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Alvin had promised to call Mary every day, and he kept to that promise. He called her on Tuesday evening and they chatted for more than an hour. He did not like to talk about himself, and would deflect personal questions with a joke, but little by little, she managed to learn more about him. But the more she learned, the more she wanted to know. Their dinner at the sushi restaurant had made her realize that she had been, to some extent, seeing him through biased eyes. He was no yokel, no country bumpkin. He was, if she could steal his own terms, wicked smart and right cunning. But she sensed that there was an inner core that she had not yet been able to touch.
It occurred to her that she had not been particularly forthcoming with him, either. She had told him a bit about her childhood, and that she'd been married and divorced, but not much else about her past.
He asked her to meet him for lunch the next day, and she eagerly agreed. They met at Wendy's Diner, just up the hill from her apartment. She'd gone past it many times, but had not gone in. It looked a little shabby from the outside, but she trusted that if Alvin suggested it, it wouldn't be too bad.
She arrived first and was shown to a booth along the wall, about halfway to the back. She had a clear view of the door and saw Alvin as soon as he entered. As he approached her, she thought about how good he looked in his jeans and chambray work shirt. It amused her that she found that look attractive. If Wyatt had worn the same clothes, he'd have just looked grubby. But Alvin carried his masculinity with an easy grace that she found incredibly sexy. And he was in damn fine shape for his age.
He leaned down and kissed her cheek, then eased into the booth across from her.
"How's your day going?" he asked.
"Just fine, but it's nice to get out of the office on such a nice summer day. How about yours? Busy?"
"Oh yes," he sighed, "school's out and tourist season is in full swing."
"What do you do in the winter?"
"Well, we sell Christmas trees down to the wharf. I do some plowing. But I do get a fair bit of downtime. Guess I'll be milking alpacas or something before long."
"I don't think you need to milk them," Mary laughed.
"You don't know Jen, she will likely figure out how to make alpaca cheddar or something."
The waitress came over to their table and greeted Alvin by name. He said hello to her and introduced her to Mary, who noticed the woman's eyebrow cock a bit when she looked down at her.
"Pleased to meet you, dearie. What would you like?"
Mary looked at the menu and ordered a BLT. Alvin suggested that she try the onion rings, and she agreed. He ordered some for himself as well, along with a cheeseburger.
"Looked at the weather report?" he asked her as they waited for their food, "Supposed to be a wicked heat wave late in the week."
Mary smiled, "Glad I have my brand new AC."
Alvin laughed. "Let's see if you even turn it on."
"Let's see if you don't come knocking at my door when it gets too hot for you."
"Don't expect it will be the heat outdoors so much as indoors that brings me knocking."
She shook her head at him. "You're too much."
"I sure prefer that to being not enough."
The waitress bought their food. The onion rings were very good.
"I was wondering," Alvin said between bites of burger, "if you might be interested in taking another sail with me this weekend. I've got Sunday free."
"That would be wonderful. So, I'll come down to the wharf on Sunday morning."
"I was thinking Saturday night."
"Oh." She chewed a bite of her sandwich. "So we'd sleep on the boat or go someplace?"
"I was thinking a night on the boat would be nice. Have you ever spent a night out at sea?'
"No, I never went out to sea at all before I met you, silly."
There was a wistful look in his eyes. "Mary, you never saw so many stars. And the peacefulness," he paused, seeming to search for the right word, "the serenity. I'd like to share that with you."
"I'd like that very much."
They finished lunch and Alvin walked her to her car.
"I'm going to be as busy as a horse in clover the next few days, but I'll call you when I can," he said.
She kissed him and touched his cheek. "Alright. I've got a thing Friday. A dinner with people from work."
"I'll see you Saturday, then."
"But you'll call."
"I'll call," he nodded. Mary got in the car and backed out of her parking spot. She shifted to head uphill, and, waved. Alvin waved back, then blew her a kiss.
The afternoon was uneventful, the work that crossed her desk, routine. Mary's mind kept drifting back to Alvin. She thought again that there was much more to him than she had anticipated. He was a man who read, who reflected, who was not shy about showing his emotions. She thought about Wyatt, and the comparison was not flattering to her ex-husband. He turned out to be less than I expected, she thought, then felt a flush of shame for being so uncharitable to him.
Wyatt had loved her, and it had been Wyatt who lifted her out of the long blue funk that followed the death of her father. And there was a period, in the early days of their marriage, that had seemed idyllic.
She was lucky to get a position at First American that paid enough to cover almost all of their expenses. Wyatt took a job in a camera store. It didn't pay much, but they would get by. Eventually, his photography career would take off. She had hoped that they would be able to move out of the small apartment they had shared through college and into a house, but she knew that was not realistic yet, and she understood that a marriage is a partnership that demands the investment of time and effort, not just love. Concerns about finances and careers seemed trivial compared to the joys of going to sleep every night next to someone you loved that loved you back, and waking up the next morning to spend another day of your lives together.
For the first few months after the wedding, just the idea that they were married filled her with a sense of elation. She would find herself looking at her wedding band and feeling a grounded security that she had lost when her father died. Things would be alright. Things would get better and better as she and Wyatt built a life together.
Time went by, and things stayed exactly the same. She went to work at the bank and Wyatt did his shifts at the camera store. Every once in a while, he would get an idea for a photo shoot, but as far as Mary could tell, he wasn't making any effort to advance his career. If he had shown his work to any galleries, she was not aware of it. But, she dutifully went along to his shoots, and he would often have her pose for him. They took photos at the Santa Monica Pier, at Venice Beach, and farther afield, in the wine country of Napa and at Joshua Tree. They were good, he certainly had an eye for composition and color. She tried to subtly urge him to show more ambition about his work, and he would talk about plans to do so, but nothing seemed to come from them.
Mary grew frustrated at carrying so much of their financial burden. When their first anniversary approached and she realized that she'd have to pay some of their bills late in order to afford even a relatively inexpensive night out to celebrate, she decided to confront Wyatt about the situation.
He was sitting on the couch playing a video game when she arrived home from work. He grunted a greeting to her as she kicked off her shoes. She sat in a chair across from him.
"Wyatt? Honey? Can you pause that for a minute?"
"Can't pause an online game, babe," he said, without looking up. Mary watched him for a few minutes, then crossed the room and unplugged the internet router.
"Hey, what the.."
"Oh," Mary said, staring down at him with her arms crossed in front of her, "Maybe you can pause an online game after all."
