14
Sophie
Five o’clock never took so long to arrive for anyone. There were times when I looked at the clock in my classroom, and I could swear the time was standing still or moving backward. Every ten minutes felt like an hour as I tried to do whatever I could to occupy my mind. I must have straightened the bookcase in my room twice, I put up new posters, restocked my supplies, and even clapped the erasers even though they hadn’t been used for months. Finally, when it was about ten minutes to five, and I couldn’t take the waiting anymore, I packed up my belongings calmly, closed the classroom door and practically leaped into Mary’s classroom.
She was still sitting at her desk working on her lesson plans. I stood in the doorway and tapped my foot on the floor repeatedly, so it echoed up and down the empty halls. She took a sly glance over at me and placed her pen down on her desk. She slowly closed her laptop, stretched and yawned for a minute, and stacked and re-stacked at her papers until I groaned in frustration. She broke out into a big grin.
“Okay, let’s go,” she said as she rose from her desk chair.
I was giddy with excitement. We made our way down the hallway quickly, but as soon as we got close to the main office window, we slowed down and moved quietly passed. We didn’t want to arouse any attention from Kenny, who was surely still in the office passing the time shredding papers or sharpening pencils. I crept passed the window and spied him organizing something near the main desk, with his back to the window. Once I was passed, I waved Mary on to come towards me. She tore down the hall to get beyond the window as fast as possible. We then ran like schoolgirls, holding hands down the hallway, until we were outside.
Mary started to climb into her car and said to me, “Why don’t you ride with me? We can leave your car here.”
“What for?” I asked her, innocently.
Mary sighed at me. “Suppose Travis is there, you hit it off, and you end up going home together in his car. You don’t need a car there.”
I blushed at the thought of that. “That’s… that’s not likely to happen,” I said to her, trying not to feel too embarrassed.
“Of course not,” Mary said, rolling her eyes at me. “You’ve only been waiting for the guy for fourteen years. How silly of me. Okay, suppose you want to have a drink or two because you’re so nervous about meeting him. Sound more plausible to you, Ms. Ingram?”
As much as I didn’t drink, tonight might be a night where I needed some liquid courage to get through. I nodded at Mary and climbed into the passenger seat of her car.
In reality, we could have just walked to the Homestead if we wanted to from the school since nothing was too far to walk in Canon. Mary tore out of the parking lot and down the road as I held onto the dashboard.
“Try to get me there in one piece please,” I begged her as she took the right turn towards the restaurant rather sharply.
Mary shot me a look and smiled, and then slowed down to a crawl as we got closer to the restaurant, moving at a snail’s pace as she taunted me. When we arrived at the restaurant, she pulled into the parking lot and parked her car near the entrance. Mary sat and looked at me as she turned the car off.
“What?” I said to her, feeling self-conscious. I checked myself in the tiny mirror to see how I looked.
“You look fine, Sophie, don’t worry about it. I just hope he is in there. I want to see you happy.”
Mary leaned over and gave me a hug, squeezing me tight.
“Thanks, Mary,” I said softly to her.
“Now let’s go get that man for you,” she said, clapping her hands.
We both got out of the car, and we headed for the front door. Mary held the door open for me so I could enter first. I walked in and saw that there wasn’t much of a crowd in the place just yet, which was perfect for us. Mary joined me at the hostess podium, and within a moment, Maggie was greeting us.
“Well hello ladies,” she said with a big smile. “Twice in one day, Sophie? This is an occasion,” she said to me with a wink.
“You know how we love the food here, Maggie,” Mary said to her, elbowing me lightly.
“Glad to hear it, Mary,” Maggie said as she grabbed two menus. She led us over to a table in the far corner so we could get a clear look at the rest of the dining room.
“This table okay?” she asked us.
“Perfect,” I told her as I smiled back at her.
“You ladies enjoy your dinner,” Maggie said as she walked back towards the front of the restaurant.
There were just a couple of other tables taken so far tonight, but it wouldn’t be long before the place was filled on a Friday night. There were already a few people seated at the bar as well, enjoying their Friday evening, let’s-start-the-weekend-early drinks.
I tried to occupy my mind by looking at the menu, though I doubted anything on it was different from yesterday, or from when I had seen it this afternoon. I was actually starting to feel more nervous as the seconds ticked on, wondering if Travis would be here at all this evening.
A moment later, Patty was standing there in front of us to wait on us again.
“Hey, Ms. Ingram, Ms. Connors. I’m surprised to see you two here again tonight.” Patty smiled at us and held up her pad. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Cosmo me, Patty,” Mary said proudly.
“You got it, Ms. Connors,” Patty replied with a giggle. “Lemonade for you, Ms. Ingram?”
“I’ll have… a glass of red wine, please,” I said to her. Mary beamed at me and nodded in agreement.
“Really?” Patty said, sounding genuinely surprised. I just glanced up her and nodded. “Okay, I’ll put them right in for you.”
Patty walked away, and I glanced around the restaurant again, hoping to catch a glimpse of him coming in. So far, I didn’t see any sign of him or his daughter, and I was starting to get nervous that maybe they weren’t going to show. A few more tables had been filled in just a few minutes that had passed.
Patty was back pretty quickly with our drinks. She placed the drinks down and asked if we were ready to order. Mary ordered her hamburger and fries, and I found myself ordering a Cobb salad.
Patty took the order and went off to the kitchen to put it in for us.
“Since when do you eat Cobb salad?” Mary asked me.
“I like Cobb salad,” I said to her defending my new favorite meal. “it has some great stuff in it.”
“Whatever you want Sophie,” Mary said to me. She raised her glass to me. “Here’s to a promising evening,” she said to me.
I raised my red wine glass to her as we clinked the glasses. Mary took a sip of her Cosmo while I downed half of my red wine.
“Whoa, easy there Sophie,” she said to me. “You haven’t had a drink in a while; you don’t want yourself getting soused before he even walks through the door.”
I could feel the warmth down my throat and spreading to my toes already.
“I’m too nervous Mary,” I said to her as I took another gulp of wine. “What if he doesn’t show? Worse, what if he does and doesn’t remember me? Or even want to see me or talk to me? This is going to be a disaster.” Before I knew it, my wine glass was empty.
“Relax Sophie,” Mary said to me. “Everything is going to be fine. Just play it as it comes, without expectations.”
As I sat nervously fiddling with my fork, Maggie walked over to the table. Standing next to her was the beautiful red-haired girl with the green eyes. She stood nearly as tall as Maggie, had a big smile on her face, and wore a white blouse and black slacks, with a black apron around her. She was holding a small basket of dinner rolls in front of her.
“Ladies, this is Abby, my granddaughter,” she said introducing her to us. “She’s working here tonight bussing tables. Abby, this is Ms. Connors and Ms. Ingram. They are both teachers at the middle school here.”
“Nice to meet you both,” Abby said politely as she gently placed the basket of bread on the table.
“Nice to meet you, Abby,” Mary chimed in as I stared at Abby in awkward silence. I wanted to say something to her, but nothing seemed to be coming out of my mouth.
Maggie could see I was a little taken aback. “Abby, Ms. Ingram is an old friend of your dad’s,” she said.
“Oh yeah?” Abby said with interest as she turned her attention to me. “I haven’t met many people that knew Dad when he was younger, other than Grandma,” she said with a small smile. “So what was he like when he was my age?”
“Well,” I managed to croak out. “We weren’t very good friends until we got older,” I said to her, feeling my face redden. “We did know each other when we were younger, but we didn’t hang out much. I do remember that your Dad was always friendly and nice to me though.”
“Too bad,” she said to me. “I was hoping for some dirt on him,” she said with a bigger grin. I laughed out loud, feeling a little better.
“Okay Abby, back to work,” Maggie said to her, hustling her back towards the kitchen.
“Nice to meet you both!” Abby shouted as she moved away.
“Well at least you know he’s still around if his daughter is still here,” Mary said to me, snapping me out of my haze.
“That’s true,” I replied. “But I think that makes me feel more nervous because it means Travis is more likely to show up here.”
Patty appeared at our table once again. “Would you ladies like some refills?” she asked us.
“Yes, please” I whispered as I shakily held up my empty glass.
“One more for me to Patty,” Mary said to her, handing her the Cosmo glass.
Patty walked away from us towards the bar. I could see the place had filled up quite a bit by now, and there were even people waiting around at the front for tables. The bar was filled as well, making it harder to make out faces of who was here. Would I even recognize Travis if I saw him now? I had no idea what he looked like now, or if he looked the same. I kept looking around the room and then shooting frantic looks back to Mary.
“You need to relax Sophie,” Mary said to me.
Just then a tall figure appeared next to our table, casting a shadow over the table itself.
“Patty was busy, so she asked me to bring the drinks over,” the voice said as I saw the hand place the Cosmo down in front of Mary. I looked up as I saw the glass of red wine coming towards me. I mindlessly took it in my hand as I was scanning the room. As I tried to pull the glass away, I felt some resistance from the hand holding it and looked up.
“Hello, Sophie,” he said to me.
I could see those green eyes and instantly knew it was Travis. I slowly drew my hand back, trying not to spill the red wine as I put the glass down on the table. He was taller than I remembered and seemed more muscular as well as he stood with his broad shoulders. He was wearing a blue dress shirt and blue jeans, and his brown hair was shorter now than I recall it being in years past, but there was no doubt it was him. He smiled down at me, waiting for some sort of response from me.
I was stumbling for words, too shocked that he was really here, in front of me. I then felt Mary kick me underneath the table to jolt me back to reality.
“Hello… hello Travis,” I said to him very quietly. I brushed the hair out of my face, wishing I had looked different somehow right now. “It’s been a long time.”
He stood tall next to our table and smiled at me again.
“It has. Way too long of a time,” Travis said.
I could feel his eyes on me, looking up and down. I tried not to look right at him, feeling like I wouldn’t be able to handle it, to be strong like I should. Just having him next to me was making me feel weak. I wanted to just stand up and let him take me in his arms, and it was taking all I could to stop making a fool of myself. There was an awkward silence for a moment before Mary could see what was happening and intervened.
“Hi, I’m Mary Connors,” she said to Travis, sticking her hand out to break the spell between Travis and myself.
“Hello Mary,” Travis said politely as he shook her hand gently but firmly. I looked over at Mary and could see her making eyes at him, making me feel a tinge of jealousy right away.
“I’ve heard a lot about you Travis,” Mary said with a smile as she looked at me now. I knew I was blushing deeply now, feeling embarrassed that she had revealed to Travis that I talked about him.
“Really?” he said with a question, looking back at me, and then over to Mary. I thought I detected a slight blush on his cheeks as well. “All good things I hope,” he said with a laugh. He had crossed his arms over his chest now, I could see how muscular his forearms looked.
“Oh yes,” Mary told him. “Definitely all good things.”
“I would love to stay here and chat with you Sophie, but I’m tending bar tonight for my Mom, and it looks like they need me back there,” Travis said to me, with disappointment on his face. I glanced over at the bar and saw two of the waitresses frantically waving to him. “Do you think… do you think you could come over to the bar to see me before you left?” he asked me.
My heart practically jumped out of my chest.
“Sure, I think I could do that,” I said to him, trying to sound casual about it.
“That would be great,” Travis said. I could feel him looking deeply into my eyes as I stared back at him. “I’ll talk to you later then,” he said to me. “It was nice to meet you, Mary,” he said to Mary as he tapped his hand on the table.
“Great to meet you, Travis,” Mary said, trying to contain herself.
I watched Travis walk away towards the bar. He met the two waitresses and took their orders right away, and I couldn’t help but notice he was staring at me the whole time he was making the drinks they needed.
I looked over at Mary. Her mouth was hanging open a bit and then she broke out in a smile as I took a sip of my wine.
“Oh my God Sophie,” she said to me in a hushed tone. “ He is so hot! How did you walk away from that?”
I had to agree with Mary. Travis looked better than he ever had in the past. “Well, he was handsome back then, but now…” I heard my voice trailing off as I looked at him again. I could see him smile at me from behind the bar as he poured a beer for a patron. “Anyway, there were other circumstances involved back then. Things are different now.”
“They sure are,” Mary said as she turned and looked over at the bar. She turned back to face me. “He can’t take his eyes off you, Sophie.”
I don’t think I had ever felt happier in my life. Mary and I kept staring at him until Patty came over and broke up the party with our food.
“Burger medium,” she said, sliding the plate in front of Mary, “and a Cobb salad with house dressing,” she said, placing the plate in front of me. Patty saw us staring at Travis behind the bar.
“Oh yeah, the bartender tonight,” she said as she turned and stared as well. “That’s Maggie’s son Travis. He’s pretty hot, and a real sweetheart too. All the girls have been swooning over him all night long. I hear he is single too,” Patty said with more than a little interest. I could feel my jealousy rearing up again.
“Is that so?” Mary said to Patty as she picked at her fries.
“Yeah,” Patty said as she squatted down next to the table to talk to us more privately. “his daughter is working with us tonight too. She’s sweet. He’s raised her all on his own. He’d be quite a catch.” Patty sighed as she looked over at Travis.
“Patty,” I interrupted her gaze, “ can I get a glass of water please?” I said to her curtly.
“Sure Ms. Ingram, no problem,” Patty said as she rose from her crouch and headed off to the kitchen.
“Looks like you have competition,” Mary said sarcastically.
I slowly picked at my salad, finding it hard to concentrate on my meal at all. I kept glancing over at the bar to see what Travis was doing. Most of the time he was just chatting up the customers behind the bar, getting their drinks, keeping them happy. He would look over my way when he had a lull behind the bar, I would find myself quickly looking down at my food every time he did it.
“You’re acting like you’re one of the girls in our classes,” Mary said to me as she finished polishing off her burger.
“I… I can’t help it,” I said to her, admitting how I was feeling. I couldn’t get over the fact that he was here, he saw me, and he wanted to talk to me later. How was I going to manage to wait the whole time until there was a lull in the restaurant?
“I guess we’ll be ordering dessert tonight,” Mary said with a laugh.
“And coffee too,” I told her. “Lots of coffee.”