One Swinging Summer (12 page)

I laughed nervously at that. "That's true."

Did I have the nerve? Hidden in the car for his enjoyment was one thing, but this? I could picture it in my head. No one would know until we pulled up at the window. Maybe if I kept my face covered? Pretended that if I couldn't see him he couldn't see me? Or at least be able to recognize me, obviously he would be able to see me. All of me. Would he even look at my face? Oh, crap, how far do I want to play this?

I could tell I had about four or five cars to decide. There was someone at the window, and a car or two behind them. I couldn't really tell because the line turned a corner.The car in front of us was about to yell their order into the speaker, so I had a minute.

Maybe I could bluff through this. It's only one or two people in there at 2 a.m. What would I think if I was working the drive thru, and a guy drove through this time of night, with the rest of the after bar crowd with a naked woman laid out in the passenger seat? As long as she wasn't dead or passed out, honestly, I would think it was fucking hilarious. Caleb was right, I'd definitely repeat the story to everyone I knew, even any grandkids.

'Yeah, that's all well and good, if it's someone else,' I thought. 'What about me? Now?'

Oddly enough, I realized we had not moved, at all. They guy in front of us still had not ordered.

"Why aren't we moving?" I asked Caleb.

"I don't know, what are you going to do?' He asked me back, with a grin.

"I don't know."

We looked toward the front of the line and saw a guy walking, turning the corner from the drive thru window, and stopping to talk to the car in front of the one who had yet to order.

"Now what?" I asked, panicking again. This night was not turning out the way I expected. He finished talking to that car, and walked to the car directly in front of us. As he talked to that driver, I could tell he was an employee. He was probably in his early 20's, and was walking car to car.

I made a decision, and grabbed my dress off of the floor at my feet. I had it over my head, and pooled at my hips. I didn't have time to raise my hips and pull it all the way down before the guy was heading to us. As he spoke to us, I tried to pretend I hadn't been naked up until two seconds ago.

He told us that the front car at the window had died. He said they had tried to push the car out of the way, but it wasn't working, so he was having to close the drive throu until he could get the manager on the phone, or until the car was moved. We were the last car in line, so he asked us to back up and park in the parking lot so the cars in front of us could also back out. He was taking orders though, and said if we waited in the parking lot he would bring our order out to the car, at no charge.

Caleb said, "No problem," and as the worker walked back up the line of cars, we backed out and parked. I took that time to finish putting my dress completely back on. Once all the cars backed out, the guy put orange cones up, blocking the drive thru, and stuck a sign on the cones. We watched as the other cars that had been in front of us got their food from the employee and left. We were the last ones to get our food, and the guy stayed and talked to us for a minute.

"You would not believe how crazy tonight has been," he said, while thanking us for waiting. I had to laugh at that. "Yeah, it's been a night for us, too."

We left him to deal with his drive thru issues, and took our food back to Caleb's. I stayed fully dressed this time, seat upright, my head back against the headrest, enjoying the breeze on my face.

When we got inside, Caleb put the food on the dinning room table and grabbed me. "The food can wait, I had plans for your naked self before our detour was cut short with dead cars and re-dressing. Right now I am hungry and tired, but before I can be bothered with that, I need you. Now."

CHAPTER 15
THE PHONE CALL

After Friday night started and ended so dramatically, the rest of the weekend seemed rather tame. Saturday started out with another great breakfast, waffles this time, and bacon. Always bacon.

Caleb had some work to do on his truck, so he pulled it around to the side of the house, and spent the afternoon under it. I spent my afternoon reclined in his chaise lounge, reading a book, and harassing him under the truck. It was relaxing, I was a limp noodle of contentment when it was time of figure out dinner. We weren't meeting anyone tonight, so we kept it casual. He knew a great place for fried chicken, and we planned to go to a movie afterward.

I was grateful, actually. I was enjoying the down time. I took a quick shower and we headed off. When he pulled into a gas station a few miles away, I assumed he needed gas in the truck. But no, this was his fried chicken place.

"You get your fried chicken from a gas station?" I asked him. "Do you have a death wish? Where do you get your sushi? A shoe store?"

"I don't eat sushi."

"Oh good, me neither. I just assumed anyone who ate gas station chicken must also eat raw fish."

He smiled and said, "You will be singing a different tune when you leave here. I can't believe you've never had Lisa's chicken, come, let me share the food of the gods with you."

"Uh huh."

We walked in and the line was ten deep. It took me a minute to realize that the line was not to pay for gas, or lotto tickets. All these people were in line for Lisa's Fried Chicken. We ordered and sat at one of the few tables. Most people took their chicken to-go, but when our order was ready we sat right back down at the table.

I took a piece, mainly to humor Caleb, and because I was starving. I figured I would be a sport and try, but I planned on filling up on popcorn at the movie instead.

I think I ate more chicken than he did. "Oh my goodness, this is so good. It's so crispy, and juicy. This is better than Popeye's, and I love Popeye's. Who knew?"

"Everyone but you, apparently."

He was right. As we ate I watched the line. It was constantly full, they were cranking chicken out by the bag. Many people came in and skipped the convenience-store line, making a bee-line for the chicken. "Where has this place been all my life?"

"I told you," Caleb said. "Nothing but the best gas station chicken for you."

The movie was good, I didn't think I'd have room for popcorn after that chicken, but apparently relaxing all day works up a large appetite. I had candy too.

Afterward, we went back to Caleb's. He poured us each a glass of wine and we relaxed some more on his back patio, with a fire in the fire pit.

"It's been a hard day," I teased Caleb.

"Somebody's gotta do it, might as well be us, right?"

When the fire burned out we crawled into his bed, and stayed there through most of Sunday. I had not slept that long in years. We got up, had coffee and breakfast, and crashed again on the down stairs couch. We never left the house all day. It was heavenly. I can't do that very often, I get antsy, but curled up with him, the entire day passed and I barely noticed.

He invited me to stay again Sunday night, and let myself out Monday morning while he was at work, and I took him up on it. Monday I woke to more coffee, made some toast, showered, and locked up. Back to the real world for another week.

Friday night came once again. I had to work late to make up for missing last Saturday, and planned on missing another one tomorrow. I wasn't sure how long I'd work, so I made plans to meet Caleb at the bar Friday night. We could always leave one car at the bar, ride to his place together, and pick the car back up some time on Saturday.

When I got to the bar, I made my normal pit stop at Lana's bar and got a drink. I walked around greeting everyone, and looked for Caleb. I wasn't sure if he was here yet or not. I had tried to call him to let him know I was on my way, but he didn't answer. I left him a voice mail, but he never called me back.

I saw his group, hugged Mark and Maria, and waved at Robert and Jean over the table. The two girls weren't here yet. "Where is Caleb?" Maria asked me.

"I guess still at home, I had to work late, so we didn't ride together," I explained, "But he should be here any minute, he said he would meet me. I just figured I would be the one running late."

"Here, have a shot," Maria flagged down a passing shot girl, "We will just have to start without him."

About an hour later, I still hadn't seen Caleb. I left the dance floor, returned Gary James to his girlfriend and went outside to call him. As I dialed his number, I had those damn stomach butterflies again. Only this time, it wasn't from nervous excitement. This time, it was dread. Something wasn't right. Again, his phone went to voice mail. "What the hell?"

I paced back and forth outside the club, wondering what to do? Go by his house? Wait here? Call again? Go back inside and pretend everything was fine? I just wish I knew whether to be pissed or worried. Was it a cop thing, and he was hurt? Was it a blown-off thing? We had only been dating three weeks. Surely he wouldn't just disappear.

'OK, this is stupid, calm down.' I told myself. 'There is nothing to worry about until there is, so, go back inside, trust that this will be explained, and wait.'

The phone rang in my hand. Caleb. I took a deep breath. 'Be light, be breezy, don't be all clingy, freaked out girlfriend, its only been three weeks. Answer the damn phone, this is your explanation.'

"Hey, there you are, we're all at the bar already, what's keeping ya, handsome?" I answered, knowing somehow that everything was about to change.

"Hey, I am so sorry, I was dressed and headed out the door, but you would not believe what happened. Five more minutes and I would have missed it." He said, sounding happy, but odd.

"What? What happened?" I asked, starting to relax, he was alive, he sounded good. Surely all my worrying and dread was for nothing.

"I was literally walking out the door when my house phone rang. I stood in the doorway for a second, keys in hand, trying to decide if I should bother answering it or not. No one calls that line. Something made me pick it up though, and I am so glad I did. It was my ex-girlfriend Tammy."

And there it went, my heart dropped into my stomach even as my brain tried in vain to see how this was a good thing.

"You're glad you answered it? What did she say? No one is ever glad they answered a call from an ex."

"Yeah, but it explained so much. We talked for three hours. I was irritated at first, that I stopped what I was doing and it was her on the other line. I was a bit rude at the beginning, but I guess she expected that. She said she was calling to explain and apologize." He was speaking fast, excited.

"OK, hang on," I gamely tried to keep up. "Who is she? You said you hadn't dated in a long time, and you've never mentioned her. Back up and start from the beginning."

As he started to tell me the story, I leaned my back against the wall in front of the club, and let my knees give. I slid down the wall, sitting with my knees hugged to my chest, and tried to feel happy for him.

"She used to live here, with me. I still have a bunch of her stuff, up in the attic. She didn't have my cell number, because I changed it after her, but she remembered our land-line number, it's been the same for years. We lived together for about four years, and broke up about three years ago, and I hadn't heard anything from her since then.

And, well, to make a long story short, one day she just left. She said she was done. No explanations, she packed some of her stuff, and left. I waited to hear from her, I called her, I left her stuff where she had left it for a long time. One day a few months later, I came home from work after a particularly bad day and saw all of her stuff just laying around. So I scooped it all up, dumped it in the attic, and shut the door."

"Wow." What more could I say?

"When she called, she apologized right off the bat. So, I sat down on the couch and heard her out. It was stupid stuff, we had been fighting, I had been acting jealous, she left for the weekend, really. But she said that every time she tried to come back, early on obviously, she just couldn't. She wasn't ready. She didn't know what to say, how to explain, so she didn't. And then a week passed, then a month, and then it was just too late. You can't come back from that.

Talking to her brought back so much, and since so much time had passed I was able to ask her questions, calmly. And she answered them, calmly and honestly, and before I knew it, three hours had passed."

"Wow," I said again. "That was weird. Are you coming here now? You can tell me more, and have a drink, blow off some steam."

"No, I don't think so. I think I am just going to skip it tonight. I have a lot to think about, it hasn't all sunk in yet."

"So you aren't coming?"

"No, I'm not up for it tonight, tell everyone I'll catch them next week."

"OK, will I see you tomorrow?" I asked trying not to whine 'but, what about me?'

The line was silent. OK, now the shock was beginning to wear off, and I was starting to get pissed. Are you kidding me? I get blown off after a phone call?

"She asked me to meet her for lunch tomorrow." He said quietly.

"And you're going?"

"I don't know. I told her I have to think about it."

"Do you? Do you really have to think about it?"

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I mean, your live-in girlfriend walks out on you, disappears for years. You have moved on, you have a life now. She calls you up out of the blue and that's it? You're blowing off everyone else? You really have to think about whether you want to see her?"

Silence. Oh, God.

"Would you go back to her?"

More silence.

"I don't know. I don't think so, but..."

"But what?" I interrupted. "This is insane. Are you telling me that you are dumping me for the possibility of your ex?"

"Well, no, not really, I was hoping you would understand, maybe give me some space, you know, to see her, and to decide..." He was rambling, and I was seeing red.

"To decide? Oh, hell no. You were hoping I would wait around to see if I got picked? Are you fucking serious? Look, I get that it was weird. If it was me, if my ex had called, OK maybe we talked for three hours, sorted through some stuff, explained a few things. I'd get off the phone and come meet you. I would tell you about the weird experience I had just had, and how it threw me for a loop, but it wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't change the fact that I was dating you now, and that he lost his chance. I wouldn't blow you off..."