Just a Little Hope

by Amy J. Norris

  Carter sank down into his recliner, knowing this wouldn’t be a short story. He answered at all the appropriate times to his mother’s complaints about his wayward sister’s antics but found his thoughts eventually drifting to a spunky redhead in pink high heels and his growing desire to see her again.

  Chapter Seven

  Every time Tori looked at the clock, it seemed only one minute had passed since her previous glance. Would this day ever end? Not that she was anxious to have Carter call back. She ran her hands through her curls. Who was she kidding? She was desperate to hear his voice again. There always seemed to be a hint of laughter in everything he said, like he’d never experienced sadness. She could appreciate that part of his personality.

  Tori had to think hard to remember the last time she had felt actual despair over something before Pax’s wreck the previous week. Maybe back in high school when a classmate had died during their senior year? But even then, she couldn’t recall truly being soul wrought over something. Perhaps it could explain her attraction to Carter. Well, besides the obvious good looks. From the twinkle in his blue eyes, to an ever-present hint of a grin on his face, Carter Manning liked to have fun. Tori could empathize completely.

  She took a sip of the tea from the glass beside her computer. Should she hazard a look at the clock again? Giving up before she even thought otherwise, her eyes brightened to see the display read 4:15.

  “That’s close enough to call it a day in my book.”

  She stared at the phone, willing it to ring.

  Nature called. She squirmed in her seat but forcibly put the thought out of her mind.

  Five minutes passed, then ten, and the phone just continued to just sit there, mocking her. And her need to use the ladies room only grew.

  “What was I thinking, drinking tea at a time like this?”

  Frustrated, she waited one more minute and then darted from her desk to the restroom door at the corner of the lobby. As the door to the restroom closed behind her, the shrill ringing of her office phone greeted her ears.

  “What? No way. Not now. Oh, well.”

  She sighed in disbelief and ran back through the door towards her desk, tripping over the decorative rug spread out in the center of the lobby. Hoping to catch the phone before it switched over to voicemail, she slid around the desk and picked up the receiver. As she put the phone to her ear, she heard a gentle click and a dial tone.

  “You have got to be kidding me.”

  She pressed the message icon on the phone and at the prompt entered her password. Within seconds Carter’s voice came across the line.

  “Hey, Tori. It looks like I missed you. I thought the office was open until 5 p.m., but I could have that wrong. I don’t have another number for you so I guess I’ll just try and catch up with you once we get back in town.”

  She collapsed into her office chair. She’d missed his call, and with it she’d missed the opportunity to have dinner with him for at least a week, if not more.

  But the message continued…

  “This may sound crazy, but you can text me if you want. My number is 314-555-7823. I have my phone with me all the time, well except when I’m on the field. It would be kind of weird to have it out there while I’m trying to catch fly balls…”

  She grinned at his rambling.

  “Text me if you want. Maybe we can meet up before I leave for Colorado. See ya’ later—Jessica.

  She reclined back in her seat. Tori knew the grin on her face had to be at least a mile wide.

  Tori picked up her cell phone and pushed the icon for contacts and entered his number. When she started to put “Carter” in the field for name, she hesitated then giggling deleted the characters. She typed in a new name. Oh yes, that worked much better.

  Now to come up with something clever to text.

  ****

  “Carter, you look like someone stole your puppy. What’s wrong?”

  Carter quickly stuffed his cell phone in his back pocket and glanced over to Pax being wheeled out of her temporary bedroom and into the den by Janet.

  “Oh, nothing’s wrong. Just trying to get in touch with someone. I got their voicemail. How are you feeling today?”

  “I’m feeling a little more human each day. Mom’s going to take a break and have dinner with her friends. I think Seb’s going to order pizza. Interested in joining us?”

  “I don’t want to intrude. I didn’t even think before showing up over here.”

  Janet lined up Pax’s wheelchair beside Carter’s chair. Once she set the brakes, she kissed Pax on the head. “I don’t think it’s a bother. Pax is probably thrilled to have another face to look at besides mine for a while.”

  Janet grabbed her purse from the coffee table and slung it over her shoulder. “I’ll have my cell with me if something comes up.”

  “Have a good time!” Pax waved as her mother left the room and then turned to face Carter.

  “So, Seb said you’ve got a little crush on Tori.”

  Her words felt like a fastball to the gut, and he reeled back in his seat. “What?”

  “Carter. The first thing you need to know is there are no secrets between Seb and me.” Pax leaned back in her chair, “so spill.”

  Still shocked by Pax’s pronouncement, Carter swallowed before he formulated a response. “Well, I mentioned to him I thought I might ask her out sometime.”

  “And did you?”

  “Kind of. But I don’t think she’s interested.”

  Pax reached over and placed her hand on his arm. “Carter, how did you kind of ask her out?”

  Fidgeting with the hem of his T-shirt, Carter waited a few moments then raised his head to look her in the eye and told her of the brief conversation he’d shared with Tori that morning. “…So I waited until around 4:30, which I thought was close to the end of the day and called, but all I got was her voice mail. I guess if she was interested, she would’ve waited for my call.”

  “Hmm. You guess so, huh?”

  “Well, maybe. I think she was a little ticked off at what happened at the hospital and—”

  He stopped when the alert of a text message sounded from his cell phone. Pulling it from his back pocket, Carter couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his cheeks when he saw Tori’s name. He’d read her text later when he was alone. But the part of him that was so worried now relaxed. She’d contacted him. Whew.

  “Good news I take it?”

  Carter tugged his eyes from the screen to look at Pax. “Yeah. It’s a text. From Tori. I’ll read it later.”

  Pax laughed and her face brightened. “Ah-ha! So maybe you don’t have her as figured out as you thought?”

  “Maybe so.”

  Seb entered the room and leaned over to give Pax a kiss on the cheek. “What’s got you so tickled, babe?”

  Pax reached over to take Seb’s hand. “Oh, just getting entertained by Carter here and his attempt to understand Tori.”

  Seb shook his head and laughed. “You can give it the good college try, but I don’t think anyone will truly ever understand that girl.”

  Seb released the brakes on the wheelchair. “Come on, sweetie, let’s grab some sunshine for a few minutes.” He motioned in Carter’s direction. “You coming?”

  “I’ll be out in a moment. I need to answer this text.”

  “Sure you do. You tell Tori we said hello.”

  The heat coming over his face couldn’t match the apparent joy Pax was finding in his situation. “Thanks. Get out of here, why don’t cha’!”

  Carter watched them until Seb situated Pax out on the deck. He marveled at the gentle way Seb cared for her. Those two were so crazy in love it was almost sickening. Almost. Carter tamped down a bit of jealousy as he watched them sit beside each other holding hands. Could he and Tori be like them one day?

  Good grief. You haven’t even had dinner yet.

  He picked up his cell phone to read her message, chuckling to himself as he did.

  “Leave it
to you to time your call when you knew I would be away from my desk. You planned it that way, didn’t you? I almost broke my neck trying to answer the phone. You about owed me not only dinner but a doctor bill to boot.”

  Chapter Eight

  Tori sprinted up the stairs to Pax’s apartment. Upon entering, she sat at the dining room table to thumb through the mail she’d picked up on her way into the complex. Tossing junk mail to the side, she gathered the important pieces into a pile to take to Pax the next day after work. Surely she should have heard from Carter by now. Tori slipped her cell phone out of her purse and checked for a new voicemail or text message. Nothing.

  Sighing to herself, Tori kicked off her shoes. She padded barefoot down the hallway to the closet that served as the laundry room. Tori reached for the cat food Pax kept up on the shelf over the washer and heard the gentle meows of Pax’s cats greeting her.

  “Hey there, kitties. Are you hungry?”

  She filled their bowl and changed out their water in the nearby bathroom sink. After checking her phone a second time, Tori plopped down on the floor next to the cats and rubbed their silky fur until soft purrs filled the room.

  “You guys are lucky, you know it? You don’t ever have to worry about dates or dinner or cute guys with enchanting blue eyes leaving rambling voicemails.”

  The cats’ only response was to continue purring.

  “I think I have a case of texter’s remorse. Can there be such a thing? What do you think, Ace? Was I too sassy in my response?”

  The solid white feline curled onto her back and rubbed her head against Tori’s hand.

  “Of course I wasn’t too sassy. I mean, I was just being me. And I’m not that sassy. Really. I’m not.”

  Checking her phone a third time she double-checked she had the ringer on. Yep. And at full volume. Why hadn’t he replied?

  “Maybe I’m just a little bit too sassy for my own good.”

  Tori continued her ministrations, occasionally mumbling under her breath to her two loyal listeners until the dinging of the cell phone caused her to jump. The two furry creatures skittered away in fright. “Sorry guys!” She called after them.

  Her hands shook as she picked up her phone.

  “So instead of dinner and a movie, you’re thinking dinner and an ER visit? It would make for an interesting first date I guess.”

  A grin slid over her face. Tori bit her lip and contemplated her response before punching the buttons on her phone.

  “Well, since we met in a hospital parking lot, the ER might be apropos.”

  She could barely contain her nerves as she waited on Carter’s response. How did people in the olden days make it when all they had was the Pony Express to get the word out?

  Laugher rippled through her when she read his response. He was clever, that one. “Apropos? Your phone speaks in languages mine doesn’t recognize.”

  Tori’s text shot back, “Sorry. I didn’t realize your phone wasn’t bilingual.”

  Tori scooted back across the carpeted hallway until she was leaning back against the wall. Straightening out her legs, she crossed her ankles, pink toes glistening in the waning sunlight shining through the windows of the open bedroom at the end of the hall.

  “I’m not even sure this phone knows English. It’s always auto-correcting my messages into gibberish. See. I had to hit backspace a bunch because it wanted to say “gibberisj”. What’s gibberisj? Ewok speak?”

  She snorted when she read his comment and typed her response.

  “I think gibberisj came up because you’ve typed it so much it thinks it IS a word. Or perhaps your phone IS bilingual. If so, then may the force be with you.”

  Ace and KC crept back down the hall and lightly stepped around her. She stroked each one as she waited for what had to be an entire minute before her text message notification sounded.

  “I will never get the last word with you, will I? J How about this then? Let’s forgo the text messaging for an actual face-to-face dinner tomorrow night. No ER visit afterwards (unless something unexpected happens at the restaurant). Although with you at the table, one might never know.”

  “Well, he’s a smarty pants, isn’t he?” Tori spoke loud enough KC mewed in response. Her fingers quickly punched in the words to her next text, and she pushed send.

  “Dinner sounds great. Text me a time and place tomorrow. Oh. I’ll be sure and pack my bulletproof vest just in case.”

  Tori hopped up off the floor and shoved her phone back in her purse on the table. Grabbing up the pile of mail, she grinned to herself.

  “Yep. I always get the last word.”

  ****

  Carter stared at his cell phone and shook his head. He couldn’t decide which he liked more, Tori’s adorable comebacks or the fact that she didn’t back down from anything.

  Rubbing his eyes, he took notice of his surroundings. The streetlights were coming on one-by-one as dusk encroached upon the late summer day. He glanced at the clock on the dash and realized he’d been sitting in the car texting Tori for the past fifteen minutes. Seb and Pax no doubt wondered what in the world he’d been doing in their driveway since he’d left them with the remains of the pizza they’d ordered for dinner.

  Carter snickered to himself. Tori always seemed to have a ready reply to his teasing texts. He released a deep breath. Dating, or at least trying to date, was mentally exhausting.

  Carter cranked the ignition in his car and pulled out of the driveway. He drove out of the neighborhood, admiring the houses and immaculate grounds lined up along the road. Carter didn’t have a strong desire to be a multi-millionaire, but a nice neighborhood like Seb’s sure tugged at him. He could picture himself with a wife and kids in a similar place. Sure, Carter drove a relatively nice car. He’d purchased it on a whim after he received his signing bonus. But beyond the car, he hadn’t done much but try to put back as much as he could and make sure his folks were taken care of. His sister, she was another matter. But now, Carter found he’d actually begun thinking of a future for his family. And the image of a little girl with crazy, curly red hair running to him from the back yard calling, “Daddy,” came to mind.

  Shaking his head to clear those ideas, Carter concentrated on the road ahead. Leaving the posh world behind, Carter headed back down the Interstate toward the bright lights of downtown St. Louis and his one-bedroom apartment not far from the ballpark. The drive to the city from the suburbs would take him a good thirty minutes. Times like this Carter found perfect opportunity for reflection and prayer.

  Well, Lord. You always know what you’re doing. You knew I’d need a friend and mentor in Seb. And somehow You knew I needed someone to keep me on my toes…someone like Tori, maybe. I’m not sure where this thing is headed, but I know I’m having fun figuring it out. So thanks for always having my best interests in Your best interests. And help me to not screw things up.

  Chapter Nine

  “So, have you decided what ensemble you’re putting together for tonight’s big date?” Pax smoothed the wrinkles out of the blanket covering her legs as she reclined in the king-sized bed in Seb’s master suite.

  Tori, who was leaning against the headboard, seated on the bed next to her best friend, in disgust threw down the fork she was using to eat her lunch.

  “Well, no. The goofball hasn’t told me where we’re going yet. All he did was text me this morning and—”

  She picked up her cell phone and scrolled through her text messages until she came to his. ‘I’ll pick you up at your office at 5 p.m. Let me know if it won’t work for your schedule.’ I mean, what does this tell me? Wear what I have on? Do I need to run out and get some sweats and a T-shirt because we’re gonna hit the gym? Details, boy, I need details.”

  “Did you ask him for details? You know you have to kinda lead men to get them where you want them to go.”

  Tori rolled her eyes. “Well, I was hoping to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. Surely, he should know most girls can’t stand n
ot having plans explained to them.”

  Pax snorted in reply. “You mean he knows you are high-maintenance?”

  Tori snapped her head toward Pax in mock anger. “Listen, girlie. The only reason I’m not whopping you upside the head is because you’ve been beat up enough by doctors and nurses and whoever was driving the other car. I’m not high-maintenance. I’m just detail-oriented.”

  “Oh, is that what they are calling it now? Tori, the guy is interested in you, but he’s also trying to throw you off your game a little bit. I think he’s trying to have a little fun.”

  “Fun? Fun for whom? Not me. Tell me we’re going out, but don’t tell me where we’re going so I can plan appropriate attire. That is about as far from fun as you can get.”

  Tori picked up her fork and stabbed at the lettuce. Her phone dinged just as she put her fork to her mouth.

  Grabbing her cell from the bedside table, she then frowned when she read the text. “Hmm. Well, if he’s trying to give me more information, this doesn’t help.”

  “What’s he say now?”

  “Hope you’re interested in something off the beaten path for dinner.”

  She handed the phone to her friend. “How do you interpret this? Do I need hiking boots?”

  Pax laughed. “I don’t think I would take it that way. Write him back, and tell him you can handle whatever he’s got planned. Act like this doesn’t bother you a bit. It’ll confuse the stew out of him.”

  “You think so, huh? Alrighty then.”

  Tori took the phone back and proceeded to tap out her response. “There. We’ll see if this little ditty warrants a reply.”

  “I’m almost afraid to ask. What did you say?”

  “What you said, in a way. Here, read it for yourself.”

  She handed the phone to her friend and went back to attacking her salad, albeit a little less furiously this time.

  Pax read the message and returned the phone to her. “Well, it will certainly give him something to think about.”