of it.”
“Plane ride? Where are you?”
“Oh, right. I haven’t kept you up to speed, have I? I’m in Kentucky. I’m watching my sister’s kids for a week while my mother recovers from foot surgery.”
“Kentucky?”
“Yes, now listen to my new problem.” Elise talked fast, so she could get it all on the table in order for her friend to solve her spiraling world situation. “I was settling down from the whiplash of the airport confession. By the way, I told him as he loaded my bags on a sky shuttle. Why is it that things that are allowed to loiter in your head for years are given an expiration date of when the plane’s propellers begin to spin in the distance? It’s like you have ten seconds and counting to say what you should have said two months ago.” She was barely taking breaths in between sentences, still keeping an eye on the children.
“Anyway, I began feeling less and less nauseated from hearing myself say it to him, in my mind. You know, kind of like realizing I wasn’t a wooden puppet after all? I was a real girl and could say real things? Let alone, feel it?” Elise didn’t wait for the rhetorical answer.
“So then, in walks Ben.”
Kelly interrupted her. “Ben? Old lover Ben?”
“Yes,” answered Elise.
“The one you fled, Ben? The past, Ben? The one you should never see again, Ben?”
Boy, her best friend really did know her well. “Yes, all those Bens. So, the question is, did I really mean...could I really mean I loved Darren if at the very moment I saw Ben, I imagined him without clothes? Well, sort of. I saw him with clothes, my heart had a seizure, then I imagined the clothes somehow disappearing. Impulsive, I guess. Like when you’re about to descend down a rollercoaster hill, you close your eyes. When I see Ben’s tight butt in jeans, his clothes suddenly fall off. Not to mention I become very jarred at his very presence. It’s been twelve years and I still can’t be unaffected.”
“Okay, Elise.” Kelly charged in to get a word in edgewise. “You need to listen and listen good. Get out of Kentucky. You are on dangerous ground. You just finished a triathlon of some sort by telling Darren your feelings. Bravo, by the way. It’s about time. Now, it’s natural to be weakened by such an outpouring of emotion. You’re vulnerable. It’s the best time to go back and be with Darren. Shake off the wooden planks you’ve been wearing for nine months and settle down into a good relationship. Kentucky is going to set you back.”
“I can’t go back there now! I know he’s just waiting for the perfect moment to corner me and ask that I say it again.”
“Don’t you want to? Don’t you think that after three seasons with the same guy, he doesn’t deserve some form of commitment from you? I’m your best friend. I know he’d die before hurting you.”
The kids had jumped from the bridge and began running wildly to the parking lot. Her eyes scanned that way and saw a Ford Explorer parked. It was Ben.
“Oh, shit. I’ve got to go. He’s here.”
“Who’s there?”
“Ben. What in the world is he doing here? Do I have a low-jack for guys who are looking to destroy me? I’ll call you later when I can talk. I heard what you said, Kelly. I know he’s good for me. I’ll try and figure out my problem.” She hung up the phone without waiting for Kelly’s response and tried to inhale some definition into her posture. Something to seem more confident that Ben didn’t affect her. She wondered how it looked to the unsuspecting, figuring he knew her better than she knew herself. It was a skill he had never lost.
Ben jumped out of his vehicle and handed Mason a play truck and Faith some small items. Elise squinted her eyes, trying to figure it out. She straightened up more as he made his way to her, pulling at the bottom of her shirt to cover where it’d raised up from leaning back on the comfy grass.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
His tight jeans
“Plane ride? Where are you?”
“Oh, right. I haven’t kept you up to speed, have I? I’m in Kentucky. I’m watching my sister’s kids for a week while my mother recovers from foot surgery.”
“Kentucky?”
“Yes, now listen to my new problem.” Elise talked fast, so she could get it all on the table in order for her friend to solve her spiraling world situation. “I was settling down from the whiplash of the airport confession. By the way, I told him as he loaded my bags on a sky shuttle. Why is it that things that are allowed to loiter in your head for years are given an expiration date of when the plane’s propellers begin to spin in the distance? It’s like you have ten seconds and counting to say what you should have said two months ago.” She was barely taking breaths in between sentences, still keeping an eye on the children.
“Anyway, I began feeling less and less nauseated from hearing myself say it to him, in my mind. You know, kind of like realizing I wasn’t a wooden puppet after all? I was a real girl and could say real things? Let alone, feel it?” Elise didn’t wait for the rhetorical answer.
“So then, in walks Ben.”
Kelly interrupted her. “Ben? Old lover Ben?”
“Yes,” answered Elise.
“The one you fled, Ben? The past, Ben? The one you should never see again, Ben?”
Boy, her best friend really did know her well. “Yes, all those Bens. So, the question is, did I really mean...could I really mean I loved Darren if at the very moment I saw Ben, I imagined him without clothes? Well, sort of. I saw him with clothes, my heart had a seizure, then I imagined the clothes somehow disappearing. Impulsive, I guess. Like when you’re about to descend down a rollercoaster hill, you close your eyes. When I see Ben’s tight butt in jeans, his clothes suddenly fall off. Not to mention I become very jarred at his very presence. It’s been twelve years and I still can’t be unaffected.”
“Okay, Elise.” Kelly charged in to get a word in edgewise. “You need to listen and listen good. Get out of Kentucky. You are on dangerous ground. You just finished a triathlon of some sort by telling Darren your feelings. Bravo, by the way. It’s about time. Now, it’s natural to be weakened by such an outpouring of emotion. You’re vulnerable. It’s the best time to go back and be with Darren. Shake off the wooden planks you’ve been wearing for nine months and settle down into a good relationship. Kentucky is going to set you back.”
“I can’t go back there now! I know he’s just waiting for the perfect moment to corner me and ask that I say it again.”
“Don’t you want to? Don’t you think that after three seasons with the same guy, he doesn’t deserve some form of commitment from you? I’m your best friend. I know he’d die before hurting you.”
The kids had jumped from the bridge and began running wildly to the parking lot. Her eyes scanned that way and saw a Ford Explorer parked. It was Ben.
“Oh, shit. I’ve got to go. He’s here.”
“Who’s there?”
“Ben. What in the world is he doing here? Do I have a low-jack for guys who are looking to destroy me? I’ll call you later when I can talk. I heard what you said, Kelly. I know he’s good for me. I’ll try and figure out my problem.” She hung up the phone without waiting for Kelly’s response and tried to inhale some definition into her posture. Something to seem more confident that Ben didn’t affect her. She wondered how it looked to the unsuspecting, figuring he knew her better than she knew herself. It was a skill he had never lost.
Ben jumped out of his vehicle and handed Mason a play truck and Faith some small items. Elise squinted her eyes, trying to figure it out. She straightened up more as he made his way to her, pulling at the bottom of her shirt to cover where it’d raised up from leaning back on the comfy grass.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
His tight jeans
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