We're Just Friends: Short Story Prequel to Pam of Babylon #8
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8:55 pm
Sandra I’m getting ready to drive to Brooklyn.
Email message
9:10 pm
Thank you so much for calling. I forgot small children could be so demanding. I hope he’s settling down now and you are able to relax.
I feel as though something special was developing between us and I’m destroying it. I agree it should have never happened. I’m still not certain who’s to blame. You said if I kept harping on it you wouldn’t speak to me again, but it’s important that we sort through how it unfolded so it doesn’t occur again. If we are going to be friends, we need to keep things completely platonic.
Text messages
10 pm
Jason, so now I’m the temptress, is that what you’re saying? That is really unfair. If I remember correctly, you grabbed me and started to kiss me. Am I wrong?
10:10 pm
Sandra, no, I’m sorry, you’re not wrong at all. You were dressed so provocatively, and when you leaned in for a hug, I guess I just lost control.
10:10 pm
Sweat pants and a t-shirt is provocative? Give me break.
10:11 pm
You’d look good in a paper bag.
10:11pm
Whatever. Let’s call it a day, Jason. Obviously being friends isn’t going to work and I really looked forward to taking that boat ride!
10:12 pm
If I promise to behave myself, would you reconsider? You have to believe me that I have never done this before. I was one hundred percent faithful to my wife, Emily.
10:20
I guess you must have called it a night. I hope we’ll talk tomorrow. Have a good night.
Tuesday, September 1
Sitting at her desk, Sandra was having difficulty concentrating on work because she kept thinking about Pam. This thing with Jason, the flirtation and now his persistent emailing and texting was getting out of hand. Falsely believing she could handle him, that she’d beable to withstand the attraction she felt for him, she didn’t know if she could unless he promised to be in control.
That night on the deck with Jason proved how lonely she was. It wasn’t just Jason she wanted; it was the arms of any man around her. Knowing how vulnerable she was, calling Pam as an effort to stay in a relationship might help Sandra resist Jason. Reaching for the phone, her intercom buzz surprised her so much the phone went flying in the air.
“Oh for heaven’s sake!” Getting up to retrieve it, the voice of the receptionist came over the speaker.
“Mr. Bridges on line two, Miss Benson.” Sandra frowned, picking the phone up off the rug.
“Alison could you take a message? I was just getting ready to make a call.” Now she was certain she had to call Pam. It would be impossible for her to succumb to Jason’s pursuit if she was seeing Pam again.
“Miss Benson he’s insisting I put him through.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I’ll take the call.” She sat back down and pressed a flashing button. “Jason?”
“Hi, I’m sorry, Sandra.”
“Don’t ever do that again. This is my place of business and I’m trying to work.”
“I know, I needed to talk to you and was afraid you were putting me off.” Sandra had her first suspicion of fear.
“Jason, I think perhaps we need to put an end to this friendship. I’m feeling threatened by you now and I don’t like it.”
“Oh, no, I swear to you I’d never do anything you didn’t want me to do. If you’d rather I didn’t call you again, I won’t.”
“Well, for starters, how about you don’t insist on talking to me when my secretary tells you I’m unavailable?”
“Of course, I’ll never do it again.”
“Goodbye Jason. I have an important call to make.” To Pam. Hanging up the phone without waiting for his response, she quickly dialed Pam’s number.
“Alison, I’m on a call. If that gentleman calls again, hang up on him if he persists.”
“Yes, Miss Benson.” Pam’s phone rang through to an answering machine. Disappointed, Sandra hung up without leaving a message. What was there to say? I almost had sex with your fiancé, please call?
First Jack’s unfaithfulness, then Dan marrying Pam’s daughter, now Jason flirting with Sandra, inviting disaster.
Tuesday night, 8 pm
Valarie was gone, Brent was in his little crib, and Sandra was on the deck reading when her phone rang. Hoping it was Pam returning her call from earlier that day, disappointment set in when she saw Philadelphia, PA on the screen. Jason. Debating whether or not to answer, she gave in.
“Hi Jason,” she sang out, smiling, trying to be nice. “What can I do for you?”
“Hey Sandra, it’s good to hear you sound so chipper. What are you doing?”
“Oh, not much. Trying to relax,” she answered, rolling her eyeballs, repeating, “What can I do for you?”
“I’m taking the boat down to Cape May early tomorrow. Can I entice you to take a day off work?”
“Why isn’t Pam going with you?”
“You know she hates boats,” he said. Sandra did know it about Pam. No boats.
“Oh! You mean you’re taking it down in the water! I thought you were towing it down,” she replied, her earlier resolve smashed. She’d throw caution to the wind. “What time are you leaving? By the time I get to Philadelphia it will be almost lunchtime.”
“That’s fine,” he replied. “I’m in no hurry.” Taking the train from New York to Philadelphia was easy; he’d pick her up when she arrived at the station.
Excitement set in right away. Not so much being with Jason, but the idea that she’d get away from the office and be on the water, getting some sun. And riding in a boat would be a real thrill, one she hadn’t had since taking a Circle Line Cruise in high school. She had already forgotten her resolve to protect Pam, lured away from common sense by the promise of a boat ride.
“Thank you so much! I can’t wait,” she said before saying goodbye.
After they hung up, she called Valarie to ask if she could spend the night, just in case the trip ran later than expected. Packing for the day was as good as packing for a vacation. Going to Pam’s house in Babylon was all she’d had to look forward to for a long time.
The next morning was sunny and clear,the promise of a beautiful fall day. A car picked her up and took her to the station and she was in Philadelphia by ten. A sudden surge of heat pulsed through her body when she saw the iconic Love sculpture triggering something she’d buried deep in her heart. Forgetting to take her birth control pills during a short business trip to Philadelphia a few weeks before Jack died, she’d gotten pregnant. The memory stung, being pregnant without him ever knowing, losing the baby, the loneliness that followed. She’d made so many bad choices based on loneliness, and now she was making yet another.
A car pulling up interrupted her sad litanies. It was Jason, more attractive behind the wheel of his Bentley.
“I guess your medical practice was a good one,” she said, sliding into the car looking around. He giggled, girlish and disarming.
“Yep, I got a few perks for my efforts. This and the boat. You’ll see my house is modest for Philadelphia.” But he was being modest. The house was a huge brownstone near the river with a three-stall carriage house behind it, the upper level converted to an apartment.
“Who lives upstairs?” she asked when they pulled the car in the garage.
“My son Aaron,” he replied shortly. Sandra thought, Aaron, the drug addict? He was famous for rifling through people’s medicine cabinets and had done so at Pam’s, caught red-handed. She thought Aaron lived in California.
“Pam told me he lives in L.A.”
“She isn’t aware that he’s back,” Jason said. “I didn’t want her to worry.” He sure kept a lot of secrets from Pam. Sandra hoped there was a way of warning her friend without exposing how she found out about Aaron. She’d think of one.
They got her bag out and walked to the do
ck behind his house. “Your house is on the river?”
Giggling again, Jason nodded his head. “I’d have to have a boat here or the dock would be a waste.”
“So when you say you have a boat on the Delaware River, you have a boat on the Delaware River!” They high-fived, laughing. “Oh my God.” She stopped short of stepping onto the dock. The boat wasn’t just a boat. It was a yacht.
“How many feet is this thing?”
“Fifty, not counting the swim platform. Let me help you get on.” A young man in white pants and t-shirt took her bag while Jason stepped down into the boat, offering his hand to help her get on board.
“This is Pete,” Jason said. “Our neighborhood boatman.”
“It started right up,” Pete said. “You have a full tank of gas, a fridge full of food, the bar’s stocked, the cooler full of ice. You’re good to go.”
“We’ll ride up top,” Jason said as they walked through the walnut-paneled pilothouse, brass gleaming, the smell of furniture polish rich and clean. A half-door lead to a staircase. She followed behind him up the steep stairs, arriving at the top deck that had a beautiful view of the city. There were two swivel chairs, a small table with navigation equipment and steering wheel in front of a huge, circular couch and round table. He shouted something down to Pete, who started to unwrap the heavy cables that held the boat to the dock from the massive concrete piers. Jason turned the key and in the distance, Sandra heard the twin engines rumble. It was a boat sound, one she’d grow fond of, that would send chills down her spine later on when memories of that day came back to her.
As Jason pulled the massive vessel away from the dock, Sandra’s phone buzzed but she didn’t hear it. The caller would next ring Sandra’s house phone, trying to return a call she’d received the day before. An innocent nanny, one whose boss had forgotten to warn her not to give details of her whereabouts to anyone, answered the phone and told the familiar Miss Pam all she needed to hear.
For more Pam of Babylon Stories, check out Suzanne Jenkins' website or go to her author page on Amazon.