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“Deep breaths,” I said. “And let me know if you need anything at all.”
“Shoot, my phone is dead!” Laurel cried, and I kicked myself for not checking on that when we both scrambled out of bed. But, she was talking so fast, I was having a tough time keeping up with what she was saying. I was still doing what I could to make sure she was okay, but I felt I was more in the way than actually helping her with anything.
“The charger is in your room. Don’t worry,” I said. “And there are outlets all over the place. Even the hotel you’re working at has more outlets than you’ll know what to do with, right?”
“You’re right. I’m just being insane. I don’t like being late for anything, and I feel like I’m way behind right now. I have to figure this out. I’ve got to go, and like now!”
“Okay, okay, call me or text me when you get the chance. I don’t have a lot going on today, so I feel bad that I can’t help you more. But if there’s anything at all I can do, please let me know. I really am sorry about this,” I said, feeling like the world’s biggest asshole for not waking her up earlier.
“It’s not your fault,” she said again. “I’m the one who really should have been more responsible with this. I just feel like I let things go last night, and I really can’t do that. My career has always been my first and foremost, and with that promotion relying on my performance here, I guess I’m a lot more upset about this than I thought I would be. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize. I understand,” I said. “I should have planned things out better, and I know you’re going to blame yourself for it, but I really think I should have been the one who had things more under control. Seriously.”
“I’ll call you,” she said as she gave me a quick kiss on her way out the door.
The sound of the door closing felt more like the slamming of a jail cell door than her hurriedly running out of my hotel room. I felt incredibly guilty about the fact she had woken up and had to get out of there as fast as she did, and I felt I had blown it to an extent.
She might be good enough to me to try to keep her own disappointment down, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I really was to blame. I was the one who had decided to take her down to that restaurant that was more than an hour away the night before, and I was the one who had slept with her after the fact. She had already told me that she was going to be up early to get out and to work, but I still hadn’t bothered with setting an alarm or anything like that.
I was used to being able to pick a lot of my own hours, and I usually chose to get up early. But, there were still plenty of times in my life when I would wake up and want to have a lazy day rather than a frantic one, and because of that, I would take plenty of time when I did anything. This was different, however. She had a job that required her to answer to other people, and I didn’t want her to have to stress over that.
I wanted to be the guy who was able to keep things moving in her world – the guy who was able to come up behind her while still being several steps ahead. I wanted to be able to help her out with her job instead of being the person who was making it harder.
All I felt like doing with my day was laying around and staring up at the ceiling, but even that felt wrong knowing that she was out there, scrambling to try to get her job done for the day despite the fact she had been late to getting to work that morning.
Not to mention I didn’t know how much of her job she had cut off from the night before because of the fact she wanted to get to the restaurant with me. She had made it sound like she was able to wrap things up early, but perhaps she had cut it off early with the intention of making it up this morning. It was only more guilt I heaped onto myself after feeling like I really had failed her with what had happened.
I hadn’t even noticed that a full hour passed until my phone rang. I thought for sure it would be Laurel, but when I looked at the number, it wasn’t anything I recognized. The only thing I knew about the number was that it was a New York City area code. So whoever was calling me had a phone from NYC, or was there presently.
It could be a job opportunity, or, at the very least, something related to my job, so the best thing to do would be to answer.
So I did.
“Hey, stranger,” a familiar voice said on the other end of the line. But, I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
“Kenton?” I asked.
“The one and only,” he said with a laugh. “What are you doing?”
“What do you mean what am I doing? You are the one who never has a phone, so what’s this?” I demanded. “When did you get a phone?”
“Over the weekend,” he said sheepishly. “I’m not going to say I miss you, but I kind of miss talking to you or something like that. I figured if you were going to be gone for the next who knows how long, the best way to keep in touch with you was to get a cell phone.”
“Are you going to keep it?” I asked. “I mean, it seems so out of character for you, yet it’s nice to know I can reach out to you anytime I need to.”
“Maybe,” he said. “I don’t know. I only have a few phone numbers right now, and I’m going to keep it that way. It just depends on how much of a waste of time this happens to be. But I called you to talk about how things are going for you. So, how are things going?”
I filled him in on all that had happened with Laurel, right down to the point that I had taken her to that restaurant the night before, and how she had woken up late today. I told him how I felt guilty about the fact I ought to have been more diligent with the time, too.
“It’s just so hard to keep track of the clock when she’s around, though,” I said. “I really just feel like time stops.”
“But you can’t let whatever it is the two of you are doing to get in the way of what she’s supposed to be doing down there,” Kenton said. “I don’t want to lecture you, but you know as well as I do that you were there for the job first, and I could only imagine if she winds up in hot water with her boss because of screwing around with you, she’s not going to be happy with any of it.”
“Right,” I said. “I know I fucked up, but I’m fixing it. I really am. I don’t know how yet, but I’m going to.”
“I don’t know if there’s much for you to fix outside of making sure you are both being a lot more responsible for what’s going on, you know?” he asked.
“I know,” I said. “I’m going to tell her that I can’t hang out tonight. That’s going to make sure she’s able to get to bed on time and can catch up on the sleep she’s needing, plus she can get to work better in the morning.”
