3
NATE
The limo could have waited, so just why the heck did I get out of there so fast? Heck, it wasn’t exactly the most conventional night, not for old ‘Notorious’ Nate. Sometimes I really love that nickname, and sometimes I hate it. Right about now, I’m not that hot on it.
It was pretty obvious Holly didn’t want me there. I have a reputation of being a womanizer. I’m something pretty to look at, I’m something that is fun to fool around with. Women always want me when they’re drunk, but sticking around the morning after, it’s usually a different story. I guess I’m just a fun ‘one time thing’—and honestly that suits me fine. I’ve somewhat perfected the art of random hookups over the years. First, I never bring women back to my place—I always go to them. Second, I never stay over. Once we’ve had our fun and the night is done, I pack my things up and head off. Most girls don’t seem to mind this, in fact most of them seem to prefer it that way.
Holly and I didn’t sleep together, but it almost feels like I broke that second rule last night. If getting sprayed with a fire extinguisher wasn’t sign enough that Holly wanted me out, I don’t know what is. Something stubborn came over me though. I didn’t want to leave, I felt comfortable just staying there with her. She ruined my clothes, and that was excuse enough to shower and stay a little longer, then God gifted me another one when I realized Holly couldn’t cook. I wasn’t actually that hungry, but she seemed mortified enough as it was, and she needed food to help with her hangover. I was just being friendly by sorting breakfast out.
Then I ran out of excuses, and I had to get going. She didn’t want me there anyway, and it probably already felt awkward enough for her. It’s weird, but it didn’t feel awkward to me. Not even the tiniest bit. I’ve never had a one night stand where things felt normal in the morning, which is why I don’t stay over. Again, I know it wasn’t a one night stand, but it sort of felt like one.
Man, Charlie is going to love hearing about this one on Monday.
I take the limo back to Natalie’s depot and lock up the office behind me. My pickup is still parked around back from the night before, and I drive it back to my place.
Home is a picket fenced property in old suburbia. The neighborhood I live in is fairly rural, but it’s also close enough to town that it’s not too far to grab essentials when you need them. I bought the place a few months ago on a nickel and dime and I’ve been doing it up in my spare time ever since. The house isn’t much, but I’ve added a lot of value to it with my adjustments, and it’ll make a great family home one day, if I ever get my act together.
I go around the side of my house and head straight for my workshop. It’s the place where I get all my thinking done, and the only place where I can express what’s on my mind. The workshop is full of custom furniture I’ve built over the years, along with my sculpture work. The notepad on the workbench is the first thing I grab when I have an idea for a new piece. As it just so happens, an idea has been forming in my head since I woke this morning, and I need to put it down onto paper.
Twenty minutes pass me by in a concentrated blur. I set the pencil down gently, then I pick it up again and gnaw at the end while I stare down at my sketch. I realize that I’ve drawn her. It’s Holly’s face.
Okay, there must have been some crazy chemicals in that fire extinguisher, because you’re losing your mind.
Why? Because this is the first time I’ve ever thought of a girl after leaving her place? We didn’t even sleep together. I look around the workshop for a block of wood that’ll work. I clamp it down, pick up a chisel and start hammering away. Artists have muses all the time, I’m probably just feeling inspired by her face for some reason. It’s probably just a phase, and once I get the idea of her face out of my mind, I’ll be fine.
I spend the rest of the morning working at the block without taking a single breath. I’ve made some good progress, but there’s still a lot of work to do. The rough shape of her face is starting to take place. It’s not a patch on the real thing, but the room already feels brighter because of it.
It’s just a phase. It’s definitely just a phase.
*
The weekend passes in its usual way. I spend most of my free time in the shop working on passion projects, and I potter around the house finding random jobs to work on. My phone is in its usual constant state of action, with girls messaging me non-stop around the clock asking if I’m good for a hookup. Usually I’m out and about having a good time in the bars, but this weekend I’m not really feeling it. I don’t really know what’s got into me, but I’m not in the mood this time.
Monday swings around, and it’s time to get back to the grindstone. I hop in my sky blue pick up and drive over to Golden Meadows, and settle down behind the sawmill for a few hours.
Tales of my heroism have spread across the site thick and fast and it seems I’ve adopted another nickname this week—‘Superman’. The day passes normally enough, and as more and more tenants start to move in, there are more requests for assistance with random bits of help around the estate. Thankfully there are no more incidents with runaway strollers or bored housewives.
Lunchtime arrives, and Charlie asks me to head into town with him to pick up some things from the hardware store. After we pick the things up, we grab some sandwiches and eat them while shooting the shit in the back of his truck. The day is hot, and we’re parked up in a lot that backs onto the mall.
“So.” Charlie says. “Give me a run down of the weekend. What did Notorious get up to this time? Tame anything wild?”
Sure, if you count escorting a drunk girl back to her house and falling asleep with her cat as wild.
“Nothing to report this weekend padre. It was a purposefully quiet one.”
“Gah. You’re killing me Nate.” Charlie reels back and shakes his head as if he’s disappointed in me. “I can only take so many reruns of Millionaire. I’m relying on your stories to keep things interesting. Didn’t you meet any girls while working the limo?”
There were plenty of messages from interested girls after the fact. I’d handed out plenty of business cards to advertise the limo business and there were a few calls, but none of them were regarding the service, they were about me.
“Well—I did meet this one girl.”
A toothy grin spreads across Charlie’s face, and he leans forward. “Here we go.”
“She was super drunk.”
He raises a solitary eyebrow, as if to say—’Really?’—like me, Charlie has standards, and he projects those expectations onto me. I give him a quick run down of the night and leave out the part about Holly being my latest sculpture. After he finishes having a good laugh about the fire extinguisher incident, he wipes the tears out of his eyes and settles down.
“Well there’s a modern romance story if I’ve ever heard one. Eat your heart out Shakespeare. Did you ever find out what was up with this girl?”
“No. It felt like it was still too raw. Not to mention that she’s a perfect stranger. I don’t really have any business prying into her personal life like that.”
“But you’ll sleep over at her house and spoon her cat no problem.”
“Hey, I was just trying to be a good guy.”
“You are a good guy Nate, much as it pains me to say it. You might have your reputation of being a heart breaker, but you’re halfway to being decent on the inside.”
“Well fuck Charlie, keep buttering me up like this and I might blush.”
“No plans to see her again then?”
I shrug. “I doubt it. She seemed mortified enough as it is.” I pause. “Why all the interest, anyway? You know I never see girls more than once.”
“You also never stay over… and you’ve never come back to work without something juicy to tell me.” He runs a hand through his silver beard slowly as if he’s thinking something over. “Take it from an old timer like me Nate… I’ve listened to you tell a lot of stories, and your eyes never quite lit up like they did just now when you told me about her.”
I shoot my eyes down to the bed of the truck, worried they might betray something inside of me. In my retelling I made sure to mention Holly’s complete transformation from night to morning. She was beautiful enough as it was during the night, even if she was sad. The morning was a different thing altogether though. She’d come downstairs with no makeup, in pajamas and with her hair up in a loose bun. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful girls in my life, but I’ve never seen anything like that before.
“That’s what I thought.” Charlie says while nodding his head wisely. “Your silence says it all. You should track this girl down, give her a call, you never know, she might be the one.”
I roll my eyes and finally bring myself to look at Charlie, who is sat there smirking back at me. “Whatever. You want anything else from town?”
“Indulge and old man, go get me a muffin from Starbucks.”
“Aye aye, captain.”
I hop out the truck bed, jog across the hot car park and cross the street to the cafe over the road. It’s lunchtime, so things are busier than usual naturally. I realize I’m in the same area of town I was in the other night when picking up the employees from the PR company. I’m halfway to wondering if Holly would be somewhere around here when I run into a woman while rounding a corner. We both stammer apologies and have to do a double take when we realize who it is.
“You!?” Holly says, pulling her eyes from her phone and focusing them on me.
“Me.” I say calmly, trying to quell the storm that’s raging inside of me.
Her face twists into a picture of concern. “You’re not following me are you? I can’t deal with a stalker right now.”
I can’t help but laugh. “I’m just enabling my boss’s sugar addiction and making a cupcake run. You?”
“I work around here. Remember? My office is just over the road.”
I glance back and see the spot where my limo was parked the other night, turning back, I see her eyes dart up from my chest.
“Is there a lot of demand for male strippers / limo drivers in the middle of the day?”
“Strippers? Huh?”
Her face blazes red. “I’m sorry—I thought that’s what you are. Isn’t that how you get so many girls?”
“I’m a carpenter, the limo job is just a part time thing I do on the weekends.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
The air quiets between us and things suddenly get awkward. The animal part of my brain takes over, and I wonder what she’d look like pressed against the wall with my hands around her waist. Judging from the way her eyes keep flicking across my body, it’s a safe bet that her thoughts aren’t exactly verging on wholesome either.
“Why don’t we grab a drink sometime, me and you?”
Holly’s face twists into a false grimace. “What makes you think I want to go for a drink with you?”
“I did watch you drunkenly stumble down a gangway while calling me ‘mister sexy driver man’… did you forget about that?”
Judging from the way her cheeks go bright red. It seems she did. “I was too drunk, okay? I’m sorry I made a fool of myself in front of you, I promise you’ll never have to see me like that again. Good day Nate.”
She turns to leave and panic rises in my chest. “Wait!” I shout, terrified that she’ll be gone forever if I let her leave. She stops and looks back at me.
“I’m sorry—I wasn’t trying to make fun of you. I just meant that I’d be interested in going for a drink—if you were interested too.”
The hardness in her face melts away and is replaced by an understanding softness. She brushes a lock of blonde hair off her face and her lips curl into an embarrassed smile. “No, I’m sorry—I’m not having the best track record for social grace these past few days. A drink could work, but it’s just a drink… nothing…”
“Sexual?”
Her eyes flash at mine and I see a torrent of emotion swimming deep beneath their surface. The way she looks at me does something to me. It makes me feel funny, but it’s not in a way that is purely sexual. There’s something else in that look that makes me feel something I’ve never really felt before. I’m stood there trying to understand it while my jaw flaps up and down, making me look like a priceless idiot.
“Let’s just think of it as a thank you for looking after me on Friday night.”
“And an apology for spraying me with a fire extinguisher on Saturday morning?”
She drops her head into her hands, and I can’t help but smile.
“I am so, so sorry.”
I laugh, breaking the tension between us. “It’s all right, honestly. If anything it was a good story. My boss got a good laugh out of it.”
She pulls her head from her hands, and my heart stampedes in my chest. All I want to do is rush forward and kiss her. But I don’t.
“I’ve got your number.” She says. “I’ll message you.”
“Sounds good.”
And then she’s gone, and I’m left standing there on the sidewalk feeling like the world’s biggest moron. Just what am I doing running around after this girl, anyway? Why did I gun so hard for a drink with her? Even now, I can feel my phone going off in my pocket, as my Inbox fills with offers from women that would take me at a moment’s notice. I haven’t read a single proposition all weekend, and now I run into Holly again, and turn into a stammering idiot.
I grab Charlie’s sugar and head back to the truck.
“What’s with the massive smile plastered on your face?” He says while firing up the engine. “Cute barista? Get yourself a date? Notorious Nate finally back in action again?”
I look out the window toward the spot on the street where I bumped into Holly, aware of the massive smile that is fixed on my face.
“Something like that.”