Anytime Soon (25 page)

Sophie and I stood in line at a frozen lemonade stand while Catie chatted on her cell.

Sophie pulled out her wallet and asked me if I wanted regular or strawberry lemonade. I told her strawberry, and I turned to ask Catie which kind she wanted. But when I looked over, she was busy talking to some guy. I can't say I know Catie's “type” of man, but the one she was talking to certainly couldn't have been it. He was tall and sickly thin, probably in his mid-twenties—cute, but in a sinister, sneaky-looking kind of way. His greasy hair was slicked back, and his Hawaiian print shirt was unbuttoned—no doubt to show off the hair on his chest. He wore faded navy blue pants and loafers without socks. I couldn't understand why Catie was all smiles, but she was, and it looked like they were exchanging phone numbers. I turned to nudge Sophie, but she was already eyeing them.

“Is she kidding?” she asked me.

“It looks like she's getting her Mack on.” I laughed.

“With Tony Montana? Look at his shoes.”

Sophie handed me my frozen lemonade and then gave Catie one. Catie took a sip, smiled at us, and then introduced her new friend.

“Hey, guys, this is Tony.”

Sophie almost spit out her lemonade, and I couldn't control my smile.

Putting her hand on her hip, Catie just glared at the two of us. I stopped laughing and extended my hand.

“I'm Anaya. Nice to meet you.”

He took my hand in his, and I immediately wished he hadn't, because he was so sweaty.

“Anaya,” he said, repeating my name with a Spanish accent. “A beautiful name for an even more beautiful lady. The pleasure is all mines.”

Mines? Well, maybe his Spanish grammar is better.

Catie smiled, so I guessed she wasn't irritated with us anymore.

Sophie raised an eyebrow, sipped her lemonade, and mumbled through her straw, “Wuzzup, dude? I'm Sophie.”

Tony's annoyance with Sophie was obvious, but he managed a smile anyway.

“The pleasure is mines, Sophie.”

Catie and Tony said their goodbyes, while Sophie and I walked over to a nearby booth.

“Anaya!”

I turned to see familiar beautiful eyes and perfect teeth.

“Hey, Carl!” I said pleasantly.

I felt Catie move close to me. I wanted to kick her and leave a sandal print on her white dress.

She's so nosy.

Carl gave me a long hug. It felt good.

“Hey, how are you?” I said, moving back from him a little.

“I'm good. Missing you, though. Where have you been? You just disappeared off the face of the Earth.”

He grabbed my hand and looked me up and down.

“I've been around,” I said, blushing. Catie was in my peripheral, staring at us.

I couldn't stop thinking how good he looked.

I knew Catie and Sophie were eating up every single word. I hadn't mentioned Carl to them before.

“So,” he asked, “how do you like working at the law firm?”

I shifted my feet. “I don't work there anymore.”

“Oh. Did you find a therapist gig?”

“Not exactly. I've been teaching a summer school course at the university extension.”

“Wow. That's good. Different from what you wanted to do, though.”

Catie cleared her throat.

“Um, Carl, these are my friends, Catie and Sophie.”

“Nice to meet you, ladies,” he said politely.

Catie and Sophie said hello.

He turned his attention back to me. “I tried calling you a couple of times. Did you change your number?”

“I did. Take my new one.” I gave him my new number, and we talked for a few more minutes. He was still the same Carl, and I was genuinely happy to see him. Only good thoughts came to me.

“Listen,” he said, “I need to catch up with my boys. I just wanted to come over and say hello to the prettiest girl out here. I'll call you, okay?” He hugged me hard.

Still smells good.

“Okay,” I said.

“Nice meeting you guys,” he said again to Catie and Sophie.

“You, too,” they said together.

“Bitch, who was that?” Catie demanded the second Carl was out of earshot.

“
Mentirosa
, you told me you were not seeing anybody,” Sophie added.

“Didn't you just see me give him my number? How can I be seeing someone if he doesn't have my number?”

Sophie gave me a funny look but didn't say anything else.

Catie got close to my face and laughed. “You know what? You are officially a sneaky little liar! How many
more
men are gonna come running out of the woodwork? All I have to say is, if you aren't interested in that fine hunk, there's something wrong with you.”

Sophie satirized Catie and said, “Well, Catie, if
you're
interested in that weird Spanish dude, then there's something wrong with you.”

Catie pointed at me. “Don't be over there trying to get quiet,” she said to me, licking her lips. “We didn't forget about you and that beautiful Hershey bar that just walked away from us.” She could make a baptism sound erotic.

“What? We used to work together on campus.”

“Used to work together on campus? Bitch, please! The look is all over his lovesick little face. What did you do to that boy? Did you do that trick I taught you?”

I didn't want to talk to them about Carl, or what we had together, or why we stopped seeing each other. At that point, I didn't even remember what had happened. He just kind of faded out of the picture, because he liked me more than I could reciprocate. I had allowed Jeff to consume me.

If I can just manage to get through the rest of this afternoon
without any more questions, I'll be grateful.

We circled the festival three more times, and when we ran into Tony again, Catie gave him a big hug, as if they had known each other for years. He was with his friends this time. They looked like they had been getting phone numbers and drinking beer all afternoon.

One of his friends, a chubby guy with a mouthful of gold teeth, looked at Sophie hungrily. She turned to me and said she would meet us at the car. I wanted to follow her, but I didn't feel comfortable leaving Catie alone with the degenerates. When she finally broke free from Tony's pawing, sweaty hands, we headed toward the car.

“He's so cute,” she said to me breathlessly. “I'm glad we came.”

“Enough, Catie!” I grumbled, and walked ahead of her.

FIFTEEN

A
week after the seafood festival, Sophie went missing. Ava. whom I recently had talked to more than I ever have in my life, called and asked me if I had heard from Sophie. I hadn't heard from her and when I called and asked Catie, she hadn't heard from her either. I didn't drive home because there wasn't anything I could do. I left Sophie messages and sent her texts—all to no avail. I didn't expect that Carmen knew where she was, but I called her anyway. She didn't seem as worried as one would think she would be given her daughter was missing.

When things settled down that night, I sat in my apartment and reflected over the past few months. Things had moved blindingly fast—my job transition, the relationship with Jeff, Sophie's addiction, and my mom who was turning into a stranger right before my very eyes. I picked up my phone and considered calling Jeff. I needed so badly to hear his voice and hear him tell me that everything was going to be okay. I had made a huge mistake by falling in love with him and I wondered if I had made another mistake by cutting things off the way I did. I picked up my laptop and began writing him an e-mail. I didn't know if he'd ever see the e-mail but it didn't matter—I just needed to release and get some things off of my chest, things that I knew he needed to hear.

Catie called me while I was writing and we made a deal that when Sophie came home, we were going to do all we could to support her.

The next day, Catie called and told me that Sophie was home with Carmen. She still hadn't returned any of my calls or texts but that was fine with me. As long as she was home and safe, nothing else mattered. I drove home that weekend to see her at Carmen's house. Carmen was casual in sweatpants and she looked a lot more worried than she had sounded on the phone a day or so ago.

She led me up to Sophie's room and gave us some time alone. Sofie looked awful. It hurt my heart to see my friend so frail and unhealthy. She walked over to me without a word and hugged me. We both started crying.

“I'm sorry, Ny,” she said in between sobs. “I'm so sorry I let you down.”

“Shhhh. Don't apologize. I am here for you and I love you. We are going to get through this,” I said holding her even tighter.

I thought about her as a little girl. She had been so carefree and happy as a child. She was a beautiful soul. What in the world had happened to my friend? How could something like this happen to such a good person? She wasn't raised that way. It made me think of a lecture in one of my classes. The teacher had explained to the class that bad drugs happen to good people and there's no way to definitively say who will get addicted and who will not.

Sophie finally stopped crying and sat at the foot of her bed. Her red eyes had dark circles around them. She started talking. She told me that after we got off of the phone the other night, she had called her dad. He didn't answer her call and she said she felt like she was losing it and she needed something to make the pain go away.

We cried twice more by the time Catie arrived and then the three of us cried some more. Sophie needed help and we were going to make sure she got it.

With mom's guidance, and not Carmen's, we found a rehabilitation center for Sophie. The day she was supposed to enter, she changed her mind, claiming she could beat her addiction on her own. We rescheduled for the next day and she backed out again. On the third try, she checked in. We communicated with Carmen the entire time and she knew exactly what was going on. She didn't bother to come when we dropped Sophie off and she didn't call to see how the drop off went. The lack of concern both hurt and angered me. Sophie was her only child, how could she really be so heartless that she didn't care to be there when her child went to rehab?

Sophie wasn't allowed to communicate for the first seven days of the program. During her first few days in the program, Catie and I met halfway for dinner some nights which was nice. It gave me a chance to talk to her about some of the things I was going through and, in turn, she cut her “dates” down to weekends only. She said she had enough and wanted to get out of the lifestyle.

On the eighth day of being in the program, Sophie called me. She didn't sound great, but I knew she was getting the help she needed.

“Family Day,” she announced, “is when family members come and attend a group meeting. We're gonna have one in a couple weeks.”

“That sounds good,” I said, unsure if she was inviting me or wanted me to invite myself.

“It is. They had one since I've been here, but I didn't participate. I think I want to participate this time.”

“Great, Sophie! Is Carmen coming?”

She was quiet for a moment. “No. She hasn't been up here yet. I haven't invited her.”

“Oh. Do you want me to come up for Family Day?” I asked.

“I'm not sure. I'll let you know.”

After that conversation, Sophie called me every other day or so. She was only allowed to use the phone for a few minutes each time. I was happy to be supportive, but I wanted her to talk to her parents, too. I put the Family Day date in my calendar, noting that it was after the semester ended. I was actually looking forward to the end of the semester. I missed home. I loved my new teaching job, but I missed home, too. I had too many emotional things going on to be so far away from my family and friends. Sometimes a girl just needs to be around someone familiar.

Jeff still ran through my mind far too much. When I was working, exercising—even during my sleep. Sometimes I woke up in the middle of the night with an ache in my heart and an empty feeling in my stomach.

I kept praying for a breakthrough, something to take the pain away. Even a mild numbing of the pain would do.

One of the last things I had to do as a teaching assistant was to grade the final research assignments, which I did in my office. Several of the students had done terrific work, and I was engrossed in reading when my phone rang.

“I'm worried about Mom,” Ava started.

“What about?” I asked.

“She's not herself.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Ava provided examples. “She sleeps all the time. She hasn't been cooking. In the past couple of weeks, she's been to the doctor three times.”

“What were the appointments for?” I wondered.

“She won't say. Something about making sure everything works properly. But I don't believe that.”

“She seemed fine when I was home,” I pointed out.

“Yeah,” Ava argued, “but you were only here for a couple of days. I'm telling you, she's not herself.”

Mom hadn't mentioned anything to me about feeling ill.

“Okay,” I promised, “let me think about it, and I'll call you back.”

“All right,” Ava said reluctantly.

“Don't worry. She'll be fine. Have you talked to Roscoe?”

“I mentioned it to him, but he doesn't see anything wrong,” Ava said.

I reassured her again that everything would be fine, and then I hung up.

There was a knock on my office door. I was happy to look up and see Travis.

“Hey, you!” he said with a big smile. “What are you up to?”

“I was grading papers.”

Travis made his way inside and sat down.

“Why are you so happy?” I asked.

He smiled again.

“Wait!” I remembered. “This was the day you met up with Faye, isn't it? How did it go?”