It took Amy fifteen minutes to drive me home. We didn’t say one word the entire time; we had said everything that needed to be said at the restaurant. When she pulled into our apartment complex, I barely waited until the car had stopped before I was opening the door. “Wait a minute,” she stuttered out in surprise. I ignored her and kept walking. “Bye,” she shouted sarcastically. I didn’t bother to turn around when I waved her off. You could tell by the sound of her car’s tires that she was pissed.
I trotted up the steps to our second floor apartment, wanting to just get home and lock the door before I managed to stumble into another disaster; I’d dealt with enough crazy women for one night. Half-way up the stairs, I realized I could see someone’s legs sticking out from the doorway. I slowed, uncertain, half-expecting it to be some drunk vampire-hunter dropping by for a visit. Instead, it was someone who surprised me even more.
It was Holly.
Honestly, I should have known. She’s the only person alive crazy enough to fall asleep outside in the middle of winter. She had wrapped herself up in her coat, but she still shivered.
What in the world…I thought. I scowled down at her, but then couldn’t stop myself from smiling. I nudged her foot with my own. She started awake, blinking uncertainly around her. “Hey,” I said. “There’s a couch inside, you know.”
She looked up at me. “Hi,” she said, smiling to see me but still looking guilty. She wasn’t certain what to say, understandably, since the last time we had spoken two weeks ago, it hadn’t really been on the best of terms.
“Hi,” I answered. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting,” she said softly, “for you.” She gave me a weak smile. Her eyes were tense, like she’d either start crying or hug me, depending on what I said next.
“Yeah, well, you could have waited for me at Baskins and saved us both a lot of trouble.”
She wasn’t certain how to take that, her lips going from smiling to trembling about six times in the space of thirty seconds. “Sorry,” she said meekly.
“No, it’s okay.” I leaned forward, resting my forehead on my front door, looking back down at her. I was surprised my sun-glasses stayed on as well as they did. “God, you wouldn’t believe the night I had.”
“Bad night?” she asked, too amused at my position to even be borderline unhappy.
“I’ve had worse,” I admitted. “But still… A couple of gurus, Tony, a flat tire… and then her.”
“You had a flat tire?” Holly asked. “And who’s her.” It’s always amusing when you get a hint of icy jealousy from just implying you were talking with another woman.
“Yes, I had a flat tire,” I explained. “That’s why I’m here so late. And her would be the infamous Amy.”
“Ah,” Holly said, understanding. She raised her hand up, gently reaching for my sun-glasses. I straightened quickly, steadying them as I did. “They were about to fall,” she chided me.
I shrugged. “You want to come inside?”
“Sure.”
I helped her up. Her hand was icy cold when I touched it. “How long have you been out here?” I asked, unlocking the door.
“A while,” she said sheepishly.
“And how long is a while?”
“You know. A long time.”
I grinned at her. “Isn’t Brent home? He would have let you in.”
“I know,” she said. Her voice broke a little and she looked away from me. “It’s just… I wanted to see you as soon as you got home… And I’m sorry.” Her words bubbled up like froth. “It’s just, when you said I should have gone home, I thought you meant you didn’t want to see me. And I like spending time with you, and you’re a real close friend, and I know I shouldn’t have taken it so personally, but I…” She trailed off when she realized I was grinning. “Hey!” she snapped. “I’m serious here.” She took a step back, hands on her hips and eyes flashing. “Maybe I should just go back home, then.” There she was, threatening to go back to her car and drive home when she waited at my doorstep for at least an hour. The funniest part was that I knew she was serious.
“Oh, c’mon! You just got here.” I gave her my best grin and then carefully placed my hands on her shoulders. It wasn’t my fault she was so cute when she couldn’t choose which emotion to go with. “Really, it’s ok. I guess… I guess maybe I could have said that better.”
She looked up at me tentatively, looking for something on my face. For once, she seemed to like what she found. In one smooth motion she slid forward and then wrapped her arms around me tight, squeezing as hard as she could. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her words muted because her face was crushed against my chest.
“I told you,” I answered, a little unsure of what I was supposed to do with my arms, “it’s okay.”
She looked at me skeptically. “So you’re not mad?”
“No, I’m not mad.” Well, not anymore, and not at you, anyway. Awkwardly, I returned her hug, wrapping my arms loosely around her shoulders. “Christ, Holly, you’re freezing!”
“And tired,” she answered playfully, leaning her weight into me. “I guess I was out there a while.”
“How long were you waiting?”
“Promise not to laugh.”
“Promise.”
“Two hours.”
“Two hours? Are you kidding me? You could have gotten pneumonia.”
“Sorry,” she repeated meekly, “but you weren’t at Café Yoko’s, so I thought you’d be home.”
“But I was there tonight.”
“You were?”
“Yeah, for a while, too.” I did some calculations in my head. “You were here for two hours? I must have just missed you then.” I gave a short, friendly laugh. “You should have waited a bit longer.”
“Apparently,” she said, with only a touch of mock-bitterness. “I should never have listened to that woman.”
“Woman? Which woman?”
Holly shrugged. “This really skinny, black haired girl. I’ve never seen her at Yoko’s before. But apparently she was apprenticing for guru-ship and could tell I was pretty down in the dumps. Anyway, we got to talking, and she told me I should go to your apartment and wait for you.”
“So that’s what happened….”
Holly misread the tone in my voice. “Oh come on, it wasn’t that stupid. I knew you’d have to come home eventually.”
“Unless I got a flat tire, of course”.
“Well, there was that,” she admitted with a laugh, then sighed, pulling away. “It’s late, I should probably be getting home.”
I didn’t let her go, but held her so I could get a good look at her face. She looked back quizzically. A part of my mind could easily envision her falling asleep at the wheel and her car skidding into a telephone pole on the way back. “You certain you want to drive a car, as tired as you are?”
“Well, if you insist, I can stay here,” she said with a laugh. “Will my noble knight therefore take the couch?”
“Nah, last time I did that, my neck got a funny crick in it.”
“So you mean I get the couch then? Chivalry is dead, I see.”
“I didn’t say that.”
She looked at me, askance. I deftly detached myself. “I’m too worn out tonight to want to do anything besides crash. C’mon, I think I’ve got two pillows.”
“Sure,” she said, here voice a little faint.
She followed me to my room and, as promised, I managed to dig up a second pillow from out of my closet. I have some sweat pants I can wear. I thought, and found those too. Holly sat on my bed, watching me, uncertain of how she should act. When I turned around, holding a pillow and the sweats, she looked a little surprised. “You’re wearing that?” she asked.
“Yeah, is that a problem?”
“No…” she said. And then, blushing a little, she pulled her pants off, revealing her legs and a bit of panties too, since her shirt wasn’t quite long enough.
“You want to borrow a t-shirt?” I asked.
“Please?” she said, blushing a little brighter.
I left the room to change and to let her switch shirts. When I got back, she was already nestled into the bed, the blankets pulled all the way up to her chin. I turned the light off, placed my sunglasses onto my desk, and then slid into place beside her. She turned over and faced me when she felt my weight on my bed. I took a few second to get comfortable, making sure there was a good foot between us. Head resting on her pillow, looking over an expanse of comforter, she watched me with open eyes.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Just wondering if you’re actually going to fall asleep.”
“Eventually, yeah.”
“Well, you should,” she said, burying herself a bit deeper into the covers. “Because we’re going out for breakfast again tomorrow, and I don’t intend to wait for you.”
“Fair enough,” I agreed. I wasn’t too worried about it. I slept less than she did, usually, I just stayed up a lot later.
“Good,” she said. And then with a look of absolute contentment, she closed her eyes and shifted until she found a spot that was comfortable. “Night,” she said softly.
“Night,” I whispered back.
After a few minutes her breathing became deep and regular, and I knew she had fallen into a deep sleep.
I didn’t join her immediately. My body was too used to staying up until it was almost morning for me to just doze off, no matter how tired I was. Instead, I watched her face, studying her cheeks and eyelashes, counting her soft breaths. It would be almost two hours before exhaustion finally won out and dragged me down, somewhat unwillingly I might add, into oblivion.
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