Chapter 7

Sonny was very nervous as he waited for Sandy to answer her phone that Wednesday evening. When the two had talked the night before, Sandy had been very noncommittal about whether she'd be going with him on the weekend. He really hoped she would get over being upset with him. He was looking forward to the weekend, and didn't have any fall back plan in the event she decided against going to the cabin with him. After four rings, her answer machine message came on. "Shit, this isn't good." He said into the phone. When the message tone beeped he left her a message to call him when she got in. He stayed up until 11:00 that evening and went to bed disappointed that she didn't call him back. He left her three messages on Thursday, and went to bed starting to get pissed, late Thursday night.

Friday, his pride making him stubborn, he refused to even try to call her, and decided to head up to the cabin alone. He turned off his cell phone and spent the weekend by himself, reading, hiking and doing a lot of thinking about Sandy, school, golf, friends and life in general. By the time he returned home on Sunday night, he decided that he was ready to move on with his life. He had quite a few messages on his phone, but none were from her. 'Fuck her' he thought, 'there's no shortage of cute girls around here, I'm sure I'll find another one just as good.' He went to sleep early Sunday night and made a real effort to shut Sandy out of his dreams.

Sandy had spent her whole weekend wondering why she was acting like she was. Her not answering her phone on Wednesday had started out as a lark. Somehow, with each unanswered phone call and message, her resolve to leave him hanging increased. By Friday morning, she had decided that she'd use the weekend to study and get ahead in her reading. Somewhere, at least in the back of her mind, was also the thought that doing this would somehow strengthen her bargaining position with Sonny. She had been thinking, after replaying Monday's conversation in her mind, that he was beginning to act like she was just another fuck toy to him, and that certainly wasn't what she wanted him to think when he thought of her.

By the time Wednesday rolled around again and Sonny hadn't tried to contact her for almost a week, Sandy began to realize that maybe Sonny wasn't like all her previous boyfriends. His failure to keep trying to get in contact with her was really starting to bother her. At 9:00 that evening, she placed a call to him, getting his voice mail after a single ring. Rather than just leaving him a voice mail message, she hung up knowing that Sonny had caller ID. When she finally realized that Sonny wasn't going to call her, late that next weekend, she decided to write him off too. They had reached a stalemate that left neither happy or better off, but both seemed to feel that they had achieved the best possible conclusion under the circumstances.

The following Monday, by early afternoon, Sandy had accepted two offers for dates for the coming weekend, dates from boys who struck up separate conversations with her after two of her classes. Driving home that afternoon, Sandy admitted to herself that neither young man was in Sonny's league in terms of looks or personality. What they did have going for them though was that they were both very interested in her, and were seemingly both anxious to be in her company under her terms. She concluded that they would both do nicely in solving her current main problem, being home on a weekend without a date. It was past time, at least in her opinion, that she stopped moping after Sonny and got on with her life. Sonny was the most exciting man she'd ever been with, but she was sure that there would be many more that could match the spark they'd seemed to have with each other.

Friday night her date with Tom started out pretty well. He took her to the Olive Garden, they talked and ate and seemed to have some things in common, like shared musical tastes and a dual passion for pasta. They left the restaurant and then drove out to a movie that both expressed an interest in seeing. After the movie, which was a little disappointing to both, they drove around a little, then he took her home and they wound up kissing in his car in front of her house. After only a few minutes of kissing, Sandy was reluctantly willing to admit that Tom wasn't going to be the one to replace Sonny in her affections. There wasn't any electricity between the two of them. She even let him touch her breasts for a minute, trying to get herself more involved in the excitement he seemed to be feeling towards her, but even that didn't do anything for her.

Saturday afternoon, Jimmy took her to a Dodgers game. Jimmy was a committed jock, not only an active participant, but a huge fan and avid sports viewing enthusiast. By the time they left the game, a rout of the home team, Sandy knew every position he'd ever played, every batting average, every exciting on field happening that Jim had been involved in starting from Little League T-Ball, right up to his current starting shortstop position at Cal State Fullerton. This information mostly having arrived after Sandy made it exceedingly clear that her interest in baseball and most other sports was minimal. Jimmy got a perfunctory peck on the cheek at the door and no encouragement whatsoever when he inquired about doing something together the following weekend. Sandy had achieved her main goal of getting out and around for the weekend, but she was very unhappy over the quality of the time she spent on these two dates, especially the last one.

Sonny spent the whole second weekend working at his golf game. He thought about Sandy often over the weekend, mostly with regret, admitting to himself that he'd really let a good one get away from him. He still didn't think that he'd said or done anything bad enough to deserve the treatment he'd received from Sandy. He regretted not being able to spend additional time with her. No woman had ever gotten him as excited as she had, physically or mentally. He had really wanted to get serious with this girl, maybe even married serious. That thought, which just popped into his head unbidden, seemed somehow, to magnify his feelings of loss and regret.