Phil
Dirk barked at me. “You’re leaving already?”
I nodded. “It’s 7:30 on Saturday night, and I have to meet someone. I mentioned this before.”
“Nobody else here has a fucking personal life, but sure, the junior guy gets to leave.”
“Hey, I came an hour early, and I’m coming in early tomorrow. It’s one night.” I hated this. Work was important, but we’d been going full out and I was exhausted.
“He’s young and he needs some action, Vanny,” called out one of the older guys. “Let the poor kid go.”
I had dust and crap on my clothes, but there wasn’t even time to change because I was already an hour late.
Getting to see Kelly enough was turning out to be one of my biggest challenges. I was working insane hours, and I’d had to cancel more than a few dates. And then she kept going away on the weekends, which was when I did have a little free time. Kelly never bitched when I had to cancel, but I did. Given the odd state of our relationship, I couldn’t call her just to chat and we never got to spend the night together either, so every time I didn’t get to see her seemed like a big waste.
We had set up this Saturday night date over a week ago. And since she had agreed, it meant she wasn’t going anywhere with the asshole. But naturally everything hit the fan today and I was lucky to get out only an hour late. I texted her to let her know I was on my way so she could push back the dinner reservation she had made.
Once I got to her place, Kelly rushed up to greet me.
“Phil, are you sure you want to go out? You had a long day,” Kelly said. She looked so pretty and fresh, in her polka dotted top and black shorts.
“I’m sure.”
“Did you want to shower here?”
Did I look as shitty as I felt? “I’ll get cleaned up,” I told her. I did look grimy, so I threw some water on my face and neck. I stretched. These seventy-hour weeks were hard enough, but having to worry about Kelly was more stressful.
She was on the phone in her room when I got done, it sounded like she was talking to her mom. She motioned that she’d be done in a minute. I sat down in the living room. They didn’t have a television or anything, so I grabbed a couple of magazines off the side table. One was Hockey News and the other was InStyle. I wondered where April was. She and Cho had gone out for nearly a month after that bowling night, but then broke up again. I knew he wasn’t too happy about that, but these days I was the last person to give dating advice.
I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes.
“Hey, Phil. Wake up.” Kelly was leaning over me, her hair down and tickling my face. I was lying down.
“Hi, beautiful.” I wasn’t fully awake, and this seemed like a happy dream of us together. I pulled her on top of me and kissed her. She kissed me back. Her lips tasted a little tomato-y. The pressure of her body was giving me a hard-on.
“Um, Phil. We’re not alone anymore.” She squirmed out of my arms and sat down beside me. I realized I was stretched out on her living room couch with a throw over me and a pillow under my head.
“What happened?”
“You fell asleep. I pulled you up onto the couch, and you didn’t even wake up. You’re heavy.” She stuck her tongue out and then giggled.
I half-sat up and ran a hand through my hair. “Shit. What time is it? What about our dinner reservation?”
“I cancelled it.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry, you must be starved.”
“I am, but I made us dinner.” She looked extremely proud. “I’ll go get it.”
She came out with a tray. There were two plates of spaghetti with meat sauce and a salad. “Would you like beer or wine?”
“Beer, please.” She was so cute. I was pretty sure that this was the only meal that Kelly could make. She came back with two beers and two glasses of water. April followed.
“I thought I walked into Pleasantville,” April declared. “You’re snoozing on the couch, and Kelly’s in the kitchen cooking.”
“Did you want some dinner too?” Kelly asked.
April shook her head. “I ate when the normal people did. It’s after ten, you know.”
“Did I sleep that long? Shit, I’m really sorry, Kelly.” Yeah, I was certainly going to win the dating game. Hey baby, want to go out? You can watch me lie unconscious on the couch and then cook—which is only your least favourite thing.
“It’s okay, Phil. I know you’ve been working hard. It was fun to make this and surprise you.”
“The real surprise will be the food poisoning later,” April added.
“I used one expired cheese and you’re never going to let me forget it,” complained Kelly. “Nothing happened.”
“This is a great dinner,” I declared. It was. I knew it was only bottled sauce, but Kelly had done it all for me. I took another helping of salad. “Is there more spaghetti?”
Kelly nodded and happily popped up to get it.
“Praising Kelly’s cooking is definitely a sign of something,” April declared. “Love or insanity.”
“I heard that,” Kelly said, as she came back in the room. “Isn’t it your bedtime?”
“Why, Miz Kelly,” April drawled. “Should I be leavin’ you alone with your gentleman caller?”
“Yeah, you should. Good night, April.”
April cackled and disappeared into her room. Kelly sat down on the other end of the couch.
“Whatcha doing way over there?” I asked her.
“Oh, I don’t know. If I get all affectionate, I feel like I’m giving you the wrong idea.” I realized how tough that must be for Kelly, who loved cuddling.
I patted the seat next to me. “You can trust me.” I had been following her stupid rules even when I hated keeping my hands off her.
She flashed a happy smile and nestled in right next to me. I put my arm around her. That felt so right.
“How’s work going?” she asked.
“You don’t want to hear about all that boring shit.”
“I do. I think you’re so lucky.”
“I am? How do you figure that?”
“My job is a total nine-to-five gig. But that means it’s dead end too. You work long hours because you’re important and they need you.”
I chuckled. That was one way of looking at it. Another was that the junior guy was slave labour.
Kelly continued. “I wish I’d prepared for real life better. You always knew you wanted to go into engineering, right? And now you’re doing it. You must be so excited.”
“It’s true. Hoff and Elliott both work long hours too, but everything they do is on paper or electronic. What I love is that we’re building something. At the end of the project, I’ll be able to stand back and say, ‘Hey, I made that.’ Along with hundreds of other people, but whatever. Of course, if it falls down, I’m denying any involvement.”
She laughed merrily. We talked about work: mine, and hers too. She told me about this media internship program she was hoping to apply for at work.
“Do you think you should apply for other jobs in the meantime? Maybe get you a little closer to your goals, and you could still apply for the intern-thing.”
“I don’t have any technical experience, so the only way I could get an interview would be because they know me. But maybe I could take part-time broadcasting courses in the fall. I’ll look into it.”
It was a good sign that she was thinking about staying in Vancouver this fall. Kelly yawned, and I realized how late it was.
“Let me help you clean up,” I told her. We took the dishes into the kitchen where Kelly had left a big mess. It was a small kitchen, and it didn’t take long to get things shipshape.
“I want to apologize again for tonight.” I stroked Kelly’s hair and kissed her on the forehead.
“Stop it, Phil. I don’t mind staying home. You don’t need to impress me, and I’m not really into fine dining the way April is. The only way it could have been better would be if there was a hockey game we could watch.”
“Nope, it was perfect already. I really liked that you cooked dinner for me.”
“Don’t get used to it,” she laughed.
“Well, I guess I better go.”
What I wanted more than anything was to stay over with her. That would be the best ending to a hard day.