Sometime Soon (23 page)

“He seems nice,” I say in response
to her assessing look.

She stares at me expectantly,
wanting more.

“His voice sounds kind of funny
though. Don’t you think?”

“He sounds a little young maybe,”
she hedges.
I raise my eyebrows in response. “He sounds like he belongs in a boy band.”

“Oh my god, Andy. He does not. He’s
a good guy. You’re going to give him a chance, right?”

“Right,” I agree quickly.

She eyes me skeptically.

“I am.” I insist. “A prepubescent
voice is not a deal-breaker. That would be wrong. Right?”

“Right,” she replies sternly.

I decide to just breeze by Jason on
the way out. But there is no need for a plan. He’s no longer there. A quick
scan does not reveal him or the woman he was with, and I feel relieved at not
having to face him again. But I do feel out of sorts now. He had no right to
act so cool to me tonight. He’s the one who left me in on the street, in the
middle of the night, in the city.

When we get back to the table, I
wish that I’d thought to speak to Laura about the check while we were in the
ladies’ room. Do I offer to pay my share in this situation? My own logic tells
me that the evening has been Laura’s doing. David didn’t ask me out. That being
the case, he shouldn’t have to pay for me. For all I know, he isn’t the least
bit interested in seeing me again. If he asked me, I’d go out with him for no
other reason than the fact that Laura would strangle me if I didn’t. So I
should offer to pay my share, I decide. It’s the right thing to do.

Once the check arrives, Laura looks
like she wants to strangle me anyway. The guys reach for their wallets and so
do I. David glances at me and then back to the check again, seeming unsure of
what to do. Jonathan obliviously puts down a credit card and sits back.

“This is on us,” Laura declares
suddenly.

Jonathan turns to her surprised.

David looks from Jonathan to Laura.
“That’s not necessary.”

I know Laura is doing this to
prevent me from paying. “You were nice to enough to arrange this, but you don’t
have to treat.” I reason with her.

She glares at me, trying to be
covert about it by pasting on a smile, but her eyes are shooting darts all the
same.

“I think we should all chip in,” I
say.

Jonathan likes my idea. I can tell.

“That makes sense.” David takes out
his credit card and places it on top of Jonathan’s. I then do the same.

Jonathan looks at Laura and nods
toward the check, obviously waiting for her to put down a card and trying very
hard not to laugh.

Laura opens her mouth wordlessly
and then closes it again before turning back to us. “There’s nothing wrong with
us wanting to treat you guys. Please, I insist.” Laura is reaching toward the
small pile of credit cards.

“No, really,” I say.

“That’s right,” David chimes in.
“Thank you, but it really isn’t necessary.”

The waitress comes by, swooping up the
cards, and that is how it’s finally settled.

Across from me, Laura sits back in
her chair and sulks.

On the way out of the restaurant,
she grabs my arm and whispers. “That was ridiculous, Andy.”

I get home just after midnight,
relieved the date is done and happy to be home. I’ve been living alone for a
while now, and I really like it. I like everything about it. I like the quiet.
I like that when I put something down, it’s actually still there when I next
look for it. I like that my place stays clean and orderly. I like not having to
share the remote. I like cooking or not cooking and just eating ice cream for
dinner if I feel like it. I like having every radio in the house tuned to the
same station so that I don’t miss a note when I move from room to room.

My family worries about me. I don’t
think I’m supposed to like being alone so much.

I am still fuming from the
telephone call I received this morning when I email Bryn. I ask her if she
wants to meet at Starbucks. The reply comes quickly. She does.

Katie called while I was on my way
into work. She’d spoken to Mike on Sunday. He called to tell her that he was
staying at the apartment of a friend with whom he played squash. He inquired
about her health and the baby, and then he ended the conversation. Katie spent
the rest of the day in tears. She hadn’t brought up their relationship or their
future because his perfunctory call hadn’t invited it. “He was really cold,”
she told me. I was so angry when I heard this, I was beyond reason. I called him
every four letter word I could think of, and Katie did not defend him at all.

Before leaving to meet Bryn, in my
new role as project lead, I have a dozen or more emails to sort through
regarding project work and assignments. In addition to Nate and me, the new and
improved wireless marketing communications team includes Ken and Anand, who sit
together in the next row over and communicate with us only through email
despite being located less than ten feet away, and two people from Napa in
California whom I’ve never met.

Last night Rob emailed me a list of
current and newer customers to dole out between us. We are to talk to them
individually about their current level of satisfaction with their product and
what features they would like to see added. This is generally the first step in
defining what will be in the next release. Although, according to the rumor
mill, all future product work is still on hold, so I’m not sure what the
purpose of this exercise is. Additionally, several paragraphs of text, some fairly
technical, have to be written up in typical user-friendly fashion to be used in
various sales collateral. Basically, it’s my job to take something that’s
highly technical and likely far too complicated for the customer to actually
understand and make it seem as easy as tying your shoe.

I put together some warm and fuzzy
emails to introduce myself to the team, tack on assignment information, and hit
the Send button before heading out for a quick break. Job assignments seem
fairly obvious to me. Most of us have our customers that we communicate with on
a regular basis. I assigned new customers to the Napa folks. There is usually
some travel involved in this part of a project, depending on how much a
customer pays us and how much hand-holding they require. Generally, I end up in
Portland for a week or so, and Nate goes to Austin. One of the new customers is
located in San Diego. It makes sense for one of the Napa people to take that
one. This will work out nicely, I think.

I beat Bryn to Starbucks and debate
my beverage choice. Since my icy
frappuccinos
are likely numbered for the
season, I decided to order what will probably be my last one until next summer.
When it’s ready, I take it to our usual table outside.

A large umbrella shields me from
the bright sun, and I watch the people passing, but I don’t really see them.
Instead, I’m preoccupied with how this encounter will go. I’m not nervous
exactly, but I’m not calm either. Condensation forms on the plastic cup and I
put it on the table, drying my hand on my shorts. Those days are numbered, too.
Shorts will soon be exchanged for jeans.

“Hey.”

I glance up to see Bryn standing
beside the other chair. “Hey,” I reply.

Bryn looks the same as she always
does with her shiny bob hanging forward over her full face and her black
Life is good
t-shirt. She offers me a hesitant smile as she pulls out the
chair and sits down, her own frappuccino in her hand. “How are you?” she asks.

“I’m fine. You?”

She shrugs. “You know. SOS at work.
I updated my resumé and I even called a recruiter. I may actually get my butt
in gear and look for a job.”

“That’s great.”

“It will probably come to nothing.
But it’s a start, I guess. You? Everything okay at work?”

“I got a promotion, actually, I
think. Well, maybe.”

Bryn’s expression is puzzled.
“Okay. What does that mean?”

“I’m a project lead for a
probationary period, and if all goes well it could be permanent, which, I
think, would then be an actual promotion.”

She laughs. “That’s great.
Congratulations.”

“We’ll see.” I take a sip of my
drink. Bryn does the same. An awkward pause is filled by slurping noises.

“Look, Andy, I just want you to you
know,” she finally says, putting her drink down, “That I’m fine with
everything.”

I feel my brow furrowing. Huh?

When I don’t say anything, she
continues. “I mean, I know you told Katie and she must have confronted Mike,
and that’s fine. I figured it would probably end that way. Not that it ever
really started.”

“He’s not calling you anymore?” I
guess.

Bryn has her head bent so that her
hair is partially covering her eyes. Despite her claims of being fine, red
stains appear high on her cheeks. “No,” she presents me with a weak smile. “I
haven’t heard from him since Labor Day weekend.”

“Oh,” I reply, backtracking in my
head. That’s the weekend Katie told him about the baby. That’s interesting. I
debate what, if anything, to tell Bryn. I don’t want to tell her that Mike left
Katie. Saying that feels like too much of a betrayal. Although, now I know that
he didn’t leave her for Bryn. Maybe I can reveal some news that might help Bryn
to feel better about being summarily dropped even though I haven’t been given
the go ahead to spread Katie’s news. Seeing Bryn’s distress now, I wonder what
harm there could be in it.

“Katie’s pregnant,” I say.

Her eyes nearly pop out of her
head. “What? She’s pregnant?”

I nod.

“Oh my god. I can’t believe it.
That must be why he….,” she trails off quietly. “You did tell her what I told
you, about Mike and me?”

“I did.”

“And she isn’t angry at him?”

I’m on some thin ice now. “She
wants to work things out,” I say. That isn’t a lie.

Bryn appears to take this in.
“Well, they should work things out, right? There’s a baby involved now. What
about the wedding?”

“Wedding plans are postponed for
the time being.”

She digests this information, too.
“Do you think I should call Katie? To congratulate her?”

My jaw nearly drops. “Are you
kidding?”
“I guess not,” she answers quickly seeming to realize how inappropriate that
would be. “Well, I’m glad Mike got his priorities straight, with Katie, I mean.
That’s unbelievable.”

I watch the emotions passing across
her face. They include a certain amount of sadness, and I can’t help the
sympathy I feel. “Mike really is totally self-centered. You didn’t deserve to
be treated that way by him.”

She seems surprised and grateful
for a moment, before she waves a hand in the air dismissively. “Nothing was
ever going to happen with me and him. I knew that.” She says those words, but
deep down, I don’t know if she believes them.

“Andrea?”

I turn in my chair and tilt my head
up to find Karthik standing over me. At the welcome site of him, I can feel my
smile grow. “Hi there.”

He comes around to our table. His
black cloth laptop bag hangs down at an angle across his chest. “Working hard,”
he jokes. He appears more relaxed than I’ve seen him in months.

“Always,” I laugh. “This is Bryn,”
I say motioning toward her. “Bryn, this is Karthik. We worked together at BTS.”
They greet each other pleasantly.

“So, I hear you’re at Cronus,” I say

“That’s right. Our offices are just
up the street.” He points to a spot behind him.

“And how are things at BTS? Have
you been assimilated into the Napa corporate culture yet?”

“I wouldn’t say that. They haven’t
exactly taken over yet. But Rob made me project lead for wireless.”

“Hey,” he smiles, appearing
genuinely pleased for me. Then he furrows his brow. “What does project lead
mean?”

I chuckle. “I think Rob made it up.
This way, he gets to dump some of his work on me, and I actually have to thank
him for it.”

Karthik nods knowingly,
understanding Rob’s modus operandi. “Any word of layoffs?” he asks.

“No, not that I’ve heard.”

He seems somewhat surprised, and I
wonder if I should probe this topic further. Does he know something I don’t?

“Andrea, have you got a personal
email account?” he asks, changing the subject while reaching into his bag.

“Yes.”

“Would you mind if I emailed you
there?”

“No. Not at all,” I reply, puzzled.

When he places a pen and notebook
in front of me, I write down my personal email address, wondering why he wants
to contact me. If he knows something about layoffs, why doesn’t he just tell
me?

“Thanks,” he says, taking back the
notebook. “I’d better get back. It was good to see you. I’ll be in touch.
Okay?”

I tell him okay and wave as he
walks away.

“What was that about? Do you think
he likes you?” Bryn asks.

I sputter, nearly coughing up the
sip of frappuccino I’ve barely swallowed. “No, he’s married. With a couple of
kids, too, I think.”

“Then why did he want your email
address?”

“He specifically wanted my personal
email address. So, whatever he plans to contact me about, he doesn’t want to do
it over work email.” I glance at my watch and finish off my drink. Now I’ll be
worrying about what Karthik wants to tell me until I receive that email from
him.

“Do you have to get back?” Bryn
asks.

“I’d better.” Not appearing to
slack off seems more important now than it did a few minutes ago.

“Are we okay?” Bryn is eyeing me
expectantly.

I can’t be mad at her. “I hope so.
What do you think?”

She smiles and nods “Do you want to
do something on Saturday night?”

Katie has basically said that my
continuing to be friends with Bryn is not necessarily okay with her. But I
prefer not to let Mike cause the end of our friendship. For now though, with
everything so raw, I don’t want to do anything to antagonize Katie. “I can’t
this weekend. I’ve got a family thing,” I hedge. Which is worse I wonder,
betraying Katie or lying to Bryn?