my own person. You disrespect me, that’s it. I’m done with you. It’s given me time to think about what’s important.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. I dated for a while,” I lied. “Now I’m just chilling. I know what I want, and I don’t need distractions.”
“What, you want a California girl? Are you saving yourself for a tall skinny blonde in a bikini? A Valley Girl?”
“I don’t want a girl, I want a woman. It doesn’t matter where she’s from. Just so long as she doesn’t play games with me.”
“Wow. You’ve changed.”
“That’s what life is about, isn’t it? Change.”
“Yes, I guess you’re right. Change is good. I know that now. I’ve changed—for the better, I hope. That’s the promise I am making.”
“No doubt,” I said in a way that I thought was challenging her to prove it. She looked at me then in a way that told me that the power in our relationship, if that was we were starting again, might have shifted to me. I sensed she might, at least for tonight, need me more than I needed her.
I got her coat when they said it was last call, and held it for her as she slipped her arms in. We walked out to my car, and I held the door for her. I put on a Shaggy tape, but with low volume as I drove. She directed me. I pulled up opposite her door, and we looked at each other.
“I sure appreciate the ride,” she said.
“My pleasure.”
She didn’t go for the door.
“I’m not ready to get back together,” I said.
“I’m not asking for that.”
Our eyes held each other.
“No strings,” she said.
“No strings.”
There was a slow lean in to a kiss.