Last-Minute Love (Year of the Chick series) (19 page)

It was hideous.

These grey days and weeks were starting to blend together, with my best friend missing-in-action and Erik nothing more than a memory I tried to avoid.

My only response was to stomp through the
snow in anger, leaving big splashes of ugly slop in my wake.

The surrounding
yuppie-pedestrians hated me for this.

I didn’t care.

***

Two
nights later in the bone-chilling cold, the snow fell fast as I trudged my way to Union Station. Just for the extra insult, big gusts of wind kept slapping me around. I tried quickening my pace, but slipped and fell on a patch of icy sidewalk. I landed on my hands and knees, and immediately started to cry. It was a low moment, in the summary of events from my life.

A gloved hand in a wool coat reached out to help me up, and for a second I thought it
was just like the movies, where some knight in shining armour would swoop in out of nowhere and change the very course of my life.

I turned to him as I stood back up.

He was practically seventy years old.

Welcome to real life…

***

Less than an hour later, the train pulled into the station and I raced to my car.

Please let this day end fast.

I blasted on the heat and huddled up, letting my head fall hopelessly on the steering wheel.

And that’s when my
phone started to buzz.

Noooo...

Of course it was Erik and of course I was here in my car, dreading a tough conversation. What was the deal with my car, anyway? Was it a magnet for bad conversations? There was that time over a year ago, when James essentially told me I was nuts, and now there was Erik, who was calling to tell me...to tell me what exactly? There was nothing of any use he could say to me now.

Feel
ing enough frustration to at least instigate a fight (
I’m an
Aries ‘til the bitter end
), I grabbed the phone and scowled at Erik’s picture on the screen.

But it wasn’t his picture, or any picture at all. Instead it was some local number I had never
even heard of.

I remembered a
recent conversation at work, when Eleanor had mentioned she’d be getting a new cell phone; had they forced her to get a new number too?

Only one way to find out.

“Hello?” I said cautiously.

“Babe
you had me nervous,” said a man’s slick voice. “Since when don’t you answer on the first ring?”

What in the WHO
?

“Excuse me?”

“Oh I’ll excuse you nice and good. Why don’t you come over and I’ll show you?”

“Uhh...”

“Hey why are you acting so weird? You aren’t with Joe again are you? You said you two were through!”

“Who the fuck is Joe?”

“Uhh...”

At last I had his
attention.

“So we’ve est
ablished that I’m not your ‘babe,’” I said. “Now do you mind telling me how you got this number?”

“
Well she just moved and got a new number; I guess I put it in wrong.” This guy was sounding dopier by the second.

“Well it’s important to
‘put it in’ right!”

He laughed. “
Now that I’ve got your number we should meet up some time...what’s your name?”

Was this really happening?

“Listen buddy,” I said, trying my best not to smile. “I’ve got enough problems. But thanks.”

“Well if you change your mind...”

“Okay bye!”

I hung up the phone and started laughing, louder and louder by the second. By the time I finally stopped
to catch my breath, I realized something very important: sure I’d lost a best friend, and sure I’d lost a guy who I’d probably spend the rest of my life thinking about, but at least I still knew how to laugh...

Chapter Seventeen

Clack, clack, clack.

The man-heeled shadow of Shawn hovered over me.

What now?

I turned around and managed a halfway smile. “What’s up?”

He looked nervous, as he rubbed the orange bristles of his
nasty goatee.
Barf.
“I just got out of a meeting with senior management, and they decided we should redo all the promotions for the second quarter.”

My jaw dropped. “Why?”

“Because whatever we have now? Well they’re just not ‘feeling it.’”

I raised an eyebrow. “
What exactly are they supposed to be feeling? And did you manage to tell them we’ve been growing year-over-year, and store traffic is trending up? Or how about the fact that all the products are ordered and we can’t just randomly change everything!”

“Hmm...it would’ve helped to have you in that meeting.”

“Well what DID you say?”

He stared at me blankly.

I shook my head. “This can’t work. They can’t expect changes without looking at the facts.”

Shawn laughed heartily. “Facts? What do facts matter when they’ve made a decision? It may not make sense, but now it’s our job to execute.”

He slid on his man-heels and turned to leave, but not before glancing at my calendar. “Oh...and I told them you’d have all your recommendations in three days. Does that work?”

I suddenly wished I was one of those fem-bots in the “Austin Powers” films, so I could shoot him in the face with my nipple-machine-guns. “I have no idea if three days is enough,” I said firmly.

He tapped on the wall of my cubicle and nodded. “Just get started and I’ll check in tomorrow,” he said, and with a quick thumbs up clacked away.

It was official: I had never worked with a bigger moron.
The one thing that shocked me most was...hadn’t anybody else even noticed? They must’ve, in which case...what the hell did it take for someone to get fired around here? Did he have to sexually harass me? Maybe I could accidentally fall into his tiny elf arms, and say that he was trying to molest me.
At least I have options.

I let out a big sigh at the state of my life, which for the moment seemed to be in both personal and professional shambles.
I still had one salvation though, and it was hiding in the bottom of my drawer. I opened the drawer and dug my arm straight into the back, pushing past the bag of organic rice cakes, the box of waterproof bandages (
you can never be too careful
), and finally pulling out a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bar.

Mmm...
Europe does it best.

I was already halfway down the slippery slope
of poor productivity, so with a mouthful of chocolate I decided to ditch my work and surf the Internet.

These days
, surfing the Internet meant checking my book sales. To my relief, sales were still steady at thirty books a day, even though it’d been a whole month since my giveaway. That was at least one reason to smile, and a second later I had another, as my phone buzzed to life with an instant message: “
Your ranking is holding steady I see. You’ve come so far this past year. I’m proud of you.
”

For a brief moment, the shit storm at work and the shit storm in my perso
nal life faded away. He didn’t say much, that guy named James, but lately it seemed to come when I needed it most. It was enough to make me pack up my chocolate and get my lazy ass back to work.

Didn’t I write a novel, after all?
This is child’s play...

***

A few hours later, with a coffee in my hand and spreadsheet print-outs scattered across my desk, I was definitely in the zone. Unfortunately my zone fell apart at the sound of my desk phone. I looked at the display and was surprised to see a call from “reception.”

Did someone send me flowers that I need to pick up? Yeah right.

“Hi Jane,” I said. “What’s up?”

“I have someone from UPS who called the switchboard for you. Should I transfer the call?”

Had someone really sent me flowers? Was it James? Because he was so damn proud of me? Maybe that’s why he’d sent that message, because he knew they’d be arriving today.
Oh James, you clever chap!

“For sure,” I said. “T
ransfer away!”

The phone beeped for a few seconds, and when it stopped I heard someone cough
ing on the other end.

“Hello?” I said.

“Hi Romi.”

Without
any warning, my heart became lodged in my throat.

I said nothing.

“Hello? Romi are you there?”

I came to my senses which really made me wonder what the hell was happening
. “Erik, why are you calling me at work? And now you’re a UPS guy?” I tried not to smile at the thought of him wearing those shorts.

“I t
hink I could do a good job at UPS.” His amused tone was one that I’d missed, but he and I were way past joking.

“Seriously why would you call me at work? So you can make me upset when I have so much to do?” I was losing any semblance of workplace professionalism, as I looked around the office to make sure the coast was clear.

“What was I supposed to do
, Romi? Every time you see my name on your phone you ignore it; I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for almost three weeks!”

I looked out the window
at the snow falling gently on the cars below. “Three weeks...” I said. “Time flies doesn’t it? Three weeks have passed and there’s three more to go. Then you’re gone.” He didn’t say anything, so I decided to vent while I had the chance. “By the way, I can’t believe you would even SUGGEST we stay in touch once you go back home.” I thought of his recent e-mail and rolled my eyes.
Maybe we can still be “friends”?! NO THANKS.

“I guess
I just hoped there was a way I wouldn’t lose you,” he said quietly. “Or maybe I was in denial.”

I closed my e
yes. “Won’t it hurt more to drag this out?”

“No matter what happens someone gets hurt. And I don’t even know what ‘this’ is.”

My eyes shot open. “Neither do I! I met you once, ONCE! And it was thousands of hours ago…and I may never meet you again.” I did another scan of the office to make sure no one heard this emo display. I spotted a middle-aged guy from the Finance department using a nearby photocopier. Our eyes met and he awkwardly looked away.
Damn, I guess my voice carries.

“I think I have to go,” I whispered.

“No wait! Just one more minute, please.”

I let out a sigh. “What is it?”

“You said we may never meet again, but what if there was another way to look at it?”

I raised an eyebrow. “What kind of way?”

“The way where we meet one more time before I leave, because if we don’t, I’ll regret it forever….and so will you.”

I put my hand over my mouth to s
top from getting all emotional, because a hand over a mouth was so damn good at preventing tears.
Right.

A
heavy silence hung in the air until I finally spoke. “You want this? Even if it screws up everything for you?”

“I want this.
Because there’s just no way I could go on with my life, always wondering about that girl I could talk to so easily, and what would’ve happened if we’d connected one more time. What about you?”

I suddenly frowned. “What ABOUT me?
I know what happens to me. I have an amazing time with you...I want you even more…and then you leave me.”

“Romi...”

“Hold on, I’m not finished!”

“Okay, sorry.”

  “I was also going to say that I realized something a while ago, I just hadn’t had a chance to apply it yet.”

“Oh?
”

“Yes. It’s something I realized
when I was talking to Cleopatra.”

He laughed. “On one of your nerdy museum visits?”

I finally smiled a little. “Yes. I realized that if you spend your whole life too afraid to ever take a risk, because you’re worried it’ll never work out or you’re worried of what other people will think, you’ll never actually end up living in the present. Ever.”

“That has never felt
truer in my life than now.”

“Agreed. Which
is why sometimes, you just have to roll yourself up in a rug---or an airplane in this case---and at least try to make the grand gesture.”

“
Okay then so here it is. Romi, in three weeks it’s my last weekend in New York.” He paused. “I want to spend it with you.”

My heart was bursting with joy but I was so afraid. And there was still a little matter to settle first.

“This is all very exciting, but there’s something we need to clear up.” I leaned my elbows on the print-outs, which had quickly become so unimportant to me.

“Is it
the New York thing?” he said. “Because believe me Romi, I would definitely come to Toronto instead of making you travel to see me. It’s just I have to wrap everything up in New York before I leave. But if you want...maybe I could visit Toronto for one day, although that wouldn’t be enough time...”

“No it isn’t that! I’ll come see you, no problem. It’s something else.”

“Yes?”

“It’s just...well
this all sounds great for you, like one last fling before you settle down, but that’s NOT what this will be.”

“I know---”

“Let me finish dammit!”

“Sorry.”

“I want you to know that if you think you can screw me then leave me, for the glory of living in the moment and getting laid by a Bollywood princess, you are out of your retarded little mind.”

Erik laughed but I could barely hear him, with the
clickety-clack of man-heels less than twenty feet away. There was a pause, after which the man-heels slid and clacked away in the opposite direction.
Phew!

“Seriously,” I went on, “m
y grand gesture does not extend beyond spending the weekend with you, because even in the one percent chance of you ever coming back, what reason would you have if you already saw the whole show?”

He laughed again.

“I SAID I’m serious
, ‘cause hopping on a plane to see you is grand enough. Like prepare to get your world rocked. But if you only want sex, then go to Times Square and find a hooker.”

“Times Square doesn’t have prostitutes anymore---”

“Whatever! You know what I mean. This weekend would be more like a beautiful goodbye. And would I rather do that in person versus over the phone?” I paused. “Yes. So will I see you in three weeks?” I paused again. “Yes.”

The other end of the phone was eerily silent. Had I gone too far?

“Are you still there?” I asked, getting more and more nervous by the second.

“Romi you are beyond scary.” He chuckled softly. “I’ll see you in three weeks.”

We ended the call a few seconds later, as I wondered what the hell I was doing with my life…