"Thanks for staying overnight, Heather. I really needed to wallow and everything," I said to my friend as she left the next morning.
"No problem, I know you would do the same thing for me," Heather said. "Just promise me one thing."
"What?" I asked.
"Work on your stages!" Heather said.
"Shouldn't I just let it run its natural course, like a bad cold or virus?" I asked. It seemed to make sense to me that way.
"How do you expect to get over Jamie if you don't work on it?" Heather asked. "I've got to run. I have a job interview today. There's this new restaurant a block away from my apartment. How convenient would that be?"
"You mean you're not going to the open-call at the Schubert?" I ask Heather, who always goes to open-calls.
"I'd rather have an interview for something a little more stable. Besides, the cook looks cute," Heather said with a wink. She put on her coat and left. I looked at my watch. 8:00 AM. The open-called started at 1:00 PM, so I better start getting ready. I pulled on some jogging clothes. If I couldn't get to the gym, at least I could jog around my block a little. I got my CD player and went out the door. I went down the stairs and started jogging around my block listening to a Sondheim mix CD I made. High in a tower, like yours was but higher, a beauty asleep… I jogged around the corner and saw Jamie, sitting on the sidewalk, typing on his laptop. Agony! No frustration, more keen. When the one thing you want is the only thing out of your reach. I started to back up. 'How do you expect to get over Jamie if you don't work on it?' I heard Heather's voice in my head. I took a deep breath and continued to jog down the street. I jogged past Jamie. He didn't even look up. I continued to jog, tears forming in my eyes. He didn't look up. I didn't look down at him when I passed, but he didn't look up. Why didn't he look up?
When I got back to the lobby, Jamie was sitting in there, still typing away. I walked by without looking at him again. "Cathy!" I heard someone yell. Relief ran over my body. I turned around and it was my neighbor, Mrs. Karper. "Cathy, this was stuck under my door, but it has your name on it. I think it was meant for you. Do we have a secret admirer?" my nosy neighbor asked me.
"Oh, I bet it's the article I told my friend to cut out for me. Thank you so much, Mrs. Karper. I don't know why my friend put it under your door," I said, taking the note. I avoided pronouns, not wanting to give away a gender either way in my white lie. It would only get all the neighbors talking.
"It looks like Jamie's handwriting, Cathy," Mrs. Karper said, still sticking her nose where it didn't belong.
"Yes, my friend and Jamie do have similar handwriting," I said, looking at the note, noticing it was indeed Jamie's handwriting. "I'm going upstairs now. Good-bye, Mrs. Karper." I turned my head and smiled a tight, but polite smile and then walked away. As I was climbing up the stairs, I heard someone following me. I was sure it was Mrs. Karper, so I started running up the stairs to avoid her. I got to my apartment, fumbling for my keys when I could tell she caught up with me, but she smelled much worse than her usual over-done perfume.
"Cathy, we need to talk," I heard the person behind me say, and it definitely was not Mrs. Karper. I shoved my keys in the lock and opened the door. I went in without answering. "Cathy, you can't ignore me." I walked in my apartment leaving the door open, knowing he would follow me. I turned and faced him.
"What do you need to talk about, Jamie?" I asked. "Since, if you need to talk, we talk. If I need to talk or have you talk, why should that matter? But if you need to talk, Jamie, by all means, talk!"
"I saw where we were going, and I didn't like it. We were heading here," Jamie said. "I don't want to be back here."
"How do you know we would have ended up here?" I asked. "Why couldn't you at least give it a try?"
"If you don't succeed the first time, try, try again?" Jamie asked. "Are we going to keep trying until we succeed? What if we don't? Why do you want to keep doing this dance? Why do we have to keep doing this dance for you?"
"God, don't stay here for me! You didn't yesterday!" I said.
"No, I left for you instead! I didn't want to bring you here! I knew we would be here. I didn't want to try and fail again," Jamie said. "Why do you?"
"What are you saying, Jamie?" I asked. "Were you going to cheat on me again?" Jamie didn't answer me. We just stood there for a while. Jamie turned just as Mrs. Karper started to walk in.
"I couldn't help but overhearing…" Mrs. Karper began to say.
"Good-bye, Mrs. Karper," Jamie said.
"Jamie, it isn't polite to interrupt…" Mrs. Karper began again.
"I said good-bye, Mrs. Karper. Now is not a good time," Jamie said forcefully. Mrs. Karper gave Jamie her infamous "well-then" look turned on her heel and left. Jamie turned back to me.
"Now is not a good time for you, either," I said. "Good-bye Jamie." Jamie nodded and turned around. "You can take your stupid note, too. Whatever it says, I don't want to know." I put the note on the counter. Jamie looked at it.
"It's my newest novel, or the beginning of it anyway. I want you to know," Jamie said and left without his note. I picked it up and looked at it for a while. I heard a knock on the door. I walked over and opened it to find Mrs. Karper.
"I knew it was from Jamie," Mrs. Karper said. "Are you going to open it?"
"Whether or not I do is none of your business," I said and then pointed at her apartment. "That is your apartment. Please stay in there and not over here." I closed the door. I walked over to my couch. I sat down and looked at the note for a long time. It was 10:00 AM. I could take fifteen minutes to read it. I opened the note.
Amy had fallen asleep and I sat on my cot and watched her sleep…(Thanks for the reviews! I told you I would update soon! What will Cathy think of Jamie's new novel? What do you think of my new character? Please Review!)