The Woman in the Windowsill

I hop into David’s truck. “You get out early today?”, he greets with an eagerly charged smile. I look down at my watch and see that it’s only 1:45. He’s excited and doesn’t even wait until I’m buckled in before he hits the gas.

I tell him about my situation. I let him know I have a month to get my shit together and become Ross’s star salesman again, or instead I’ll become a former employee.

David tries to think of something to say to comfort me but it’s apparent he can’t think of anything. He just focuses on driving as we both sit in the cab of his truck in silence. I don’t blame him, what do you say to that kind of situation? Especially a situation that I brought upon myself out of my own misery.

David turns to look at me despite the fact he’s on the freeway. “I guess it’s a day fade then, I’ll call Joe”.

David and I escape the afternoon rain as we walk through the entrance of the bar. Joe has gotten here before us and he’s found a table for us in the barroom. He waves us down as we get in. We gather at a table and begin pouring ourselves a few glasses of orange IPA complements of David. The bar room is O’Malleys, an old favorite of ours. It’s small and cozy, maybe about ten tables and two or three booths. The rains outside make the already dim bar even dimmer. There’s a slight cloud of smoke accumulating in here, and the smell of tobacco is unmistaken upon entering. The only real source of light in the bar comes from above the pool table. The bar is mostly empty today as it’s only 2pm. The bartender keeps to himself behind the bar as he dries pints and flutes. There’s a raggedy man sitting down at the end of the bar smoking a cigar.

My two friends begin their attempts at conversation, and I reply with one word answers. The conversation begins to mostly flow between Joe and David as I gulp down a few glasses of beer. I know they mean well but I’m simply not in the mood to socialize today. Much like every other day. They’ve always had my back even in high school. We built this foundation of trust when we were together on the high school football team. Joe and I played wide receiver while David led the team as a quarterback. David was going to get a free ride to be a Badger in Wisconsin, but tore his ACL trying to run the ball when Joe and I couldn’t get open. While David is plenty street smart, his SAT scores got him nowhere and settled with a career in sheet metal.

David sits across from me with his cold glass between his two hands. He stares at his beer for a while before turning his attention to me.

“We’re going to get you through this”. I look up at him with skepticism. David repeats himself firmly. “I’m tired of seeing you throw your life away like this Brett. Camila wouldn’t want you to be like this. She’d want you to move on.” David goes on to fiddle with his baseball cap as he talks.

I give him my best nod. He isn’t convinced though.

“I’m going to stay with you a few days”, he states.

“I’m fine David. I’ll get through it, it’s just a rough patch.” I try to think of another topic to change the direction of the conversation.

“I don’t think so”, Joe chimes in. “I know we’re drinking right now, but from what I heard, you’re place is an alkie den. It’s not okay to drink that much when you’re by yourself pal”. Joe takes a swig of his beer and for a moment the only visible part of him is his double chin under the pint.

I glance over at David.

“It’s true and you know it. I’ll help you get cleaned up. We’ll hang out like we used to, before you were married and had your balls surgically removed.” He flashes his wide grin as Joe chuckles.

“Fuck you”

David laughs. He begins to look serious, and starts rubbing his stubble. “This isn’t a typical rough patch, I know you Brett.” There’s no point in denying it, he’s right. “This is something else, and while you’re out of work I’m going to get you back up on your feet.” David goes on explaining that he and I can go fishing, bowling, even throw the pigskin around. The part he elaborates the most on is cleaning up the house, which includes my pictures with Camila. I don’t give him much time to hear him out, but he quickly explains that it would be healthier to take the memorabilia of her out of the house for a little while.

“No”, I sneer. “We aren’t throwing away the pictures, they’re all I have of her.” The thought of dumping away the pictures made me sick to my stomach. David leans back in his chair and takes a swig of his beer. Joe takes this opportunity to leave to the bathroom. They both realize they hit a nerve.

“Easy, easy”, David soothes. “We’ll start with getting you a litter box for that stinky ass cat. We’ll move from there okay?”

I nod. I could go along with just taking things slow. “When you moving in then?” David can tell my voice is a little more cheery. I take another sip of my beer.

David laughs. “What you think I’ve been doing while you were at work today? I already got my shit half moved into your place. I’m happy you’re going along with the plan. I’d hate to have you move all my shit out of your place the day I just got it all moved in.”

“You asshole”, I laugh.

After we finish the pitcher, we begin to share a few laughs. I slowly start to loosen up a bit, and I start to have a pretty good time. I begin to get a tad bit excited at the prospect of living with David. I start to brainstorm on the tasks we need to get done to get my apartment back on track. I didn’t even think about the necessity of a litter box until now. It never really hit me how bad my place was until today.

Joe suddenly gestures toward the front of the bar. David and I turn our heads to see a blonde woman walk into the bar. She has long legs that seems to go on forever and light blue eyes that were now looking intensely at the options of liquor on display. She’s classy. She sports a black sweater with dark blue jeans to match.

“Whoa”, Joe squeaks. She orders a vodka coke and takes a seat by herself at the bar. She runs her hand through her hair as she hands the bartender her credit card. She brings her lips to the edge of her drink and turns to look at us, for only a moment, and then turns away.

“Go for it”, David says.

“I don’t think so”, Joe says. “I don’t think she’d go for me.”

“I know. You’re fat”, David snaps. “I’m talking to Brett.” Joe shrugs and continues to work at his beer. He continues to sneak glances over at her from time to time.

“No”, I state firmly, loosening my tie. I’m a bit buzzed but not enough to talk to her. She does come off as a bit intimidating but that isn’t the reason I won’t head over there to talk to her. She’s perfectly fine where she’s at and I’m fine where I’m at as far as I’m concerned.

“Why?”. David is bewildered. “She just turned around to undress you with her eyes man.” David raises his eyebrows as if to encourage me. He leans forward onto the table as he increases the peer pressure.

“She turned for a second. She just wanted to see who else was in the bar. As it so happens we’re the only chumps here at the moment.” My skepticism appears to aggravate David. I decide to pull on David what I did on Ross today. I subtly downplay the situation by paying more attention to the tightness of my tie than the current conversation. Like Ross, this appears to get under David’s skin.

“Brett, you’re being the chump”, he snaps. “She’s bored, she’s waiting for something fun to occur and you’re that guy.” His words don’t budge me one bit. He’s right though, she does appear to be lonely at the bar and just twiddling her thumbs.

“No means no, David”. I say it firmly as if I’m being an adult in the situation talking to a child.

David smacks his hands into his face out of disappointment. “I can’t seem to remember. Have you always been this beta?”

“Considering I’ve been married for half of my adult life, yes. I would say I’m opposed to picking up some strange woman at the bar. If that’s what you call beta then I guess that’s me. Sorry, I ain’t sorry.” The guys can see I’m starting to get pretty annoyed at the situation.

“Brett, when we first turned twenty one you were pulling a lot of strange women at bars. It was pretty much your past time. None of them, and believe me, none of them, looked like that.” He points behind his back to the woman. She’s still sitting alone at the bar sipping on her drink. Her hair flows lightly every time she brings her glass to her face. The others don’t see, but she sneaks another peek over our way for a split second before she puts her drink down onto the bar.

“I’m good”, I say. Joe puts his face into his arms on the table in disappointment. “Let’s talk about something else. Something interesting. You’re boring me.”

“Last chance”, David warns. “Or I’ll go up there and nail her on your- well I guess our- couch”. He looks me dead in the eyes as he challenges one last time for me to go make a move.

“Be my guest”, I finalize.

“Fine”. David downs the rest of his beer and trudges his way to the bar. He approaches her and the two immediately smile at each other. Joe and I assumed he used one of his pre generated pickup lines he would boast in high school. Right now he was probably telling her all about his glory days as a high school quarterback. The two chat for a few minutes and he gets her to laugh at a joke or two. But then he points to me, and she turns to look at me. She grins and he begins to also. The two get off the edge of the bar and decide to join us over at the table. The bartender and the raggedy cigar men watch in unison at the midday entertainment. David allows her to walk ahead of him. I see that her eyes are set on me.

“Brett? I’m Diane, care to teach me how to play pool?” She gestures toward the pool table on the other side of the bar. I stare down David. She appears innocent enough and she stands awkwardly at the side of our table awaiting a reply from me. I take my sweet time before I reply to her proposition.

“I think Joe here would”, I nudge my companion in the ribs. He looks at me with widened eyes and flashes a smile.

“Sure”, Joe complies. He begins to sit up when David forces him back down into his seat. “Joe, you suck at pool. Brett should show her. Brett’s always had the moves when it came to pool.” Joe looks disappointed and a bit aggravated as he slumps back down into his chair.

I decide I’m not playing this game with him. “Diane? That’s your name right?” I stare intently with her but it’s clear my body language doesn’t give off a sense of attraction.

“Yes?”, she answers sweetly.

“Not interested. See you later.” I look away from her as if she didn’t exist. I look over to Joe as I begin to make a bullshit conversation about how the beer tastes. Diane is offended as she scoffs and opens her mouth to call me something but ultimately decides to refrain from causing a scene in front of everyone. David’s jaw drops. Diane leaves us alone and mugs David as if he just stabbed her in the back.

“What the hell was that?”, David asks, flailing his arms. He puts his hand on top of his head.

“We’re just having a good time, the three of us and you bring some strange woman over here so I can fuck her. That’s what that was. I’m not interested, how many times to I need to get that through your thick skull David?”

David nods. I begin to feel guilty, but the thought of an apology doesn’t cross my mind.

“Fair enough Brett. She just thought you were cute, and I felt like introducing you two. I guess I’m a bad guy.” I say nothing. “Let’s get going boys, I got stuff to unpack at the Reckard household. We’re all out of beer and I suppose a sausage fest here is as good as anywhere else.”