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She looks back down at her clipboard and - in my impatience - I lean over the counter just enough to look with her, hoping I can find his name faster. It's not on the list.
"I don't see him on the room assignment sheet. He must have left already."
But how would he have left without a ride? And where did he go if not home?
"Thanks for checking, Cathy. Be careful on your drive home, it's starting to spit snow out there." I tap on the desk before turning back towards the door to leave.
"Oh, Mel? Is he one of Darren's friends? That's who treated him and they left together, maybe he was bringing him home?"
Darren? I mean it makes sense that they would know each other since their siblings are practically married. I pull out my phone and try to decide who I should reach out to - Darren or Ashton? Ultimately I go with the one that is more likely to answer me.
Hey, did you leave with Ash?
Yeah, why?
He didn't come home I was wondering where he was.
I dropped him at his parents house, he said they were doing some kind of family thing for his birthday.
Birthday? Please for the love of everything don't tell me it's his fucking birthday.
Can I get that address?
Please.
The driveway of Ashton's parents house is completely white when I get there. I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to get here on a normal day, but in the storm that is coming down, it took me a good hour. There aren't any cars in the driveway and I'm not even sure if he is here still. Maybe he went somewhere with them. I pull my car slowly into the driveway, knowing that if a plow comes around it will bury my tiny car.
It's hard to tell where the driveway ends and the lawn begins, but I do my best to pull under the basketball hoop, assuming that is the driveway edge. I keep the engine running as I sit and watch the house. It's nothing like the one I grew up in. For starters, it's a house and not a trailer in a park that they cleverly named a 'housing community.' The brick façade has snow clinging to it and it reminds me of the house from Home Alone - big, bustling with kids, and the picture perfect American dream from my childhood.
I would watch that movie when I was younger, imagining that I could be part of the McAllister family, surrounded by people, guaranteed to find one person that would be willing to sit next to me at dinner. Hell, I would have traded all the time watching TV eating boxed macaroni and cheese for a single night where we ate dinner at the table like a family. I can picture Ashton's family like that - three busy boys running around the house until their mother called them to dinner and they all settled down to sit and talk about their days. I bet their dad would kiss their mom after the meal was done, thanking her and telling her it was delicious before taking the stack of plates and going off to wash them for her.
My daydream is broken when I see the curtain pull back, the faintest hint that someone is home. I shut my car off, pushing my keys into my coat pocket.
Inhale - I can do this.
Exhale - here we go.
I knock on the front door, close to the window where I saw the peeper looking to see who was in the driveway. I look back towards my car, the trail of footsteps in the snow making a clear path I could follow right back to my car if I change my mind about this. But I know that if I turn back now, the guilt will start to fester like an open wound left untreated. I rap on the door again, knowing that whoever is inside - hopefully Ashton - is attempting to get me to give up on getting inside. I am a persistent woman.
"For fuck's sake, Ash, open the door." I demand as I bang on the door for a third time. I am about to turn around and make the drive back home when the metallic clang of a lock sounds from the other side and the large wooden door cracks open.
Ashton is wearing the same thing he had on when I dropped him off at the hospital a few hours ago - signature grey sweatpants hanging in the most erotic way from his chiseled pelvis, the tent from earlier no longer erect. Well that's a good sign at least, never thought I would think that about a dick becoming soft.
"What are you doing here?" I can't quite place his tone - surprise or annoyance.
"I think that's pretty obvious, don't you?" When he doesn't reply, I continue, "I'm here to bring you home."
"Seriously? I don't think that's the best idea right now."
"Look, I'm sorry I bailed at the hospital I just ... "
"No need to apologize, I get it, Mel. You said your piece, you can get on with your day now."
I have never heard him be so flippant towards me and I can feel my frustration starting to bubble up to match his.
"Are you seriously pouting about this like a child? Come on Ash, don't be like this. I screwed up, I get it, but I'm trying to make it up to you here." I am so out of my element right now, I don't apologize, especially not to someone I fucked one time. But Ashton is different and I keep trying to convince myself it's because he is my roommate.
"Can we fight about this inside or something? It's friggin’ cold out here." I attempt to get a smile from him and fail miserably. But he does move aside so that I can step into the house.
