Chapter 5

I spent the drive back to my place analyzing Sherri's motives, while she followed in her own car. I didn't get it. I wasn't paying her any more, at least tonight, but she wasn't saying 'thank you' and walking away. None of the professional shrinks I had heard of ever extended their hours for free. I just didn't get it.

I didn't say anything while we got settled. I poured myself a glass of wine and offered Sherri some, but she declined, only wanting water. We settled onto the couch this time, far more comfortable than the kitchen chairs.

"So why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Because I can," she answered.

"That doesn't make sense," I shot back. "You could be doing lots of things. Why me? Why for free? Why come back here instead of going to see some other guy who would pay you?"

"You need me."

Sherri's face was blank. No, not blank, controlled. I glared at her. It was almost a staring match. Which she then decided to throw.

"Tonight, Joe," she said, "it suits me to spend some more time with you. I've made the money I need to make this week and I don't have any other pressing appointments. If I wasn't here, I'd either be home or waiting for the next cold call from the agency. I didn't feel like going on any new dates tonight."

"Why?" I challenged. My gut was starting to churn and my breathing was getting shallower.

Sherri noticed.

"Why would I want to spend time with you?" she asked. "You're an interesting guy, Joe. You remind me of my baby brother."

For a moment, old pain crossed her face.

"Besides," she continued. "I can help, and it won't always be for free. I'll let you know beforehand so you can decide what you want to do."

"Thanks," I snorted.

"C'mon, Joe! You were just complaining because I wasn't charging you!"

I glanced over and saw that Sherri was smiling. Teasing me. I took a deep breath and smiled back. I could feel my body start to relax.

"So, where were we?" she asked. "In your story?"

"November of 1991," I answered. "Just a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, when I got a call that wasn't from Sharon or my parents..."

"Hey, bud."

I recognized the voice immediately. "Allen! What's up?"

"Not much. My mom moved to San Diego and she wants me to come visit for Thanksgiving. I thought I'd take a week or two and drive out, stopping in Tucson along the way."

"That's great!" I replied. "You're welcome to crash here."

"Good. That's why I'm calling."

"So when do you think you'll be here?" I asked.

"Mmmm. I'm thinking the Monday before Thanksgiving. I'm going to spend that weekend in Las Cruces with this girl I met over Labor Day. When she has to go to work, I'll get on the road to go see you. It's what, four hours?"

"Closer to six."

"Okay, I'll be there mid-afternoon."

"Sounds good," I replied. "Let me give you directions."

"Let me get a pencil," Allen replied.

He was back in a minute. I gave him the information and we discussed logistical issues. My apartment was too small for a couch, but Allen said the inflatable air mattress would be fine for one night.

We chatted a little bit more and Allen told me about his job hunt. Apparently bartending wasn't cutting it anymore, but he hadn't figured out what he wanted to do next. I commiserated and told him about my own change of academic plans. I asked him about the girl he was visiting, but he said he'd tell me the whole story in person. We hung up a little while later and silence again filled my apartment. When I couldn't stand it, I turned on the TV to catch a rerun of 'Night Court.'

I talked to Sharon two nights later. My most recent story package hadn't reached her yet and we mostly talked about our week. The conversation started to lull fairly quickly since neither of us had had much excitement. I wracked my brain for newsworthy topics.

"Oh, and Allen called. He's coming to visit," I said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, his mom moved to San Diego. He's on his way to visit her for Thanksgiving. He'll be here Monday night."

"How's he doing?" Sharon asked.

"Pretty good. We didn't talk long. I'm sure we'll talk more when he gets here."

"I hope he's doing well. I worry about him sometimes."

"What? Why?"

"Hey, I still care for him," Sharon said defensively. "We may not be together, but I still want him to be happy."

"I think he's happy."

"Yeah, well, he's good at hiding his feelings when he's unhappy."

I bit my tongue. I'd known Allen a while and I'd never had any problem knowing when he was unhappy. But I knew that if I said so, Sharon would just claim that he was successful in hiding his feelings with me. Since I couldn't win the argument, there was no point in starting it.

"Well, maybe he'll tell me about it if he's not," I said.

"I hope so," Sharon replied.

"Anyway," I said, "it'll be good to see him. We didn't really get together often enough my senior year."

"You were always with Alicia."

"Yeah." My heart sank, thinking of those times. "I wonder what other friendships suffered because I was so wrapped up in my romance."

"Well, our friendship hasn't," Sharon stated. "You've become a really great friend."

"You too," I replied.

"Thanks."

After a pause, I realized Sharon hadn't told me about her Thanksgiving plans. I asked her what she was doing and she told me she was going to Albuquerque. We traded a few extended family stories before calling it a night.

The next two weeks flew by. It was getting cooler; the nice part of the year for Tucson. I got back to my apartment by two p.m. the day Allen was due. He arrived at four.

"Took you long enough," I kidded him.

"Well, she wanted to go another round this morning," Allen replied, grinning. "She ended up being late to work."

I rolled my eyes. "So tell me about this woman," I asked. "Is it serious?"

"Nah," he answered. "We're just 'good friends.'"

I chuckled. "Must be pretty 'good' for her to be willing to be late to work."

"Ohhh, yeahhh," he replied.

"So tell me about her."

"Her name's Jenna. She's a massage therapist, going to school part time at New Mexico State. She was up visiting her sister, who just started at CU, and we met at a party. She's got this incredible smile—and a great ass. We hit it off and, well, she gave me her phone number the next morning."

"The next morning? Not that night?"

"Yeah. She gave it to me when I dropped her off back at her sister's dorm," he answered.

I just chuckled and shook my head. "So you stayed in touch."

He nodded.

"We talked a couple of times. When Mom asked me to come down, I gave her a call and suggested I stop by."

"And she was all for it," I mused.

"Oh, yeah."

"I don't know how you do it, Allen."

"It's a gift," he replied with a broad grin.

I just started chuckling.

"So this is your place?" Allen asked after a pause.

"Yeah, let me give you the nickel tour. This is the main room—kitchenette, table, TV, some space to crash on the floor that will be occupied by the air mattress later." I led Allen down what tried to pass for a hallway. All five feet of it.

"The bathroom," I said, gesturing through the open door. "The towels on the back of the toilet are yours." Two more steps brought us to the last room.

"And the bedroom."

"You happy with a single bed?" Allen asked.

"It's the only size that'll fit," I answered.

Allen didn't comment, thankfully. We headed back to the main room. Allen glanced around again.

"You need to hang something there," he said, pointing to the wall where Melissa Etheridge had once hung. "It's too big of a bare spot."

"Well, I used to have a poster there, but it was one Alicia gave me, so I took it down. All of the stuff that brought back memories of her is now buried in the closet."

"Smart move."

"So," I said, changing the subject, "we have a couple of hours before dinner. How about I show you campus?"

Allen gave a non-committal shrug, which I decided to take as a yes. I locked up and we headed over to campus. I tried to point out interesting features as we wandered around, but the truth was, I didn't really know the campus. I didn't know much of Tucson either. How I had let that happen?

Because I'd spent last year either getting my brains pounded out by the schoolwork or pining for Alicia. I needed to get out more.

Once we got to the west end of campus, Allen and I wandered into the little shopping area that had grown up there. A handful of restaurants, all cheap, plus the usual assortment of t-shirt and memorabilia shops.

"Hey, a poster store," Allen pointed out. "You need one. Let's go in."

"Sure."

We wandered in, glancing at the framed prints on the wall and occasionally thumbing through the bins of unframed posters. Allen stopped at a bin labeled "humor" so I pushed on back toward the end of the store. I saw it hanging on the wall just a few feet from the counter.

It was six vertical panels, in blues, greys, and blacks. The left three were of James Spader's face. The next two were of him with Andie McDowell. The final panel was Andie alone, looking sad. Of course the title, sex, lies, and videotape, filled the bottom half. I studied the expressions. Both looked haunted. Both looked familiar.

"You like it?" a feminine voice asked.

"I've never seen this version," I answered, not pulling my eyes off the poster.

"It's the European Quad. They didn't hang it over here."

"Really?" I asked. Then I turned and saw her.

She was standing behind the counter. Dark hair, big wide eyes, Hispanic features. She was grinning at me. I smiled back.

"Really," she said. "I asked the owner to order it because I liked the movie."

"You did?" I exclaimed. "I loved it!"

She smiled even wider.

"Did you know that they rehearsed it, like a play, before they started filming?" she asked. "That's part of why I liked it."

"I thought the script was great," I replied. "Good characters. Incredibly tight dialogue."

"Garbage," she said, quoting the first line of the movie. "I can't stop thinking about all the garbage."

We gave each other the silly grins that only newfound mutual fandom inspires.

"Hi, I'm Allen." Somewhere during our dialogue, Allen had appeared at my shoulder.

"Oh, and I'm Joe."

"Tina," she replied, giving a small nod of her head to Allen before turning back to me.

"I also loved the line about not wanting more keys on his key ring," she said.

"That was a good one," I added. "Not as good as 'get your balls in the air and get over here.'" Tina laughed at my exaggerated voice, trying to mimic Laura San Giacomo.

Allen cleared his throat. Tina gave him a quick glance before turning back to me.

"It's only one hundred and fifty dollars, framed," she said.

My breath caught.

"Uh, I'll have to think about that."

"Okay. Feel free to look around."

The phone on the desk rang and Tina picked it up. I turned back to the poster and admired it for a little while longer. Tina's phone call was taking a while so I started thumbing through a nearby stack of movie posters. Allen was wandering back toward the door. Tina glanced up, but was still busy writing down the order. I wanted to talk with her more, but I also didn't want to interrupt her. Eventually, I let the posters drop and followed Allen out. He looked at me quizzically, but didn't say anything. We headed back to my apartment.

"What are you in the mood for for dinner?" I asked.

"Anything but Mexican. I had plenty of that over the weekend."

"Yeah, I'll bet you ate well," I joked.

Allen just rolled his eyes.

"Well," I began, "the only non-Mexican non-fast food restaurant I've been to is the Bluebird Café. It's general American food and it's pretty good."

"The only one? You need to get out more, my man."

"Yeah," I agreed, feeling a little guilty.

We headed out to dinner, which Allen enjoyed. Afterward we found a bar with a pool table and played a handful of games. We got back to my apartment before it got too late.

When we got there, Allen threw his bag against one wall and I dragged the wadded up air mattress out of the closet. We spread it out on the floor and Allen turned to me.

"So, do you have a pump for this thing?" Allen asked.

"Yeah, under the bed. Why don't you get it while I check for leaks?" I mentally kicked myself for not checking it earlier.

Allen scrambled to his feet while I began examining the seams closely. I'd had problems before but knew what to look for now. I'd gotten two sides checked when Allen came back.