by Paul Cwalina
“Fine,” she said, “I’ll just dance on your lap, then,” she said and did exactly that. She sat on my lap and started bouncing and gyrating. Then she put her hand on my cheek and leaned into my ear to sing the refrain from the song. Then she kissed my ear.
“Cindy, you have to stop that,” I said, a bit slurred. My reaction times and reflexes were slowed noticeably by the alcohol.
She smiled and reached into her purse for her phone. She held it up to take a selfie of the two of us. She had her arm around me and took her hand and put it to the side of my head. Just before she snapped the picture, she forced the side of my head into her chest and laid her head on top of mine.
I didn’t think anything of it because I wasn’t thinking clearly. She was looking at her phone and typing something, before putting it back into her purse. Less than a minute later, I felt my phone vibrate in my jacket pocket. I looked at it and saw a notification from Facebook that Cindy tagged me in the photo that she just took and uploaded to her Facebook page.
Again, I didn’t think anything of it. Then I felt my phone vibrate again. And then again. Then again and again. I looked and I had four Facebook Messenger notifications from Jennifer. I opened it up and there was a copy of the photo that Cindy just took. Beneath it were three messages from Jennifer.
‘Nothing going on, huh?’
‘I’m done. Sign the agreement and mail it to me.’
The last message was just a crying emoji.
I immediately lost my buzz and regained my control. My heart was pounding and my stomach trembling. No, no, no, no, no... I put my hands on Cindy’s hips and in one motion lifted her off and stood up. I put her down hard on the chair. Her hands were locked around my neck and I reached around, tore them away from each other, and threw them down at her.
“Why did you do that?” I yelled. “You had no right to do that.”
She gave me an evil smirk and said, “Oh, poor baby. Is someone’s little woman a little insecure?”
“Stay away from me!” I said with a finger in her face, then I walked out of the room and stormed down the steps. Ed was walking up and I stopped him. I pointed at him and said sternly, “I need to see you first thing in the morning,”
He was taken aback. “Fine. You okay?”
I didn’t respond and left the bar. I called Jennifer the entire taxi ride back to the hotel. After the third attempt, it went straight to voice mail.
I spent the entire night awake and pacing the floor. Not once was I foolish enough to lie down in the bed. I wasn’t sleeping that night and that’s all there was to it. All I wanted to do was fly home and see Jennifer.
Chapter Eleven
My eyes were heavy and itchy, my body was worn and fatigued, and my mind was raw when I showered and got ready for the day. It was only my nerves, on edge anticipating the meeting with Ed that propelled me into the day.
Heather was right on time picking me up. I told her about the previous night and pleaded with her for advice.
She sighed and hesitated. “I don’t think you want to hear my advice.”
“I know I don’t, but I’m getting the feeling that I need to hear it.”
She hesitated again, starting and stopping before she finally had the courage to speak. “I don’t think you should be here,” she said sorrowfully. “I’m sorry. I know you want to be and you love everything about it, but this isn’t home. Jennifer is your home now.”
I sighed with an acceptance of what she said. I knew it was the answer she was going to offer. “I had a feeling you were going to say something like that. It’s just not fair.”
“I guarantee that’s what Jennifer has been saying for a while now.”
I turned to look at Heather. I was struck hard again by what she said. Again, I had been wearing blinders when it came to Jennifer.
“But this is in my blood and I’m so close...” I said, letting my voice trail off a bit.
“Your baby is your blood,” she said. “And this stuff won’t mean a thing someday.”
That was the last we spoke before she dropped me off. The sun and cool air did little to wake me up and I had forgotten to grab a coffee at the hotel. The stairs to the second floor seemed higher that morning.
Ed was already in his office and I had no energy to wait or drag it out. I was completely unprofessional and rude walking into his office and sitting down, not once asking if I could. I just started talking.
“Ed, are you happy with my work?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I mean really happy, as in you’d do anything to keep me on board.”
“We have no budget to pay you more. Sorry.”
“No...I’m not looking for more money. I need to get back home. I need to work remotely. I’m sorry.”
“What do you mean remotely? Teleconferencing or whatever?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, I can email you the speeches. You can email back the edits...or at least get Katie to do that for you. I can participate in the Monday meetings via Skype or speakerphone. I don’t need to be in this office every day.”
“For the love of God, what’s Skype?”
“Video chatting. It’s like Face Time.”
“And Face Time is?”
I sighed. “Not important, but you’d see my face and hear my voice, but that’s not the main thing here. I just need to work close to home.”
“What brought this on?”
“Well, two things, really. I have a woman back home who’s pregnant and I need to be with her. And second, Cindy has become a major problem.”
“Cindy is a problem?” he asked seeming to be genuinely shocked. “Why Cindy?”
“There’s obviously another side to her that you haven’t seen.”
He seemed upset that I would make such an accusation. “Look, if you want to get out of this office, that’s fine, but you don’t have to make up an excuse or try to smear someone innocent.”
Innocent? I’ll take Last Word You Would Use to Describe Cindy for $500, Alex.
“Um, Ed, I don’t know how to break this to you, but Cindy is not what she seems. Did you see the dress she had on last night? Do you not think that was completely inappropriate?”
Ed let out a small laugh. “You’re the fashion police now?”
Okay, did I just make a wrong turn into an episode of the Twilight Zone?
“Ed, I’m talking about the Cindy that’s an assistant here. She had on a red cocktail dress last night that covered less than half of her body.”
“What is the big deal? So she showed a little skin. So what? I didn’t hear any complaints.”
I must be over-tired here...or I was dreaming last night...or I’m dreaming now.
“Rick won last night, right?” I asked.
Ed just looked at me like I was completely out of my mind. “Uh, yeah...by eight points. You were there.”
Okay, I didn’t dream last night happened. It actually did. That’s a good start.
“Hang on,” I said and pulled out my smartphone. “I’ll show you.” I opened up Facebook and searched for Cindy’s page in order to show Ed the photo she posted of the two of us. I pulled up her page, but the photo wasn’t there. Not only that, but in the only photo I found on her page, she looked like a mousy librarian. “All right, I don’t know whats going on here, but let’s just stick with the pregnant woman back home,” I said. “I need to be there for her. If it doesn’t work out after two weeks, I’ll come back here, okay?”
Ed drew a long drag on his cigarette and blew out the smoke as he rubbed his head and looked down at the desk. “Fine, but if I have any problems with it, you’re back here on a daily basis. Got it?”
“Got it. Thank you. I appreciate it. You won’t regret it.”
We shook hands and then I couldn’t resist. “Ed, do you mind if I say something? I have never seen anyone smoke inside of a building. Aren’t you afraid of getting caught? Or afraid someone will say something?”
He let out a small chuckle and then lo
oked at me and said through a disappearing smile, “I’ve been smoking for over forty years. My boss is one of the most powerful people in the country and the rent we’re paying here is fifty percent higher than they normally get in a non-election year. So ask me your question again?”
I just put up my hands and let out a tired smile. “Okay, I get it. Did you ever think about quitting?”
“No. What’s the sense, now?”
“Then do it for your wife.”
He let out a short laugh, “Which one—my first, second or third?” I smiled uncomfortably back at him. Then he continued, “Washington, DC is my wife. The women I married were just mistresses.”
“Okay, I’ll let it go,” I said. I left his office and went to my desk to write Rick’s Miami speech and to book the next flight home. As I wrote, I kept a browser window open to search travel sites. The best I could do was a mid-afternoon flight. I had hoped to be out of there sooner, but I took what I could get.
I finished writing the speech and sent it to Ed with a request that he wouldn’t look for edits to be done until later that night. I took a taxi to the hotel to get my luggage and to check out and then onto the airport. I did my best to get some sleep on the flight home, but I was asleep for only a few minutes before I was jarred awake by the plane hitting some turbulence causing my head to bounce hard off the window. I never got back to sleep.
From the airport, I took a taxi home to drop off my luggage and then straight to Jennifer’s. It was already dark and there was no car in the driveway. I rang the bell twice, but there was no answer. There were a pair of rocking chairs on the porch so I rested in one. I pulled out my laptop, plugged it into an exterior receptacle, and fired it up. I found a Wi-Fi connection that was not secured by a password, so I got online and checked my email. It was mostly routine stuff with the exception of an email from Ed with his edits and a blank one from Cindy with the subject line that read “We’re not done...”
I opened Ed’s email and was relieved to find only some very minor changes, which I made quickly and returned to him. I deleted Cindy’s email and put the laptop away.
I leaned back in the rocking chair and waited for Jennifer to come home. It wasn’t long before the fatigue and boredom teamed up to put me to sleep. I didn’t know how long I’d been sleeping, but I woke to a ridiculously bright flashlight in my face and the sound of a man trying to wake me up.
“Sir, please wake up,” the disembodied voice said. I squinted and struggled to regain full consciousness. “Sir,” he continued. “My name is officer Kozlowski with the Kingstowne police department. Can you hear me and can you understand me?”
“Yeah, loud and clear,” I said, trying to shield my eyes from the obnoxious light.
“Sir, the woman that owns this house called us and asked us to escort you off her property. Do you understand?”
“I just want to talk to her.”
“Sir, I need you to get up out of that chair. I need you to stand up, sir.”
I rubbed my face and then pushed myself up and out of the chair. I was still groggy and stumbled a bit.
“Sir, have you been drinking tonight?”
“Drinking? No. I haven’t slept in a couple days, that’s all. I’m just here to talk to her.”
“Sir, for whatever reason she doesn’t want to talk to you, so I think you should call it a night and leave her alone for now. What do you think?”
“I’d really rather just stay here and talk to her,” I said. I turned a bit and said into the dark, “Jennifer, are you out there?”
“Sir, I really don’t want to arrest you tonight. I really don’t want to do that kind of paperwork tonight. So, as a favor to me, will you please just leave this nice woman’s property?”
“What’s the big deal about some paperwork? It’s just words,” I said somewhat sarcastically.
“Sir, this is my last nice sentence to you. The next one will start with the words ‘you’re under arrest’. Do you understand?”
“Okay, I’m sorry. Can I wait here for a taxi?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t let you do that.”
“Can you give me a ride home?”
“Where do you live, sir?”
“In the city.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. That’s out of my jurisdiction. I can’t leave my jurisdiction while I’m on duty, sir.”
“Okay, take me to the city limit and I’ll walk from there.”
“If I agree to do that, sir, will you leave this property right now?”
“Yeah, just let me get my laptop case.”
“I will get that for you, sir. Do not move toward the bag.”
“Fine,” I said and watched as he opened the bag and removed the laptop and checked the bag for weapons.
“Okay, sir, I’m allowing you into my car, so I’m going to pat you down for weapons. Is that fair, sir?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said, embarrassed as I held my arms out straight. He did a quick pat-down and handed me the laptop case. We walked to the car and I saw Jennifer seated behind the wheel of her car staring straight ahead. She didn’t turn her head or acknowledge me in any way.
The officer and I chatted about women and children as we made our way through Kingstowne. I told him to just drop me off at the most convenient point and thanked him for the ride. From where he dropped me off, the shortest distance home was to cut through the heart of downtown, which I did.
Before I realized it, I came upon the plaza in front of the Schmidt art museum. Almost involuntarily, I stopped and looked around. I saw the rain from the night of the fundraiser. I saw and heard Chelsea laughing. Then I saw the dimly lit museum across the way. As if I had no choice, I simply gravitated toward it. I walked up to the glass doors and looked in. I saw Chelsea again explaining the works to me, guiding me toward the Vermeer painting, and I saw me pulling away from her the night of the fundraiser to talk to Sarah. I bowed my head and rested it against the doors. “I’m so sorry, Chelsea. I’m so very sorry”
I turned around and slid down against the doors and sat on the stone walkway. I rested my elbows on my raised knees and buried my face in my hands. “How did I get here? What is happening to me?” Then the fatigue and emotions got to me and I broke down and cried into my hands. I cried with no concern about where I was or who may have been around, though I was grateful for the downtown being deserted. When I was finally and fully drained, I simply fell asleep. At some point during my sleep, I laid myself down on the walkway and used my laptop case as a pillow.
I dreamt of Chelsea. She was walking away and I tried to catch her and get her to turn around. I kept following her and pleading with her to turn around. Suddenly she was behind me and then she spoke to me. “I am coming and I will be with you.” I had no idea what she meant but I was mute and couldn’t ask. Then she said in a soothing voice, “Go to Jennifer and I will be with you.” I wanted to scream, “What do you mean? I don’t understand! Stay with me, Chelsea,” but my lips wouldn’t move. Then all Chelsea would say is “sir.” She kept repeating it. “Sir...sir...”
Again, I woke to the ridiculously bright light from a flashlight shining in my face. A woman’s voice was saying, “Sir. Sir, we need you to wake up.” I looked up and saw two police officers bent down over me, one female and one male. “Sir, let’s go. You can’t sleep here.” I shot up into a seated position and turned around to see the museum lobby through the glass doors.