For the second time, I knocked on the door of Emma’s dorm room to apologize. I’d tried calling her and texting her but she didn’t respond. After almost a week of having her ignore me, I had decided to drop in on her and surprise her with the apology she clearly didn’t want to hear. I shouldn’t have lingered, talking to Marilyn instead of taking Emma to her dorm first. I should have made Marilyn wait but had been misguided by the fact that it was our first conversation since breaking up. The conversation had seemed like an important one but didn’t live up to its expectations at all.
I’d been forced to acknowledge that all along Marilyn had that nasty side to her that I had simply ignored, because we were in a relationship.
The door to Emma’s room opened and she peered out at me. I was puzzled at her smile because I anticipated that if she had been ignoring my calls and texts, she would have slammed the door in my face or something. Marilyn had slammed the door in my face one or two times after an argument. I paused, realizing that I kept comparing the two girls and often Marilyn was the one who was found lacking.
“Travis!” Emma cried, surprised at seeing me. “Come in.”
I frowned, entering the room as she indicated. “So, you’re not mad at me?” I asked her.
She appeared genuinely puzzled. “Why would I be mad at you?”
“Come on, Emma,” I admonished. “I know you are mad because of what happened with Marilyn.”
“I’m not mad at you,” she denied, walking to her closet to get a pair of trainers. “I understand that you needed to talk.” She sat on the bed to lace up her shoes.
“So, you’re saying you’re not mad?”
She shook her head.
“Then why have you been ignoring my calls and texts?” I accused.
Her eyes crinkled with laughter. “That’s what this is about?”
I shrugged, feeling uneasy, that I had read the entire situation wrong.
“I lost my phone,” she replied. “I wasn’t ignoring your calls. I haven’t gotten around to replacing it yet.” She stood, having tied her shoe laces and directed her attention to me. “If that’s what you thought, why didn’t you talk to me sooner?”
I shrugged again. “I didn’t want to bother you if you didn’t want to talk to me.”
“But you’re here now,” she pointed out.
“Because I had to ensure you weren’t mad or anything.” I felt like I was bungling my explanation and had overreacted. “I just thought I handled the whole situation badly when Marilyn showed up,” I tried again to explain. “And thought I owed you an apology.”
“That’s sweet of you but it really wasn’t necessary,” she contended.
“Oh.” Now I was more confused than ever. Since she didn’t care that I had blown her off to talk to Marilyn, did this mean I was wrong and she didn’t care after all? Could I be reading all the signals wrong? Did she really just wanted friendship from me?
“I should go,” I mumbled, embarrassed and started to retreat. “I’ve to go to a car mart to purchase a car.”
“Travis, wait!”
Her words halted me at the door and I turned to face her. “Something wrong?”
“I was just about to go for lunch,” she told me. “We could go look at cars for you then eat. What do you think?”
I stalled even though I already knew the answer. I wanted to spend the day with her, especially since I hadn’t seen her for the past few days.
“You sure?”
She nodded and grabbed her bag from the table in the room. “Why not? It’ll be fun.”
I grimaced. “I’m not sure how fun buying a used car will be, but okay.”
And so, we ended up on a bus from Jefferson Street to Aurora Avenue. During the forty-minute drive, we filled in each other about what we had been doing for the past few days. She explained how she had lost her phone after getting off the bus the evening after she had slept in my room, at which point she blushed and looked away.
The thought occurred to me then that she had never been that intimate with anyone before. Not that we had done anything, but she seemed genuinely shy, when recounting how we had fallen asleep in the same bed. I had the sudden urge to kiss her but didn’t want to freak her out, so I allowed her to talk.
The bus left us at Aurora avenue which was quite close to the used auto-shop. I alighted the vehicle before her then turned to assist her. I ended up, grasping her around the waist and swinging her down the steps. My actions felt natural and I waited for her to reprimand me but she didn’t. She pushed her hair back from her face and I grasped her hand in mine before we set off toward the beige colored building with the blue and yellow sign advertising the business. Cars were lined just before the walkway.
“Know what type of car you’re getting?” she asked.
“I’ve a vague idea,” I replied, “but when I see it, I think I’ll know which one I’d rather.”
No sooner had we walked onto the property, were we accosted by a sales agent who introduced himself as Ainsley. After confirming that we were in fact looking for a car and I told him the price range that I could afford, he brought us to showcase what they had.
Emma had more fun than me but that was okay because I liked her being so happy and laughing. Her personality was contagious and she even had the sales guy smiling too. Other people in the car mart glanced at her funny from time to time but for the most part we were ignored. I didn’t care what anyone else thought of us anyway.
Just as I had told her, I knew the car I wanted when I saw it. The used blue Honda Accord was in great shape and the history didn’t involve any crashes. The mileage on it was decent too. The price was a couple hundreds more than I’d planned to spend and I knew there were other options within my budget but this was the one I connected more with.
“Go ahead and get a feel for it,” Ainsley invited and Emma needed no further encouragement. She was like a child with a new toy as she jumped into the front seat beside me.
“I think it’s so you,” she remarked.
“Really?” I asked for confirmation, although I agreed.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“What about you?” I asked.
“Me?” she squeaked.
“Yes, do you like it?”
She laughed. “It doesn’t matter if I like it.”
“It does,” I said softly.
She slowly turned her head to observe me. “Are you and Marilyn getting back together?” she asked, changing the topic of the conversation.
I was surprised at the question. “No!” I answered vehemently. “She’s moved on.”
She frowned. “Are you sure? Because the last time she seemed to have had an issue thinking we were together. Almost like you two were still in a relationship.”
I reached across the console and took her hand, squeezing it. “Marilyn and I aren’t getting back together, Emma.”
“Would you want to?” she persisted, “because if you want to, there’s no reason to doubt that sometime later you might end up back together.”
I scowled at her. “Why are we even talking about Marilyn? Let’s talk about us.”
“There’s an ‘us’?”
Her question threw me off guard. We hadn’t talked about it but I figured we were kind of starting something new. Was her response an indication that she didn’t want to?
“We don’t have to define it,” I said though I felt a bit disappointed. “Just let things happen. I know I like hanging out with you and I think you do too or you wouldn’t have invited yourself on this car shopping mission.”
“Hey!” she protested and pushed me playfully. “Do you think we should get out now? The car guy is looking suspiciously at us like we are talking about grand theft.”
I glanced at Ainsley and she was right. He did seem worried that we were together in the car for so long and not doing anything but talking. I grinned and motioned for Emma to exit the vehicle. We were going back to the university this afternoon without having to take the bus. Things were really beginning to look up for me.