Day 10 - Signal Story

Signal Story

Matthew Ryan Fischer

Alicia drank the last drop before she decided it was a bad idea.  There might not be time for future flings, she told herself.  There might only be tonight.  It was last call on a Wednesday night.  Not the most common night of the week for hedonistic overindulgence.

Alicia looked from her glass to her right.  Jeremy smiled.  Alicia nodded, not knowing what to say, trying to buy herself more time.  She wondered what she was doing here.  Then she wondered if she had said that out loud.  Jeremy hadn’t reacted at all.  Obviously she hadn’t asked him her question.

Jeremy pretended to look at his phone.  “The signal in here is terrible.”

“What are you trying to do?”

He paused, mouth open, at a loss for words.  He hadn’t expected to be confronted.  He was just trying to get her talking again.  He noticed her silence; he understood this was make-or-break time.  He could feel her slipping away.

She stared at his open mouth.  He wasn’t saying anything.  She had stumped him.  That hadn’t been her intention.  She felt like and idiot.  She turned back to her drink hoping to find some new found liquid.  She lifted it to her mouth and let the ice fall to her.  She acted like there was another sip to sup.

The silence was unbearable.  They both could feel it.  It pervaded everything.  Both of them were going crazy.

“I work early tomorrow...”

She let it dangle there.  It wasn’t an invitation, it wasn’t a rejection.  He could respond either way.  Maybe she was letting him know she needed to get things moving along, that he had to act fast.  Maybe she was telling him that this night was wrapping up and she didn’t have time for him.  He could respond either way.  She must have known that, he thought.  She set him up.  She was making him be the aggressor, making him act like the man.

“It was nice meeting you.”

She stared at him in utter disappointment.  He was backing off.  He was going to go home.  Was he even going to ask for my number, she wondered.

“Yeah.  Nice.”

“Um...” He didn’t know what to say.  She wasn’t making it any easier.

Alicia stood up and gathered her wits and then her things.

“I hope you get that job you were talking about before.”

“Thanks.”  God, he felt like and idiot.

“Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah.  Maybe.  Yeah, that’d be great.”

She headed for the door.  Maybe he’ll grab my arm as part of some romantic gesture, she thought.

Jeremy remained at his seat, searching his soul, condemning himself.  He would not chase after her.  He didn’t have the strength.

Alicia walked home, disappointed.