Chapter 15 – The Dates II

Buster and Suki took their lunches to go and found a cozy spot on the Redshore Strip, a pavilion dotted with tables under umbrellas to stave off the heat. It gave them a nice view of the hectic activity at the heart of Redshore, but also afforded them enough privacy for their lunch date.

One of the things Suki learned that afternoon was that Buster's mouth could run a marathon if left unchecked. She sipped her lemonade as he rattled through over a dozen subjects, only taking short breaks to bite into one of his eucalyptus wraps. At some point the conversation turned to Jimmy Crystal, his progress with therapy, and his newfound partnership with Gunter.

"...And I'm glad to see him make a genuine connection with Gunter. That's not just an olive branch. It's proof of his progress, and that we can make peace after war. I mean, he hasn't called me a loser once since he started therapy!"

Buster waited for a laugh that never came. He tugged at his bow tie when he saw the sour look on Suki's face, and he was certain it wasn't because of the lemonade.

"Is this guilt?" she suddenly asked.

"What?"

"You helping Crystal out."

"It's responsibility," Buster said. "I feel like he deserves a second chance."

"You don't have to be part of his rehabilitation. You know that, right?"

"I know, but I want Porsha to get the best version of her dad, and I'm willing to help Crystal when he stumbles."

Suki's frustration only grew. "Crystal was a ticking time bomb. If it wasn't you it would've been someone else dangling off his balcony. You realize that, don't you?"

"All the more reason to help clean up his act," Buster retorted, flashing a smile to no avail. Whatever charms he usually had up his sleeve weren't landing at all today.

Suki gathered her purse and abandoned her lemonade. "I'm sorry. This was a mistake."

"Wait, wait!" Buster pleaded. "I won't bring up Crystal anymore. I hadn't considered your feelings. You spent years dealing with his worst behavior, and here I am gushing about his turnaround..."

"You're the most optimistic person I know. I still love that about you. But all it's going to take is one meltdown from Crystal and..." Suki let out a long sigh. "I think you're playing with fire. I don't want to see you get hurt."

Even as she stood there, her eyes shimmering with pity and doubt behind those glasses, warm breeze stroking her hair like fingers, Buster thought she looked beautiful. She was beautiful, and she was walking away from him.

"But you're still leaving?"

"It's not you, I'm the problem," Suki said. Her eyes darted about, as if looking for a quick exit. "We're on different trajectories. I knew it was a mistake trying to start this with you. I tried to be optimistic but I was just lying to myself. This never works."

Buster chased after her, reached up to grab her hand. "We've barely given this a try."

"Maybe that's for the best," Suki said, pulling away. She glanced between the koala and her own hand with a tinge of regret. "We should end this before anybody gets hurt."

As she vanished from his sight among the crowds on the strip, Buster whispered, "Too late..."

Buster started a miserable waltz back to the table. He took his seat and, with his appetite thoroughly ruined, pushed the food container away.

Buster had come to accept himself as something of a screw-up. Most of his greatest pratfalls were at least partially of his own doing. The silver lining there was that once you realized you were the problem, you could take steps to correct your behavior. But this was something else. It felt like an omnipotent force snatched Suki away from him. How could he convince her to take a chance when he wasn't sure what exactly the problem was? What was repelling her?

A stylish wolf in a sunhat and oversized mirror shades suddenly sat across from him, taking the seat that was, for a brief moment, Suki's. Buster couldn't muster up the energy to shoo her away, and hoped she'd take the hint and leave sooner rather than later.

"That did not look like a happy goodbye. What happened?"

Buster looked up. The wolf's shades were gone; he met the worried eyes of Porsha. "Were you spying this whole time?" he asked, though he was too defeated for his voice to a carry the aggravation he felt.

"That's not important! Tell me what happened."

He paused, contemplated if he even wanted to relive such a recent and raw moment. Then he realized there were no secrets here—the whole pavilion saw him plead in vain as Suki walked away from him. "She broke it off."

"Why? What did she say?"

"She said it wasn't me, it was her."

Porsha's jaw slowly dropped. "Wow, I thought people only said that on TV. That can't be all she said?"

"She just doesn't think we could work."

Shaking her head, Porsha said, almost flippantly, "I don't believe that for a second."

"She... doesn't like that I'm involved with rehabilitating your father. He was dominating our discussion. My discussion, really. She wasn't saying much. I guess that was the first sign that she wasn't into this."

"Wasn't this lunch date her idea?"

"Yes."

Porsha scratched her chin and squinted her eyes in suspicion. "It feels like she's not telling you the whole story. Something big. You go to her and you fight for this."

"Porsha, you just can't force two people into a relationship just because you're invested in—"

Buster was silenced when Porsha reached across the table and pushed her finger against his lips. "I'm the captain of this ship, and I say full speed ahead. Do you like her?"

"Well... yes."

"Do you want to be with her?"

"Of course."

"Then you figure out what the real problem is, and then you go get her."

"I don't want to be one of those guys that doesn't respect boundaries."

Porsha flashed him an incredulous look. "Mr. Moon... when Suki said you weren't good enough, you crossed state lines to go to an audition she didn't invite you to and sold a show you didn't have to my dad just so you could be there. What I'm saying is you've never respected people's boundaries."

"You make me sound like a fiend."

"A fiend for love. You just have to find the right way to win her over. Just don't break into her house or anything like that. Some boundaries are good."

Buster let out a strange laugh. "I'm supposed to be taking care of you, but it feels like you're taking care of me."

"I come from the planet Joy. It's my job to spread happiness." Porsha slipped her shades back on and grabbed one of the abandoned eucalyptus wraps, waving it around as she said, "Sometimes people are too stubborn to do what it takes to get that happiness. It's my job to talk some sense back into them."

Watching Porsha, Buster smiled without realizing it. "Is that why you love shipping so much?"

"Mm-hmm. And if Daddy gets over himself, he can be happy with Jerry."

"Wait... Mr. Crystal and Jerry? Huh. So many things are starting to make so much sense now."

Porsha took a bite out of the wrap and immediately gagged. Buster was the only person she knew that enjoyed eucalyptus leaves. Maybe it was a koala thing.

"You know what would make me happy right now?" she said. "A better lunch."

Suki shut the door of her apartment and fell back against it, causing her head to bounce with a soft thud.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she cursed. "He probably thinks you're awful now. Maybe that's a good thing if he feels like he dodged a bullet. He probably did."

It took Suki a few minutes to peel herself off the door and start a languid shuffle across her apartment to her bedroom. She resisted the urge to faceplant on the mattress and briefly considered checking her emails. Maybe that one mythical job offer would come through, or maybe that Ernie Boyd jerkoff was filling her inbox up again with insulting offers to work at his shoddy hotel. She wasn't sure how he got her email address but she was going to put a stop to it.

Standing in her bedroom, she realized those thoughts were just distractions. A smokescreen. She knew what she really came in here for. Even if the memories got foggy, she could still hear his voice clear as day.

Suki reached down to open the bottom drawer of her dresser, hand trembling with enough force to register on the Richer scale. She reached all the way into the back of the drawer for a tight roll of stockings, slipped her fingers into the center of the fold and gingerly retrieved a photograph. Making her way over the sunlit window of her bedroom, Suki stared at the frozen image of five years past.

It was a snapshot of two lovebirds on the Redshore Pier: Suki and a red panda, their silhouettes glowing and accentuated by the golden light of twilight behind them. Suki leaned onto the boardwalk's wooden fencing while the red panda was perched atop it, the photographer catching them in a half-glance. They were supposed to be looking at the camera but couldn't take their eyes off of each other. That day was so special, so serene, she couldn't have imagined life any other way.

Well, life sure showed her.

"All these years later and you still haunt my life, Toby." She ran a finger across the photograph as if she could reabsorb the moment through touch. "I couldn't let Buster become another you. It wouldn't be fair to him. It just wouldn't."

A/N

As you can probably guess, both chapters of The Dates was supposed to be one bigger chapter but got split up. I used the opportunity to expand a bit on Suki. I didn't like her running out on Buster like that without a decent explanation for the audience. Despite her using the word haunt, Toby is very much alive but has been out of her life for years.