Not Desperate

Chapter Seven

“Making Plans”

Damn! I hate waking up, especially Monday morning. I hadn’t heard my alarm go off yet, so maybe I could get a little more rest. I got about two or three minutes in before I heard “Blood of Cu Chulainn” blaring through my phone. I know Michael heard it too. I could hear him moaning and groaning in his bedroom next door. I roll myself out of bed, almost literally, and grab my clothes for the day. As I walked into the hallway, I stopped at Michael’s door. “You need in the bathroom ya better go now. I’m gonna take a shower.” He climbed out of bed and walked down the hallway with his eyes closed. “Better open those eyes before you pee, boy. I ain’t cleaning that up.” A minute later, I hear the toilet flush and the door squeak on its hinges. He had his eyes open, but not focused. “Can I lay back down?” Michael whined as he walked passed me, back into his room. “Yeah. Gonna shower and get dressed. Then I’ll come get you and start breakfast, okay?”
“Great mom. Thanks. I love you.”
“Love you too, sweetie. Now sleep. Take advantage of my generosity.”
I love hot showers. The hotter, the better. Steamy, leave red marks on your skin, hot showers. After I lost all that weight when I had pneumonia a couple years ago, I get chills in sixty degree weather. I just let the water run over me and warm me up before I started to wash. It was supposed to be a beautiful, warm, sunny day. Well, not too warm, in the seventies. I could deal with that. I supposed Daryl could deal with it too. Being outside all day has to be better this time of year. It’s still hot during the fall here, but sometimes we luck out. I cut off the water and dried myself off. After putting on my uniform. I got the boy out of bed and went to go fix breakfast. This morning it’s pancakes and bacon, the dream of diabetics and heart patients everywhere. Twenty minutes later, I was putting the food on the table as Michael walked in. He hands me a piece of paper and sits down to devour his nutritious breakfast. I take the paper, grab a cigarette and my coffee and go outside to the back porch. I light my smoke and take a sip of coffee before I read the note. A field trip, a weekend field trip actually. Both of the fifth grade classes are going camping next month. Wow, even he gets to go and I don’t. I’m not volunteering for this one though. I sign it and put my cigarette out in the water bottle I keep by the chair. When I get back inside, Michael is gone, his plate clean. I snag a couple pancakes and some bacon and sit down.
When Michael reappears, he has his backpack and his lunch ready to go. “Did you sign it?”
“Yup.”
“Are you going with us?”
“Nope.”
“How come?”
“The idea of spending an entire weekend with forty ten year olds advances my age by decades, hon. My heart nor mind could handle it.”
“You could hang with the girls.”
“Not helping your case. Staying with a bunch of little girls, screaming and throwing glitter around isn’t my idea of a good time either. Besides, if I were there, you wouldn’t enjoy yourself. You’d be looking over your shoulder the whole time and wouldn’t do the things you want to do. Now grab your stuff. I’m leaving.”
When I got to the café an hour later, I noticed Beth and Amy were already there, setting everything up. “Hey girls. Been here long?”
“No, just about ten minutes,” Beth said. “Zach’s gonna be a little late though. He had to go back to his dorm room to take a shower and get dressed.”
“How in the hell do you sneak him in and out of that house, Beth? Is your daddy blind and deaf?”
She giggled and said, “That house is one hundred sixty years old. It has its secrets.”
“As long as those secrets don’t cause some unsuspecting visitor to lose a cooking hand, I don’t really want to know,” I said.
Then I heard the backdoor open and close and saw Zack in the back getting out his baking equipment. He’d make a great chef one day. I always joked with Beth that at least it wouldn’t be her responsibility to have dinner on the table every night. As the three of us began to set up the tables, Amy and Beth started talking about their weekend. They had spent it together along with Zack and Amy’s boyfriend Gareth. I was hoping to avoid entry into this conversation, but couldn’t.
“Did you have a good weekend Yvonne? You went for a girl’s weekend, right?” Beth asked.
“Went to my friend Kay’s house in Senoia. Went to a bar, met a guy. Normal stuff.”
They both stopped in mid-swipe and just looked at me. Then, in sync, they began jumping up and down screaming their head off. Dancing around me like they were going to sacrifice me to the god of coffeehouse coffee. “Yvonne’s got a boyfriend! Yvonne’s got a boyfriend!” they sang over and over until Zack came out into the dining area. “What the hell are ya’ll doing?”
“I met a guy,” I said. “They’re excited.”
“Congratulation Vonne. You get laid yet?”
Goddamn that little punk! Smartass little dick! “None of your damn business Zachary!”
“That’s a no, huh?” He smirks as he goes back into the kitchen.
“What’s his name? What’s he look like? What’s he do?” They berated me with the same questions I endured Saturday night. We had about thirty minutes until the doors opened, so the three of us grabbed some coffee and sat down to talk. I told them everything that happened the night I met Daryl. From the borrowed lighter to the kiss in this truck. “Oh my God!” Amy said, “Has he called you yet?”
“No. I doubt he will. He’s too good to want me. He can do so much better than a clingy, needy piece of shit with baggage.”
“Yes, but he doesn’t know that about you yet.” Beth deadpans.
“You’re real funny. Open the door so these fuckers can get their coffee,” I said.
Three hours later and the place was almost empty from the morning rush. “I’m gonna go outside for a quick smoke,” I told the girls and grabbed my phone going out to the back alley. I had one missed call, which I didn’t recognize, and one voicemail. I lit my smoke and checked my message.
“Hey Yvonne. It’s Daryl. Um, just realized you probably don’t recognize this number since I didn’t give you mine. Give me a call back when you can. Bye.”
Holy shit! He did call me. I hurriedly redialed his number. He answered after two rings.
“Hey Daryl. Sorry I missed your call. I’m working today and had my phone in my locker. I’m taking a break now and thought I’d check it.”
“It’s okay. Figured you’d be busy. Didn’t think much of it. How are you?”
“Doing well. Tired already. You have a good weekend?”
“I met this really cool chick and I’m wondering when I can see her again.”
“I’m sure she’d love to see you again too. You should ask her to lunch.”
“With the bad weather coming this week, probably won’t do much construction work. I could go to lunch just about any day.”
“I’m off on Wednesday,” I said. “Think I can fit you in. I could make us something and you could come to my house. Or, if you don’t want to drive all that way, I could go to you or we can meet somewhere in between.”
“I’ll come pick ya up. Take ya somewhere. You can pick it. I really don’t care where. I’ll eat just about anything.”
“Okay, I’ll pick a place. If you’re off all day, then maybe we could do something besides just lunch? It’d be a shame to drive all the way here just to turn back around and go home.”
“All right, if ya wanna. You make the plans, I’ll provide the transportation. Just text me your address and what time to be there.”
“Sure. Probably not till tonight though. When I get home from work. That okay?”
“Yeah sure. I’ll see ya then. Bye Yvonne. Looking forward to it.”
“Bye Daryl. Me too.”