Sometime Soon (10 page)

The cheesecake comes with
strawberries, and the cappuccinos are tall--topped with a layer of white foam.
We sit close to each other at a small table by the window. There is only one
other couple in the café.

Jason’s fork politely waits for
mine to retrieve a bite as we take turns with the cheesecake. He grins at me,
his eyes appreciative behind his frameless glasses, and I can feel my cheeks
heating. It’s very intimate and cozy. Once finished, we linger for a bit as
Jason laces his fingers through mine on the table.

Later, back on the sidewalk outside
the café, he takes my hand again as he leans down and kisses me. It’s a
hesitant first kiss as his lips feather over mine. “Are you headed my way?” he
asks in a whisper by my ear, indicating the T stop across the street.

I shake my head. “I drove in. I’m
parked by the restaurant.”

“Would you like to come with me?”
he whispers, his breath warm on my cheek.

I lean back and raise a skeptical
eyebrow at him. It’s only our first date.

He smiles good-naturedly,
unbothered. Then he kisses me again. I feel his hand tighten on my waist and
this time his lips linger on mine. The night has become still and cool, but I
feel only his warmth against me. There aren’t many people around now, but I
probably wouldn’t notice if there were.

“I had a really nice time,” he
says, leaning back, looking down at me.

“Me, too,” I reply, feeling a
little breathless.

“We should do this again.”

I smile in response and nod.

He grins back at me. “Goodnight,
Andrea.” Then he turns and walks to the underground T station across the
street.

“Goodnight,” I manage to say as I
stand rooted there in disbelief. Once he disappears down the stairway, I give
myself a mental shake before swiftly turning and backtracking toward the
restaurant. From there, I cover the two blocks to the parking lot in record
time considering my feet are protesting every step of the way in the sandals I
have now decided to toss into the trash. I retrieve my car, tipping the
attendant and taking my outrage out on the steering wheel, which now suffers
beneath my grip.

How could he walk away and leave me
standing alone on a city street after midnight? I couldn’t believe he didn’t
offer to walk me to my car. I guess I read the whole thing wrong. Maybe he
isn’t interested in me, and he couldn’t care less if I got back to my car
safely. Or maybe when I wouldn’t go home with him, he acted as though it was no
big deal, but he was really writing me off and just wanting to get away.

I crank up the radio and look
forward to just getting home and getting into pajamas. I hate dating. I hate it
more and more each time.

After another surprisingly
uneventful day at work, I invite myself over to my sister’s apartment for
dinner. I feel badly leaving Tiger on his own for the second night in a row. I
picture him alone by the window, in the dark, his sad green eyes watching and
waiting for me to come home. Although, he is most likely sleeping, dreaming of
those black-capped chickadees he likes to meow at through the window, not even
realizing that I’m not at home.

I’m looking forward to spending the
evening with Laura and Jonathan. That is, if Jonathan is able to extricate
himself from the office. With the wedding plans occupying so much of her time,
I feel like I’ve hardly spoken to Laura lately. We’ve always been close, and we
are very much alike. Besides frustrating hair, we both have similar
temperaments and views on life. Once Laura met Jonathan though, she went MIA
for a time, which disappointed me, but I try not to begrudge her that time.
They had a whirlwind romance, completely caught up in each other during that
first year. I knew that Jonathan was different right away. Laura had lots of
boyfriends in high school and college, but she had never gotten swept away the
way she did when she met Jonathan. My parents and I like him very much. Most
importantly, he really appears to love Laura.

When Laura began dating Jonathan
and got engaged to him a year later, I was surprised at how it made me feel. I
figured Laura would always have the same dismal relationship luck we’d both had
up until that point. I even pictured us growing old together, two spinster
sisters making our way through life together. Besides, as the older sister,
I’ve always done everything first, but not this time. Her ability to fall into
a healthy, loving relationship both impresses and astounds me, as though there
is some secret to it that everyone but me has discovered. I’m afraid I haven’t
a hope of gaining membership into this club.

Laura opens the door dressed in
shorts and a T-shirt, but with her lawyerly makeup, hair, and jewelry all still
neatly in place. I’m dressed much the same. I follow her through the living
room and into the small dining room which holds a round wooden table for four.
One character trait that I possess and she does not is compulsive neatness.
Laura isn’t much bothered by dust and clutter. She moves some piles of paper
from the table to the floor and then sits down.

Laura and Jonathan have a two
bedroom apartment in the town next to mine. Jonathan commutes to his law firm
in Boston every day, and Laura drives south to her law office. Their apartment
is situated exactly in the middle of both their workplaces. They plan to begin
house hunting after the wedding.

“I sent Jonathan out for pizza.
Hope that’s okay,” Laura tells me. She looks tired. I now feel badly for
intruding, and I say as much.

She smiles wistfully. “Don’t be
silly. I’m glad you came. We never get to talk anymore.”

“Are you and Mom okay?”

Laura nods. “We’re fine. I’m
tabling my opinions and just agreeing with hers. It’s giving me insomnia and an
ulcer, but Mom and I are great friends now.”

I chuckle at her. “It’s a Pyrrhic
victory then.”

“Yeah. I guess so.” Laura reaches
up and pulls a clip out of her hair. Her dark locks tumble down, and the
stretched curls rest stiffly on her shoulders. “But tell me what’s going on
with you. Any more news on the buyout?”

The family grapevine has gotten the
news to Laura. I called my mother the day we got the word. In her usual
fashion, her reaction was extreme. Worrying about my being laid off, she
advised me to cut back on all my expenses and to begin looking for another job.
In fact, she has already begun researching the want ads and leaving me messages
about them. Through her friends, she has compiled a list of contacts that I am
now supposed to call. I completely understand Laura’s ulcer.

“No more news there. But there is
news on other fronts,” I reply.

“What news is that?”

I shake my head. “I’d rather wait
for Jonathan. That way I don’t have to repeat it when he gets here, and I can
get a guy’s perspective on things.”

“So, it’s dating news?”

“Yes and no.” Reasonable and
considerate with a dry sense of humor, Jonathan is a good sounding board when
it comes to guys and the strange ways in which they behave.

“Well, he should be back any
minute. How about a drink?”

I follow Laura into the kitchen,
watching as she withdraws three wine glasses from the cupboard and fills them
from a bottle that already stands open on the counter. We chat more about the
wedding and the trip to the florist, which was uneventful due to Laura’s new
attitude. While standing there, I notice that the sink still holds their
breakfast dishes.

Soon Jonathan arrives home, his
black leather briefcase in one hand and two pizza boxes balanced atop the other
in the other. He kisses Laura hello as she takes the boxes from him.
“Hey,” he says brightly when he spots me, approaching to plant a kiss on my
cheek. Jonathan fills up a room. His energy seems to vibrate off him in waves.
He isn’t tall, just an inch or so taller than Laura, but he’s built like a
linebacker--as my dad once commented. And his voice seems to project itself
boldly from the depths of his barrel chest. Good for the courtroom, I suppose.

Jonathan goes to change his clothes
while Laura and I bring plates and napkins to the table. Once Jonathan
reappears and we are all seated, we apply ourselves to the pizza. The warm
cheese melts over the edges of each slice as it’s transferred from box to
plate. The pungent tomato aroma fills the apartment. I gulp my red wine to
relieve the burn on the roof of my mouth that I’ve inflicted with the first
impatient bite. Once we have soothed our initial hunger, Laura prompts me to
start talking.

I decide to present the story of my
date with Jason as my first topic. It’s the lesser issue at the moment. I give
an honest accounting, trying not to prejudice them in order to get unbiased
reactions. Laura purses her lips when I tell them he was half an hour late.
Jonathan just glances at me and then reaches for another slice of pizza. They
smile and nod in the appropriate places as I recount the rest of the date.
Laura appears especially pleased by what she’s heard, until I reach the end.

“He didn’t walk you back to your
car?” Laura asks, looking confused. I purposely didn’t put it quite that way. I
simply explained that we said goodnight and he walked to the T.

I shake my head in response.

“Was your car parked right there?”

I shake my head again. “It was one
street over and down a couple of blocks.”

“Did he know that?”

“Yup.”

Her forehead wrinkles. “You’re
saying that at the end of the date he left you alone to walk back to your car
by yourself?”

I nod.

“What a jerk,” she exclaims.

We both turn to Jonathan for his
reaction. He slowly sips his wine as his eyes travel between us. “Well, what do
you think?” Laura prompts.

He puts down his glass, hesitates
for a beat and then says, “When a guy is interested, he walks you back to your
car.”

I raise my eyebrows at him. “You
don’t think he was interested?”

He shakes his head. “Not seriously.
Sorry Andy.”

“But he seemed interested, right?”
Laura states, looking to me for confirmation but continuing before getting it.
“He told her he had a nice time. He kissed her goodnight.”

“He was interested in
something
,
I’m sure.” Jonathan waggles his eyebrows, punctuating his point. “But nothing
serious.”

Laura makes a “humph” sound as she
crosses her arms, appearing appalled on my behalf.

Unfortunately, I think Jonathan
makes sense. “Do you think I’ll hear from him again?”

He ponders that for a moment. “I
wouldn’t be surprised if you did. But if you do go out with him again, you
should keep your expectations realistic. Just have fun. There’s nothing wrong
with that.”

“He could be wrong,” Laura
suggests, gesturing to Jonathan, trying to make me feel better.

“I don’t know.” I sigh while
leaning back in the chair, polishing off my wine. My outrage from last night
has diminished, and now I’m more curious than anything else. “Not everyone is
looking to be in a relationship. It doesn’t make them a bad person. But even if
he wasn’t interested in me, I still think he should have been concerned for my
safety. Just because he doesn’t want a relationship with me doesn’t mean he
should care less whether or not I make it back to my car in one piece.”

“That’s right,” Laura swiftly
agrees.

“Either way, I probably wouldn’t
let a woman walk to her car alone late at night in the city,” Jonathan admits.

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Laura
agrees, reaching over to pat his arm. “Well Andy, I’m sorry, but I think that’s
a deal-breaker.”

I smile ruefully. “I probably won’t
hear from him again anyway. Even if I did, you’re right. It’s a deal-breaker. I
can’t get past it. Not even for some fun.”

“There’s nothing wrong with just
having fun,” Jonathan repeats.

Laura elbows him as she begins to
the clear the table. “Andy and I are good girls. We don’t just have fun.”

“Very true. You’ve got the ring to
prove it,” he says, grabbing at her. She playfully dodges him. I feign
exasperation, but I can’t help chuckling at them.

“I’ve got more to tell you when
you’re ready,” I add, carrying my dishes to the sink, which appears to have no
room for additional dishes.

“There’s more?” Jonathan asks.
“What else did this poor sucker do to offend you?”

I roll my eyes at him. “Different
topic. Far more interesting.”

“We’ve got ice cream,” Laura
offers, peering into the freezer.

“No thanks. I’m stuffed.” Jonathan
rubs his flat stomach.

I never turn down ice cream. “I’ll
have some.”

“Me, too,” she agrees grabbing the
carton.

“Well, if you’re both having ice
cream, I guess I’ve got some room left.” He pretends to hedge, eyeing the
carton of double chocolate chip.

We settle onto the couch in the
living room with our bowls of ice cream, and I start in on my second story.

Laura’s reactions are as I
expected. “Oh my god,” she intones several times.

Jonathan, however, is a bit
clueless. “Who is this Bryn person?” he asks. “Wait, is Bryn engaged to Mike?”
“You mean Katie got divorced? When did that happen?” By the time I get Jonathan
up to speed, I ‘m exhausted.

“How are you going to tell her?”
Laura wonders.

“I don’t know. I can’t even imagine
it. But telling her is the right thing. Right?”

Laura nods.

“She won’t thank you, though,”
Jonathan adds.

“Mom told me to be prepared for her
to get angry at me.”

“Who knows how she’ll react,” Laura
says.

“Katie is pretty cute, from what I
remember.” Jonathan furrows his brow as though trying to call up her image.

“She’s gorgeous,” Laura replies. “I
have to say, compared to Katie, Bryn isn’t much in the looks department.”