Unlikely Friends

When we arrived at Allegheny General, Bennett parked and pulled out some old sunglasses from his glove compartment and handed them to me. The blackness of the slightly smudged lenses proved comforting over my strained eyes, blocking out the intensities of the sun rays and hospital lights encountered as we entered the hospital.

After an endless waste of time spent in the waiting room, which only had the redeeming quality of the Tylenol having the chance to kick in; we were brought to a hospital room at the end of the hall. I sat on the edge of the hospital bed as Bennett thanked the nurse before she exited the room.

There we were. Just me and him. We didn’t even have the comfort of small talk being made around us from the other waiting patients anymore.

Silence.

Bennett looked at everything in that room except for me. His hands buried deep in the pockets of his dark gray dress pants. Those brown eyes panned the meaningless anatomy charts and Spanish translations as he sucked his lower lip inward to bite down on it between his teeth. That was always a nervous habit of his.

Finally, he turned to me and asked something in Spanish with the slowed speech of an illiterate.

I tilted my head in confusion and annoyance before making note of the English to Spanish sign beside him that read: “How bad is your pain?”

“A six.” I replied. Though the pain was decreasing the more time was spent to let the pills get to work.

Bennett nodded his head in response, as if to agree with how much pain I was in. Though he couldn’t have possibly had any idea, I could tell he was just trying to make himself less uncomfortable with the silence.

“Why did you call into my show?” I asked him. Adjusting myself on the foam mattress so I wouldn’t sink into it, I smoothed my blazer and rested my purse to my side.

“You were talking about mending things between old friends.” He shrugged, his eyes returning to the white-tiled floor as he leaned against the billboard-covered wall. “Seemed fitting.”

“Okay, well, why now? Why not when my show started two years ago? I know I’ve talked about mending old friendships before.” Come on, Bennett. Tell me what you want. The taste of iron filled my mouth. I had bitten down on the inside of my cheek hard enough to draw blood. However, with the exception of the tiniest of winces, I kept my calm composure.

“Liz, I-” He began before cutting himself off to swallow his words, “I am thirty-one years old. Every morning, I wake up at 6 A.M. to get ready and put on the same one of four outfits to be in my car by 7, where I sit in traffic for a half hour and listen to the radio. I go to work for 7 hours and come home to an empty house and stacks of unfinished paperwork. My air conditioner doesn’t work and I can’t afford to fix it if I want to continue paying off student loans. I have no social life outside of my coworkers, and I haven’t had the time to visit my own family. Every morning I hear your voice over the radio and wonder how you made it. Did you ever expect life to turn out the way it did?”

Every morning? He listens to my show every morning? I know that wasn’t the important part of the conversation, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t flatter me at least a little. Regardless, I needed to stay focused. I couldn’t let simple statements like that get to me. I had to be impenetrable. “So, what? ‘You going through some kinda mid-life crisis or something? Call the girl you haven’t spoken to since high school? Ask her what she’s been up to?”

Bennett scratched at the back of his neck and bared his lower teeth uncomfortably. “Well, when you put it like that-”

Unfortunately, Bennett was cut off by the sound of my ringtone, muffled by my purse. I placed my bag back onto my lap and pulled out my smartphone to answer it.

“Hey, David… What?... What time is it?...” I pulled my phone away for a moment to check the time. 1:37. “Oh, I’m sorry. I completely forgot. I’m sorry I won’t be able to make it…. I’m in the hospital…. No, I’m not visiting you… Yes, I know…. I know… I just hit my head… It’s not a big deal… I’m fine… Bye.” I hung up the phone promptly and slipped it away back into my purse. When I turned my gaze back to Bennett, he seemed curious though relieved that the subject matter had changed and focused on me.

“Who’s David?” He asked with a head tilt followed by a faint smile, “Your boss?”

“No. He’s my boyfriend. I was supposed to go out with him at 1:30.” I responded simply, to which Bennett laughed in reply. However, his laughter ceased the moment he gathered I wasn’t laughing with him.

“Wait, you’re serious?” He asked, his smile fading almost instantly.

“Yes.” Is he disappointed? “Shocked?” I asked him, trying not to look offended.

“Well, yeah.” Bennett took a seat on the chair beside the bed and loosely crossed one leg over the other, his hands folded and resting on his stomach. “I thought you said you were single.”

“No,” I corrected, “I said I wasn’t married. Big difference.”

“But, Liz… You in a relationship? What ever happened to the girl who used to say love was just an excuse for people unable to take care of themselves?”

“Whoa, who said anything about love? Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, Bennett.” I removed the sunglasses off of my face, folded them, and placed them beside me on the bed.

“Alright, well… How long have you been seeing each other?” He leaned forward and uncrossed his legs, setting both feet down on the floor with his elbow propped up on the arm of the chair.

I shrugged and scratched at the back of my elbow, “Ten months?”

Bennett sat up almost immediately, “Ten months? Do you plan on getting engaged at some point?”
“It’s complicated...” I said, rubbing at the knuckle of my ring finger.

“How?” Bennett sure was interested in all of this. It was like we were back in high school.

“It just is. He has some… things… to work out.” My brow tensed, “It’s not really any of your business anyways.”

“Like what?” Bennett pressed further, disregarding my last statement.

He really isn’t going to drop this, is he? Staring at my hands, I replied with a murmur, “His wife.”

Though I wasn’t looking at him, I was sure Bennett’s eyes went wide like a six-year-old who just heard his first swear word. “He’s married? Are they divorced?”

I shook my head.

“Separated?”

I didn’t answer.

When Bennett fell silent, I finally looked over to him, but he had turned his attention to the floor with a shake of his head. “Damn, Liz….”

My nails pricked at my palms as I clenched my fists. Narrowed eyes locked on him as I cracked back, “Don’t give me that. Not everything’s so black and white. Sometimes you make mistakes. Not everyone marries their high school sweetheart and lives happily ever after, you know?”

Bennett’s eyes darted back at me. His eyebrows furrowed, but he didn’t say anything in response. I could tell he picked up on my jab against his parents. It was easy for someone to be so naive when it came to matters of the heart when they had a near perfect example to look up to. However, I looked away from him as he glared at me. Though he didn’t say anything, I knew he hated it when I pointed out just how unrealistic his worldview was. We constantly butted heads on these type of things years ago.

We really were back in high school.

Thank goodness the doctor came in shortly after to relieve the tension. I would have much rather been talking to him than Bennett at this point.