Distance

Out for a Pint

I was in the middle of class when my cell phone began vibrating excitedly in my pocket. I ignored the call, though my curiosity was tearing me apart. I chewed on my bottom lip and tapped my pen against my notebook in agitation. How much longer until class was over?

As soon as the professor dismissed the students, I bolted for the door. I pressed my way through the tightly-packed bodies in the bustling corridor as I headed back toward the dormitories, pulling my phone from my pocket as I moved. One new voicemail. I punched in my password and held the phone to my ear, smiling as I heard an Irish accent greet me.

“Hey Maggie, it’s Robert. That idiot you met earlier today, remember? I hope you aren’t screening your calls this early on. I guess I’m probably interrupting something at this time of day, right? I sometimes forget that other people have lives. Anyway, I’ll try you again later. Bye.”

I didn’t know what to feel in that moment. I was upset that I’d missed the call, but was full of anticipation over when he would phone back. I had never been a very patient person. I made it back to my dorm and found it deserted, aside from a stack of DVDs and a note on the kitchen table.

Watch them right now Maggie!
-Breanne


I grabbed the movies and headed to my room. I wasted no time in popping the first disc into my laptop tray and settling down to watch. My breath caught as I saw Robert shrugging into an orange jumpsuit. Even through a screen, he was really quite attractive. I’d previously had no idea that this show existed, let alone what it was about, but I found myself completely enthralled in it. I was already on the third episode when my phone lit up with a new call. I pressed pause on my laptop and answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Maggie?”

I grinned. “This is Robert, I presume?”

“You would be correct,” I could hear the smile in his tone. “What are you doing right now?”

“Nothing that can’t be put off until tomorrow,” I replied promptly, hoping that I didn’t really sound as desperate as I thought I did.

“What’s your address? I’m going to pick you up and we’ll go for a pint.”

I smirked. It was like he knew me already. I gave him the address to the dormitory. “Let me know when you’re getting close and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

“I’m not allowed to come up?”

As if on cue, I heard the front door close as one of my roommates came home. “Not just yet. It’s nothing personal, I just don’t want to get anyone here worked up about me going out somewhere with a guy. They seem to think that I’m some helpless little foreigner that can’t go anywhere without one of them tagging along to keep me safe. I don’t want any of them to try and come with me.” I left out the part that I now knew that at least one girl here was a huge fan of his. I still didn’t know if the other two even knew who he was.

“Well I guess that’s fair, then. I’m actually not that far away. Meet me in ten minutes, okay?”

“Alright, sounds good.” I hung up, then closed the screen on my laptop. I ran around my tiny bedroom, touching up my makeup and grabbing a sweater from my closet before pulling on my shoes and sneaking out of the dorm. I knew that even if my roommates caught me and questioned me, I wouldn’t have told them just who I was going to meet. Still, it was easier to just avoid them altogether.

I was bouncing on the balls of my feet, watching anxiously through the clear glass doors in the lobby. When a sleek black car pulled up, I somehow knew that it was Robert. I pushed my way outside, feeling a crisp breeze against my face. Robert was standing up, and when he turned and saw me, he looked mildly surprised.

“You’re quick,” he grinned.

I felt a blush creep into my cheeks, once again hoping that I didn’t seem desperate. “Yeah, I guess,” I said airily.

Robert gestured toward the passenger door, implying that I should get in. I pulled on the handle as he folded his long limbs behind the steering wheel once again. Once I was safely inside, he shifted into first gear and pulled into the street.

“So, where are you from originally?” he asked, starting off with a casual icebreaker. “I mean, your accent kind of gives away the fact that you didn’t grow up here.”

“That’s some crack detective work you’ve done,” I said. Immediately, my cheeks coloured in a deep blush. Sarcasm was such a reflex that I couldn’t seem to turn it off. I gave him an apologetic smile. “I mean, I’m from Canada.”

If he was offended by my somewhat insulting demeanour, he didn’t show it. “Oh really? I’ve just gotten back from there. It was really quite lovely.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You’ve been to Canada? What part?”

Robert smiled at my piqued interest. “Toronto mostly,” he said. As my face fell, his smirk widened. “I take it you aren’t from that area, then.”

“Not even close,” I admitted. “I’ve actually never been further east than Winnipeg before. And I didn’t even mean to get as far as Winnipeg. I was on a road trip with a friend, and when I fell asleep he just kept going. We wasted so much gas, and our families were so mad that we didn’t come home for two extra days, but damn it we had fun.” I paused, smiling faintly at the memory. As always, it was followed by a slightly pained pang in my chest. I had come to Ireland in an attempt to stop thinking about the fact that Kellan had left. I shook my head as if it would send the memories scattering out of my brain and into the car around me. “So no,” I continued, as if my thoughts had never gotten sidetracked. “I’m not from that area. I’m from Edmonton.”

“I’ve heard nice things about it,” he said, offering the statement as if it were a personal compliment. “What brings you to Dublin?”

I shrugged, feeling my face begin to heat up. There were a dozen different reasons that I had wanted to see this country, but the one reason that had truly pushed me into action was slightly embarrassing. I didn’t want Robert to think that I was some pathetic girl who couldn’t handle being abandoned. I was tougher than that, really. It was just that Kellan had been my best friend for several years. When he left, I felt like I had no one else. It was less painful to be among strangers than it was to be among friends and family who knew what had happened to me.

I cleared my throat. “There were a few different reasons, actually. I’ve always wanted to study abroad, and my grandfather was born here. I wanted to come and find out as much about my family as I could.”

“Well,” Robert flashed a brilliant smile in my direction. “Now you’ve got my number, so if you ever need someone to show you around, you know who to call.”

“How about if I just have really random and weird questions? The slang you guys use out here is so odd to me. There’s already been a few times where I’ve said something that I find completely normal, and my roommates have all started laughing at me.”

The car began to slow. I still hadn’t gotten used to driving on the left side of the road, and more than once I had felt the icy grip of panic in my lungs as I believed we were about to crash. So far, it hadn't actually happened. I watched as Robert pulled off of the street and into a cramped, shadowed parking lot. He winked at me as he killed the engine.

“Lesson one: we are in a car park.”

I laughed. “You see? I wouldn’t have even gotten that right!”

“You lot call it a parking lot, right?”

“I love the fact that you’ve been to Canada,” I told him genuinely. “You understand me.”

He shook his head as he opened his door and stepped onto the cracked pavement. “I won’t pretend I understand everything. Just the really common things. I’ve worked with some people from over there before, so I’ve been exposed to a bit.”

“Oh, right,” I nodded to show my understanding as I closed the car door and walked with him toward the pub. “Your brother said you were an actor. Actually, it was a weird coincidence, but when I got home one of my roommates was watching Misfits. She’s letting me watch all her DVDs so she has someone to talk to about it.”

Robert’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second. “You haven’t watched any yet, have you?”

I tried to look innocent, though I doubted it worked. “Not yet.” When he looked visibly relieved, I couldn’t stop myself from adding “Granny fucker”. Robert groaned and ran a hand through his wildly curly hair.

“So you’ve officially seen me at my worst, then.”

“If that’s your worst, maybe I shouldn’t be drinking with you tonight. I can get way more out of hand than that. Although, I can honestly say that I’ve never been with a senior citizen.”

His hand grazed the small of my back as he opened the heavy pub door and ushered me in past him. “Yet,” he muttered, though his eyes were playful.

We sat down in a secluded booth. It was still fairly early, both in the evening and in the week, and there weren’t many others in the bar. The lighting was dim, but still bright enough for me to be able to see everything about Robert. His facial hair was just long enough to be noticeable; it was at the stage in growth that usually resulted in a creepy-looking pedophile moustache. On him, for some reason, it made him look a bit distinguished and older. I guessed that he must have been somewhere around twenty-five.

“So, aside from Misfits, what have you been in? Anything I’ve seen?”

He slid his jacket from his thin shoulders. “Ummm… Season of the Witch, maybe?”

I scoffed. “Nic Cage freaks me out. I avoid his movies. Sorry.”

He chuckled, and his entire face lit up with his grin. “That’s fair. He’s a bit odd. I just finished this one film for The Mortal Instruments series. Have you heard of that?”

“Actually, yes. I read the books. My younger sister and I each got them for Christmas a few years back. Who are you playing?”

“Simon.”

I fought back a smirk. Of course Robert would be playing the awkward and funny friend of the main heroine. “I should have known. Even just from the few conversations we’ve had, I think you’ll be perfect. I really look forward to hearing your New York accent.”

“Stick around, maybe I’ll bring you to the premiere.”

I waved him off, knowing that the movie was probably going to be released months after I had gone back home to Canada. We ordered a couple of pints when the waitress came around to our table, and we continued to chat for a lot longer than I had intended to. As people passed by, I watched the way the shadows jumped across his face and hid in the hollows under his cheekbones. With every smile, his eyes squinted just enough for tiny, fibrous lines to gather in his skin at the corners. His light irises jumped out at me continuously, and if his words hadn’t kept me so entertained I would have been perfectly content to simply get lost in his gaze. I had never met anyone quite like Robbie, and I found myself getting completely swept up in him.

When he offered to pay our tab, I glanced up at the clock. I had no idea how several hours had managed to slip by. I had found out all about his family, as well as heard a couple of delightful stories from movie sets. I found, for some strange reason, that he seemed much more interested in my life than he was in his own jet-set adventures. He was easily the most interesting person I had ever had the pleasure of having a beer with.

“Come on,” he offered me a hand to help me out of the booth seat. “I’ll take you home.”

I smiled, but I felt vaguely sad. I wasn’t ready for this night to be over. Robert had been such an effective distraction that I hadn’t thought once about my own misery. It would be nice if he would stick around awhile longer. Nevertheless, I accepted his hand and felt a shiver race through me at the contact.

“I had a lot of fun,” I said as he started his car a few moments later. “Thank you for asking me to come along tonight.”

“It was nice,” he agreed. “I thought that maybe you could use someone new to hang out with. Would it be alright if I called you again sometime?”

I felt my heartbeat leap into a higher gear. “Sure. I’d like that.”

When he slowed the car in front of my dorm, I found that my hands were visibly shaking. I was more nervous in that moment than I had been all night. Was he going to kiss me? Should I be the one to make a move? There was just no way to know what he was thinking. Even in the light, his eyes kept his secrets well hidden. In the dark, it was impossible to tell anything about him at all.

His hand snaked over the gear shift in between us and he took my spasming hand inside of his. The quivering stopped, and I marvelled at how my fingers seemed to fit perfectly around his. Robert let out a breath that sounded somehow like he was smiling at me.

"Goodnight, Maggie. I'll talk to you soon."

I squeezed his hand gently before disentangling my fingers from him. "Night, Robbie."

I walked slowly toward the glass double doors, feeling lighter than the evening breeze that lifted my bangs gently off of my forehead. I turned back as I reached for the door handle, just in time to see a small wave of a hand before Robert drove off.