Finally!The door buzzed.
“I haven’t seen you in like forever. Spill it. What’s going on?” demanded Rhonda, following me into the back room as I clocked in a few minutes late. The owner Jason hadn’t arrived yet, thankfully.
“Rhonda, we both worked on Monday,” I said.
“Duhh. I’m not stupid. Monday feels forever ago though. Come on, did you talk to him?”
“I did. We hung out actually,” I said, grabbing the broom from the kitchen closet.
I recounted everything that had happened between Thad and me the day before. The ice rink. The pool. What almost happened in my room. Her eyes widened and her jaw lowered, nearly reaching the hollow spot on her clavicle.
“Damn. He does like you.” She jumped, but a customer walked in before she could continue. “Erhh. We’re not finished.” She rushed out onto the floor as Jason entered the kitchen.
“Fancy hair.” He waved his hands back and forth.
It was in fact a good hair day. But this wasn’t a compliment, so I ignored him and started toward the connecting back room where the jewelers polished, among other things.
“Hold on.” He tapped me on the shoulder then handed me a list of chores for the day before adding, “Think you can handle that?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Jason had me run a few errands for him throughout my shift, leaving Rhonda and me little time to continue our conversation. He handed me the keys to his massive Expedition so I could move unused junk from the back room to his storage unit across town. It took longer than expected. The owner’s son was tasked with hauling all the Christmas boxes earlier in the year while I was cleaning the store and, from what it looked like, decided to shove all the boxes into the unit, leaving it to me to reorganize everything.
“Where were you? It’s almost the end of your shift,” he asked in a condescending tone upon my return.
“Half the stuff was piled to the ceiling right in front of the door. It almost fell over.”
I tried to explain that his unit looked like it was hit by a tornado. But he didn’t care and commanded me to continue working on the rest of the chores before I left.
“Right. So. What’s going to happen next?” Rhonda sneaked into the back room for a minute while Jason was talking to an important client.
“Well. His birthday is tomorrow but we’re not hanging out. I was thinking of taking him out to eat somewhere on Friday maybe.”
“Gawd you’re so cute.” She pinched my cheek before rushing back onto the floor.
My shift ended before Rhonda had the chance to ask me another question. I could have clocked out and stayed behind for a few minutes to talk to her, but I wanted to leave. The owner put me in a bad mood while commenting on my lack of upper body strength when I needed help lifting a heavy box. It wasn’t my lack of strength; it was a damn heavy box filled with precious metals.
My mom hadn’t texted me yet to tell me she was there, but I didn’t care. I needed to leave the building. I walked out into the parking lot to wait for her, then turned after hearing a voice call my name.
“Oh. Hey Dana.” I looked up at her hair. “What are you doing here?” She was parked in front of the neighboring store, a gun shop. We hadn’t planned on seeing each other.
“Your mom was running behind at the twins’ school and called me.”
What am I? A kid? Why was I left out of the loop? I really need a car.“Cool. Thanks.” I forced a smile. “I like the purple,” I said before opening the passenger door.Guess you’re going for the whole rainbow this summer.
I was thankful she put aside what she was doing to come pick me up. But still aggravated. My mom could have at least kept me updated. How hard was it to send a quick text?
Dana had something on her mind. I could see it. We were about halfway to my house when she asked how I was doing after stopping at a red light. I was looking out the window, observing the dog in the car next to us and didn’t respond until her second attempt. A snowy white Borzoi lay on its side across the back seat of the other car. I’d never seen one in person and was surprised how long their bodies actually were, compared to what I had seen on Animal Planet.
“Did you see that dog?” I pointed out the window. But she had already passed the car after the light turned green. “I’m doing fine. Not looking forward to the twins being off school now,” I said after she glanced at me.
She looked at her rearview mirror, then to the radio and clicked the button to turn it on.Oh. Well. She’s bothered.Trying to cut through the awkwardness, I continued talking, explaining that I was busy with work and maybe wanted to do something different with my bedroom. But the music continued to play.
She wasn’t buying it. She knew me better than that. I could see her from the corner of my left eye. She had been examining me, probably wondering what I had been doing since we last spoke. Before this thing with Thad, and before my dad’s death late the year before, Dana and I had shared almost everything. We were inseparable even when we got into fights. This was different.
I guess the wedge between us began as my dad was sent home from the hospital, when I started taking care of him. She let me have a little space that year after I started closing myself off. I don’t think she anticipated the chasm between us to last as long as it did, though.
What was I to do? Should I have opened up to her about how much I liked Thad and risked her disapproval again? Or should I have remained silent until the strain on our friendship became more manageable? I loved my best friend, and I really liked this guy. So I decided I’d keep quiet about it and try to balance both of them. Things would eventually mellow, and we would return to normal.