Ch 12
"So you just left her there?" Phil demanded pacing around the living room, wide-eyed.
"I couldn't do much else," Eddie replied defensively, "In case you didn't notice I was preoccupied getting my head around the fact that the woman I've been corresponding with for the last two months… the woman who I bore my soul to, the woman…," Eddie stopped before he completed his sentence. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he had fallen in love with her over the internet. He couldn't escape that fact and he knew not saying it wasn't going to make it any less true. He loved her. He was in too deep to be anything less.
"Eddie do you have any idea what's going to happen to you if she finds out?" Phil asked angrily.
"No because she's not going to find out Phys," Eddie replied, "I'm just going to stop corresponding with her and she'll think Light Knight is a jerk and she'll eventually move on. She and I can go back to being friends."
Phil shook his head in disappointment and disbelief, "You are a special kind of idiot, Eddie. You really believe that you can ignore the love you feel for her? You're not the same Eddie Latekka who scored that hail pass at homecoming. That Eddie Latekka was fearless. You're just some two-bit Eddie Latekka excuse who will crap out of doing the right thing no matter who he hurts. I don't even know this Eddie." And with that, Phil went into his room and slammed the door.
"And just so you know, I was going to bake you some cookies. Forget that!" Phil screamed from behind his door.
Janet numbly poured a patron's coffee the next morning, hoping that the puffy eyes she got from crying herself to sleep last night wasn't that obvious. Sully knew right away that she'd had a rough night but he knew better than to ask her so instead he told the rest of his staff to stay out of her way. He was grateful when he saw Hannah's car pull up into the parking lot.
"Well if it ain't Cinderella herself," Hannah said cheerily and she walked into the bar, "So? How'd it go last night, princess? I want details."
Janet looked up, gave Hannah a glimpse of her reddened eyes, and looked back down again, "There's nothing to tell. He didn't show."
"What?" Hannah exhaled sitting down, perplexed, "Did he call the restaurant and leave a message?"
Janet shook her head, "No," a tear spilled onto her cheek and she quickly wiped it away.
Hannah's heart broke and she reached for her friend's hand, "Maybe something really important came up and he didn't have the time to call and cancel."
"No. He had every opportunity to do that last night and this morning," Janet wasn't going to make excuses for him.
"What if he…"
"Hannah! Stop!" Janet said firmly, "Maybe he did show up, saw what he was in for and left. Did you think of that?"
"Well then he's not worth your time, if that's true," Hannah said determined not to give into her own tears. What was wrong with men in this town? Couldn't they see what a catch Janet was?
Janet smiled ruefully and shook her head looking down, "You don't understand. You just don't understand."
Squeezing her hand Hannah said, "Help me understand. I want to understand. What's going on? Do you want to talk?"
Janet looked like she was going to burst into tears but then miraculously suppressed her emotions, "No I can't now. I have work to do. And so do you. Those animals aren't gonna fix themselves." She tried to smile but failed.
"I hate leaving you this way," Hannah said reluctantly, "I could call in sick and we can go somewhere and talk. Or trash this jackass to Kingdom come if that's what it takes."
"Take the day off?" Janet scoffed, "Hannah this isn't my first broken heart and I assure you it won't be my last. You should go to work. We both should," she said smiling.
Hannah got up from her chair, "I'm coming back at the end of your shift. We're going to go and talk about this some more."
"I'm fine, really. I'll call you if I need anything," she said looking at her best friend, "I promise."
"Fine," Hannah said giving her friend's hand a final squeeze before she headed out the door, "The guy's an absolute idiot," she called back simply, "Not much else to say."
Janet focused every cell in her body on not crying. She was done crying and wallowing. Now she just wanted to forget last night, Light Knight, and all the feelings that went into the last two months.
As it turned out, suppressing emotions and ignoring her feelings wasn't Janet's strong suit. She paced up and down in front of her laptop later that night, third glass of wine in hand and the dating profile page on. It was about 9:28pm and LightKnight still hadn't bothered to check in and explain himself.
She sat at the desk and began typing away furiously at the keys;
I really do hope for your sake that you were maimed, run over or there was a death in your family on your way to the restaurant last night. Because that is the only way I can even think about forgiving you for this.
I just wanted you to know…
Janet blinked back tears and sniffed. Then she continued typing.
I just wanted you to know that you really hurt me last night. You not showing up? That was beyond the lowest thing you could ever do to me. Or did you show up, disliked what you saw and left?
Or maybe it was something I did or said… tell me. What did I do to make you change your mind about me?
All I kept thinking of last night were the things you've been telling me all week about how you couldn't wait to see me and how there was nothing I could do to disappoint you… what a crock of crap!
I was so right when I said this town was only capable of breeding jerks like you. You are no different from any of the other men I've met I don't know why the hell I thought you would be.
Anyway, whatever your reason, it hardly matters now. Whatever you have to say, it can't be good enough and chances are I'm not even going to want to hear it. This is my last message. Please don't try to contact me, reach me, or approach me. I want to have nothing to do with you from tonight onward.
Janet realised her face was tear streaked again when she finished typing and bitterly pushed the 'send' button. With solemn resolve, she got up, curled on her bed, and went to sleep.
The next morning Janet woke up with something akin to having a mallet smashed against her head. She clutched her throbbing head and opened her eyes. Without a second thought she got up and despite herself, she checked her profile to see if anyone had sent her a message. She clicked on her inbox…
Messages (0)
With a sigh, she told herself it was time to move on. First order of business, a shower. While Janet was in the shower, she couldn't shake the feeling of hurt within her. What was a sharp piercing pain the night before, was a dull ache today.
She got dressed and decided to take her dog, Maverick out for a walk. Walking in the fresh cool crisp autumn of Knight's Ridge seemed to be just the ticket Janet needed. It took her mind off the horrendous weekend and it gave her a chance to see that it wasn't the end of the world. People still smiled, old couples still held hands as they walked together, people still played fetch with their dogs and life moved on. Why did she still feel so hollow inside?
Suddenly Maverick began tugging at her arm and pulling her off track into another direction. "Whoa! Maverick slow down! What has gotten into you?" her question was quickly answered when she saw the object of her dog's pursuit; Coco, one of her neighbours' dogs, was sniffing around. "Of course. You're in love too," she said petting the petite little while ball of fur on the head. Coco immediately responded to Maverick and began nuzzling his neck. "Well Mav, I gotta hand it to ya. For a dude who is two olives short of a martini, you are quite the ladies' man," she said nodding in approval. Then she looked around to find Coco's owner, Mrs Braverman, but saw she was nowhere to be found.
"Coco! There you are!" a man's voice called and Janet looked up to find a tall, handsome guy, no older than twenty-nine walking up to the trio in sweats. He smiled at Janet and bent over to pick up the bichon frise. "Hi there. Sorry about that. She just runs off without warning."
"Believe me I know what that's like," Janet said shooting a glance in Maverick's direction. "Hey isn't she Mrs Braverman's dog?"
"Yeah, she is," the man smiled and extended his hand, "And I'm Mrs Braverman's son, Matt. Nice to meet you."
"Oh hi," Janet smiled slightly and shook his hand. They stood quietly for a moment and then, "Well I better get going. I start my shift in twenty minutes."
"Where do you work?" he asked smiling, "I haven't seen you around before. But then again, I only got to town on Friday night."
"I work at Sully's it's the local watering hole around here. You should come by sometime," Janet invited walking backwards and waving at him before she turned and took her stride towards home.
A couple of nights later, Sully's was buzzing with people, all excited to catch the play-offs on the new TV sets Sully installed.
"Since when did we become a sports bar?" Janet yelled over the music and the cheering into Sully's ear.
"Just go with it. We can't afford to assign ourselves to any fixed identity." Janet rolled her eyes, delivered two pitchers of beer to a table, and walked back to the bar so quickly she hadn't noticed Eddie walk in.
When she looked up she found Matt looking at her from across the bar and she smiled and waved before she walked up to him, "Hey Matt, I'm glad you could make it," she said smiling.
"Hey Janet!" he yelled over the noise and turned to tug someone's shirt. Another extremely attractive man turned to face the bar and smiled at Janet, "Kevin this is Janet, the girl I was telling you about. Janet, this is my partner Kevin." Matt smiled looking between the two.
Janet hesitated in surprised for a split second and quickly recomposed herself, "Hi! Nice to meet you," Janet said shaking Kevin's hand. "Well how about a couple of daiquiris on the house?" she said and the men smiled in approval.
"Love her," Kevin said to Matt and Janet grinned before she turned to go mix their drinks.
Eddie stood at the door and scanned the room until his eyes fell on her. How could one go from looking at someone one way their whole life to seeing them in a whole new way over night? He must have caught Janet in the middle of a joke because she grinned at the patron she served and walked away. She'd never looked more attractive than she did at that moment. But there was something else about her, that was unmistakable. She was still hurting. Eddie wasn't any more figured out about women than the next guy. But when it came to Janet, there were a few things Eddie could bet his bottom dollar on. He knew when she was putting on an act, trying to cover up what she truly felt, and this was one of those instances. She was obviously still hurting about Saturday but was trying desperately to get over it and prove to the world that she didn't care. Normally, Eddie would be hunting down the loser who hurt her and giving him something he could really regret, but he couldn't this time. His stomach twisted at the thought of how much he'd hurt his best friend. Just then, she turned her gaze, looked at him, and smiled warmly.
Eddie felt the guilt burn like acid within his chest and he reluctantly walked over to the bar. "Hey Latekka, it's about time you showed up," she said with a plastered smile on her face.
Eddie refused to meet her eyes, afraid he'd see the pain he caused in them, "Uh yeah, was just working late."
"What you can't even look at me now?" Janet joked and Eddie raised his eyes to meet hers. Janet's face grew serious and she stopped what she was doing, "What's wrong? You have Bambi eyes."
"No I don't," Eddie said quickly and Janet nodded, "Janet I do not have Bambi eyes. I'm fine. What's new with you?"
"Fine, sheesh. Bite my head off why don't you?" she poured him a draft and handed it to him.
"So what goes on with you?"
"Oh this and that. Took Maverick to the vet, bought some Chinese food last night… um, what else? Oh yeah, got stood up for a date I had on Saturday night," Janet replied with an edge in her tone.
"Janet I'm so sorry," He said sincerely. Even if she didn't know why he was apologising, he felt she ought to know how sorry he was.
"Why? You had nothing to do with it," Janet said dismissively.
"Are you okay?" he asked his chest twisting in pain as he watched her suppress her feelings and smile.
"Of course, I'm okay. It was just a date. It's not like we were soul mates or anything," that stung, and Eddie sat back a little.
"So you were not into this guy at all," he stated questioningly.
Janet scoffed, "Hardly. He was just some guy I met randomly. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to getting out of the house but that was about it." She looked up to find Eddie narrowing his eyes at her, "It's no biggie."
"So you're not at all bummed about the fact that he didn't show?" Eddie asked again.
"No," she insisted, "Now will you let it go? You're putting a damper on Sports Bar Night," she said half-heartedly.
Eddie sat thoughtfully for a couple of minutes as she worked around him, "Hey I got an idea. I'm going to the Bo-Sox game tomorrow night. Wanna come with?"
"Why?" she asked cautiously. She knew Eddie could tell when she's upset, blindfolded. No matter how hard she tried, he could see right through her but the last thing she wanted was her best friend feeling sorry for her about this.
Eddie shrugged, "You want to get out of the house, I have the means."
Janet studied him for a moment and smacked her hand on the table, "Deal. I'll come by yours at 7."
Great, Eddie thought grimly, he finally had a date with the girl of his dreams and it didn't even feel like one because she had no idea who he was. What made matters worse was the thought that she only agreed to go with him because she didn't know about the rotten thing he'd done.
