Evergladdies
Had it not been that Richie was there for me when I fell, I would have been late to this party. Although, maybe I would want to be late for it. The beginning was quirky, no, it was "Oh, so nice to see you," I played to the host. To the host I ended up having to talk for six minutes before and of the other guests arrived. I had gotten to the house early because Richie kept me from having to not be on schedule. After six minutes of talking to the host, "You changed around the living room since I was last here," I was free as Annie and Mark arrived. As Annie and the host went off to the parlor to help set up, "I know we are early. Oh, I guess we are not the first ones. Do you need any help?" Mark and I talked a bit about things since we last saw each other four hours before.
Mark has been my friend (and later co-worker) for the past eight years. We met during our junior years in college at the University of _______. We lived in the same house through a mutual friend. It was me, Mark, the mutual friend, and two other guys. We lived there for our junior and senior years of college. The mutual friend stayed a fifth year and I have not talked to him for a while. Mark and I ended up becoming good friends. We both moved to ________ and started a small business in ________, something we both had an interest in. We were bought, or let ourselves be bought, by a larger company and now we were employees instead of owners. Despite his marrying a woman who thought poorly of me, for whatever reason, we remained good friends through our constant contact at work and our bi-monthly Friday night attempts to feel younger than we actually were. (the "dates" were frequently broken by one of us, mostly Mark, or Annie) As we stood there talking to each other about our work today, slipping in sports, we could hear from the other room the host and Annie talking, "I love what you did with the living room." The host was living in the largest apartment that I could have ever imagined in downtown ________. There was a living room, a parlor, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom with a very comfortable bed. It was true, the living looked better since I was last in the apartment.
"I did not think you were going to show," Mark began "I thought after what happened between you and Jane you would not want to come to a party at her place. I mean, I know it has been a while,(what six months?) but you have not said even much as "hello" to another woman in that time."
It was true, I was guilty. The host had left me with a feeling of heart broken. We had been together for a year and a half, living in the apartment together for a year, and then six months ago she dumps me. I did not really understand truley why, until I saw her sitting at a café with some guy about a week and a half later. I don't really think I will ever ask her if she was "with him" when I was her boyfriend, it would hurt my pride I bet. What made me angry was not Mark bringing up the fact that this was her house, and that I was here. It was that the some guy she was sitting with at a café walked in about two minutes later, walked past us to the bedroom, and came out a minute later wearing different clothes. That used to be me, I thought, coming home to her and chaning my clothes. "Annie, you are right, I like the living room. She did great things with it." In my jealousy and spite, I hated the living room, just because he, some guy, replaced me and was walking around the parlor, kissing the last woman I kissed hello. What made me even more upset was when he came over an talked to Mark and Me.
"Hey fellas, how was the office today?" Some guy, Henry (Hank), was our boss, and he had just been spending the last two days at the convention for ______. He kept on going on about "new this" and "improved that" that I just wanted to kick him in the groin. I did not for three reasons: It was not his fault that he was dating the host (acutally now Hank would be the host, Jane would be the hostess), he was my boss, and it would not look good infront of Jane if I went off on Hank. If I was going to get her back into my life, I could not start it off by kicking her current boyfriend in the groin, although how tempting it would have been at the time.
Mark was right to question my presence at the apartment. If I had told him my motives, he would have told me I was crazy. The whole night went by, and besides the first conversation with Jane, I had not talked to her. I had avoided her, or maybe she avoided me, but either way we never crossed paths (it was a big apartment). Mark convinced Annie that to give me a ride by back to me place, which I shared with Richie, at about 11 30 at night. After paying for half of the gas as my toll, "Annie, does he really have to do it?", I was finally home around midnight. Friday was done and I would spend the rest of the night watching TV with Richie. Despite it being Saturday, I gave him the privellage of owning the remote because he had saved me a trip to the hospital. Although, at that point, I wondered if it was worth it. Jane had seen me in a socialable environment, which she would not have for the past six months (except for mine and Mark's outings twice a month, but I always made sure not to go to any place where Jane would be) because of my isolation. In that time I had read about 20 books, watched all the movies that were nominated "Best Picture" since 1983, and had to watch Richie's Thursday night TV line-up.
On Friday, between work, "I'll see how I feel Mark, I may come," and the party, "What a wonderful living room," I was home with Richie. He was entertaining tonight as well for three (a couple and a woman he was being set up with) and was working in the kitchen preparing for the evening. I decided to help him out, "Hey, can you help me out please? I am way behind on the whole thing and I need some help." He threw me a tomato from the refridgerator for the salad and then I slipped. The tomato was thrown too high and I bent back, slipping on the rag in the kitchen, and tried to stay steady by grabbing hold of the counter. Instead of the counter I got the salad bowl, which was resting on the cutting board, which had a nice big knife on it. The knife catapulted upwards, my body fell downwards, and the two were going to have contact together and the floor. Suddenly, Richie swooped in and saved me from landing on the floor and having the weight of the knife kill me (at least I think it would have killed me.) I thanked him a thousand times and he pardoned me from helping in the kitchen. I lay down on the couch and finally decided to go to the party, instead of having to go to a movie and dinner by myself while Richie was having people over, I did not want to intrude on it all despite an invite, "It won't be weird, man, are you sure?"
I was still a little shaken by the whole thing when I got to the party, making talking to Jane even more unsettling, although she had a way of making me feel comfortable.
So, it was Saturday early morning, and Richie and I were watching TV. "How did the thing go tonight?" He asked me during the beginning of a commercial break.
"Oh, it was , y'know, a thing just like all the others." I told him, and I felt a bit defeated by the fact that Hank's groin was still intact.
"Anything happen?"
"Nope," a pause to hear watch an attractive girl on the screen "How was your thing?"
"It was great! I thought I was not going to work out well, being set up, but it went great. She (Kate is her name) was funny, and nice, and she had a killer face."
"Good, I'm glad. You going to go on a date with her again?"
"Well, I felt that she did not get the chance to really know me, just from a dinner. So I think I, Kate, and Nancy and George (the other couple) are all going to go to a movie. If everything goes well there, I am going to break off of the party and hopefully Kate will come with me." The show was back on.
"I am happy to hear that, good luck," I realized I had no interest in watching whatever odd show Richie was watching "I am going to hit the hay. I'll see you tomorrow Richie."
"Yeah, man, g'night." He yelled to me as I was walking towards my room.
Richie and I had known each other since freshman year of college at the University of _______. Mark and Richie knew each other, but Richie was not interested in living off campus, so when we were all living together, Richie was a RA for one of the dorms. Richie did not work with Mark and I at ______, but was instead the proud assistant manager of a fancy toy store in downtown _______. Mark, Richie, and I were living together when Mark decided to get hitched to Annie, so Richie and I had to move out to a smaller more economical place. It was not bad. I liked always having a certainty that there would be someone to talk to, even if it would not be Mark but the toy store employee.
I was dead when I finally got my head on the pillow and all I wanted to be unconscious. I would make my plan for getting back Jane in the morning. It would have been hard to get to sleep considering my constant thoughts about the party tonight, if I was just not so tired. Well, the party was a bust, I would formulate a plan in the morning.