Chapter 5
The next few days passed quickly for Candice and soon enough the weekend had arrived. She tried to get Tiffany to go out for drinks on Friday but she said she had to start exercising. So Candice did what any other fun-loving twenty-something would do on a Friday night: she ordered take out and watched Netflix.
Having gone through all the Home Alone series and having been appalled by the narrow-mindedness of the 80s she found via John Hughes’s Sixteen Candles, Candice decided she would watch The Goonies.
She was halfway through the movie when she started getting Facebook notifications. Mitch had started a new account and was harassing her friends and posting on her wall.
She’s an abortionist, he’d written on her mom’s Facebook wall. Underneath his post her mom asked how to delete his post.
Baby killer! Baby killah, he’d written on her dad’s Facebook page. Underneath the post her mom again asked how to delete the post.
Candice called up her father.
“Dad?” she said.
“Oh, hey, Candice. How are you? What’s this all about on Facebook? I don’t use it much, but your sister said something to me about someone posting something on my wall. Your mother has been getting weird messages too. Who is this Mitch character? What exactly is going on?”
“He’s some guy I dated,” Candice said. “If you could call it that.”
“Why is he calling you a baby killer?”
“I got pregnant. I didn’t want to have the baby. I’m not ready for a child.”
“Having children is hard,” her father said softly. “I’m not sure your mother and I were ready for you and your sister to be honest. Things were different then, though.”
“I’m sorry you had to deal with this, Dad.”
“Whatever. Screw this shithead,” her dad said. “He seems like a real loser. Who goes around and posts shit like this on parents’ Facebook accounts? Doesn’t he know how old we are and how irrelevant this seems to us?”
“You’re funny, Dad.”
“Did I tell you about my brief stint as a comedian?”
“No.”
“Well, it’s not a very funny story. Anyway, sorry about all this. Your mother wants to know how to delete the messages.”
“It’s pretty easy you just go to the top of the message and click in the upper right hand corner. There should be a box that drops down so you can delete it. You’ll also want to block him.”
“You can block people on Facebook?” her father asked.
“Yeah, of course you can,” Candice replied.
“Oh, that’s wonderful. I’ll block him and afterwards, I’ll block your uncle. He is always posting motivational quotes and exercise videos. I only log in once a month and all I see is his saggy butt in spandex talking about how life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of our reactions. Drives me freaking insane!”
“You’re a riot, Dad.”
“Glad I can still sway a crowd. Oh, Alex said he was going to come up to Oakland for Clae’s hockey game.”
Candice blushed into the phone. She didn’t know how much, if anything, Alex had said to her dad about their liaison.
“Yeah. We might meet up for coffee,” she said.
“Sounds good. Real solid guy, that Alex. Anyways, you have a good weekend. I’m off to block your uncle. Sorry about this Facebook twat,” her father said.
“Thanks, Dad. Love you.”
“Love you too!”
Candice put down her phone and walked outside. She wanted to scream. Mitch was fucking up her life. She didn’t know what to do. She debated whether to send Facebook a message, but they were notorious for being indifferent to online harassment, and she realized that little could be done.
It was dark out. Candice looked up and could see a few stars in the sky. When she was younger, she and her father used to look at the constellations. She’d memorized where all the different planets were and could always find the North Star. She’d forgotten where some of the stars were, but she still liked looking up at them. It reminded her of how big the world was, and how small and insignificant her problems really were.
Candice sat on her front steps for half an hour, and then went back inside. She watched the rest of the movie and felt a little cathartic relief when everything ended happily ever after. She went to bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.
***
The next morning, she decided she would go on a run again. This time she ran towards the downtown area. The course that she made wasn’t straight, and so she ran aimlessly through the town. She ended up outside the ice rink. Some of the kids were walking inside getting ready for the game. She didn’t see Alex, nor did she see Clae. She didn’t really know what he looked like, but she watched as the children went inside with their heavy bags and sticks.
She ran back to her house, and on the way turned the volume up on her phone. Candice liked listening to music when she ran. She usually listened to pop music. There was something comforting about having Britney Spears blasting in her ears as she made her way back home.
When she got home, she showered and cleaned her apartment. She had some time to kill before meeting up with Alex so she started to read a new book. She got most of the way through Joan Didion’s Play it as it Lays, when she realized that she should get ready to meet Alex.
She took an Uber downtown. She was a little early to their date so she went to Dogwood, a nearby bar where she ordered a martini. The bar was full of white-collar office workers and techies.
“Did you hear about Uber coming in?” a particularly pasty looking man said to a rotund red-faced friend.
“That was ages ago,” the red faced man said. “There are people trying to block it. Can’t stand progress.”
Candice rolled her eyes and sipped her cocktail. She’d been on a vodka martini kick. When she had gin martinis, they were too herbal. It was like drinking an ice cube straight from and evergreen forest. Olive martinis created a saltier flavor. The brine of the olives covered the alcohol in the vodka on the front, but at the end of each sip Candice could still tell she was having liquor. The vodka came out. She took one of the cocktail olives off its skewer and put it in her mouth. She rolled the small ball around and then crunched down on it. It tasted richer than the cocktail and she enjoyed the delicate flavor of the vodka on the vegetable. She closed her eyes as she ate the olive.
“Am I disturbing something?” she heard a voice say. Candice opened her eyes and there was Alex. He was dressed in a button-down shirt and chinos. His shoes were as black and dark as his eyes. He smiled widely, and Candice felt herself melt a little.
“No. You’re right on time,” Candice replied. She closed her eyes again and kissed Alex. She wondered if he could taste the brine of the martini on her lips.
Alex ordered an Old Fashioned from the bartender. Candice tried it. It was sweet and richer than her drink. Alex took a sip as well, and then sat next to Candice at the bar. The two faced a row of bottles. Behind them there were a few long tables. Candice could still hear the tech workers talking about different start-ups and JavaScript.
She’d come to the date dressed well. She wore a cocktail dress that she’d bought a few months ago when she went with Tiffany to a wedding reception as her friend’s plus one. Everyone had complimented her on the outfit. The dress had a keyhole back, a high halter neck and was sleeveless. The lace of the dress covered the top of her breasts but her cleavage still peaked out. A light ribbon for a belt wound around the upper part of her waist to add a visual curve to her body. The dress was dark black, and the pencil cut of it exposed her legs to her advantage.
“I’m glad. Sorry if I’m a little late. Clae lost his hockey game today. He was a bit upset. He cried a little. Kids get really wound up about things,” he said.
“Did he do well?”
“Yeah, he actually did. Better than his last game. He was able to score twice which was twice more than last time. He also looked better in his skates. He has been practicing a lot. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
“You never played hockey?”
“Nope,” Alex said. “Too much rough and tumble for me. He grew up in L.A. and I don’t know where he got the idea of playing hockey. His mom isn’t from Canada.”
“Where is she from?”
“She’s from Miami, her parents immigrated there from Thailand. We met a while ago on a set. She was working as well. We hit it off and got married and then things faded. We tried to make it work. It was a good run for sure but we couldn’t do it. We thought it’d be best if we split,” he said.
“I’m sorry.”
“It happens. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don’t. What about you? Are you married? Is there a jealous husband waiting around the corner ready to ambush me that I should be worried about?”
“No. No. No,” Candice said with a laugh. “I have dated here and there, just got out of something weird with a guy, but I just haven’t met anyone that I’ve really connected with, you know.”
“It can be tough. There are so many variables to dating. It’s attraction, then comfort, then also there is convenience. I mean even if someone is the love of my life how am I going to spend time with them if they live in Antarctica?” Alex said.
“I thought you had a second home in the South Pole.”
“No, no. It’s actually a condo in the north. Well to be honest it’s more of a time-share slash Airbnb type thing. I only get it for a couple weeks every year. Nothing really to brag about,” Alex said.
Candice smiled and took a sip of her cocktail. She liked talking to Alex. He was clever and engaging. She felt like he was listening to her.
The two talked for a while and both ordered a second drink: another martini for Candice, a whiskey on the rocks for Alex. The two talked about Clae, Alex’s only child, and Candice’s career. Alex didn’t impose but instead let her vent some of her frustrations about being a copywriter. He asked her questions that made her know that he was listening.
When the second cocktail was done, Candice was more than ready to go home… with him.