1. The morning following the Dundies, her head hurts and when she comes into work, she puts her head on the desk and tries to block out the florescent lights. She hears someone come in the door and she somehow just knows that it’s him by the sound of it. She manages to turn her head so her cheek is on the desk and she can watch him hang up his coat. When he notices her, he smiles this really gentle and understanding smile that reminds her of a look her mother used to give her when she was sick. He comes behind her desk and places a bottle of aspirin in front of her and then a bottle of water. She slowly lifts her head from the desk and smiles at him.
Later, she’s back to normal and she almost bounces over to his desk and returns his bottle of aspirin (which he’ll later place back on her desk, because he bought it for her) and says, “You’re a lifesaver.”
He asks her which flavor just to watch her cheeks when she laughs.
“Cherry.”
2. He drives her home on a night when Roy goes out with the guys and Angela has a bible study meeting. This is the first time she’s been in his car and it’s so clean that she laughs at him for it. It smells like glass cleaner and those disposable cleaning wipes.
“You were hoping I’d need a ride home today,” she says, narrowing her eyes at him.
“What?”
“Your car was obviously just cleaned. You even vacuumed,” she laughs, pointing at the mats on the floor.
“I just happened to clean my car out over the weekend, because it needed to be cleaned. That’s all.” He rolls his eyes, but he’s grinning as he starts the car and reaches quickly for the volume knob, because the music had been loud when he was alone.
“I think it had something to do with me.”
She smiles out the window and the car ride to her house seems shorter than usual.
3. The first time she goes over to his house is strange. It’s a Saturday in October and she has no reason to be going to his house, but she’s bored and Roy’s off somewhere without her so she gets in her car and tries really hard to remember his address.
When she pulls up in front of his house, she sits in the car for a long time. His car is in the driveway so she knows that he’s home. She tries to imagine him inside, moving around the place he thinks of as home. She wonders what he’s doing. Laundry, maybe. Or watching TV. She feels this strange warmth fill her as she imagines him ironing his work shirts.
She finally gets out of the car and is standing at the front door, ringing the doorbell. He answers the door in jeans and a t-shirt like she’d thought he would. When he sees her, he smiles.
“Hey! What are you doing here?”
She freezes. What is she doing here?
The t-shirt looks old, like he’s been wearing it since college. Like them hem of it would be soft beneath her fingers.
“I just wanted to see you.”
4. Roy’s asleep and she’s standing by the window that looks out onto the mountains. It’s not the best view, but the snow glistens beneath the moon and she presses her hand against the glass, pulling her robe around her even tighter. The window pane is cold in contrast with the heat of the room and she holds her palm there until her skin warms up the glass.
She likes the sound of snow crunching. She likes the way it looks in people’s hair. She likes the way it looks when it’s fresh and untouched.
She turns around to make sure Roy’s still asleep. He’s sprawled out on his stomach, snoring gently and so she finds her cell phone in her purse and pads softly across the hardwood floors which creak anyway. She closes the bathroom door gently and sits on the edge of the tub.
She breathes in and out for a moment, staring at the tiles on the floor. Then she dials his number before she can change her mind.
She realizes its three in the morning only when he answers and his voice sounds thick with sleep.
She doesn’t say anything for a second and then, “I love snow.”
“I know.”
“I miss you.”
5. He stares at her and his thumb is absently drawing circles on the inside of her wrist. She pulls her arm gently from his grasp and looks down and then back up at him and then down again because his eyes aren’t just windows, they’re doors.
She bites her lip and says quietly, “I don’t love you.”
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© 2006-2023 More Than That | Skin created by Kali
© 2006-2023 More Than That | Skin created by Kali