Sunday morning I woke up with every reason to be in a great mood. I had a beautiful new girlfriend, the apartment to myself, a job with some security, and a whole day in front of me with nothing to do. But it was the nothing-to-do part that was bumming me out. It made me feel like the old Ray, the one who used to roam around all day depressed with no one to talk to. I tried to shake it off and get busy: there were plenty of projects I could work on in my apartment. So I painted one wall, refinished my coffee table, and was in the middle of building a bookshelf out of scrap wood when my phone rang. I expected my dad, but it was Carlos.
"Hey, man! 'Bout time you called me back!" I greeted him.
"Me? You fuckin' don't call me for a whole fuckin' year, then expect me to fuckin' call you right back? Fuck you."
Whoa
, I thought.
That was a lot of f-bombs. Carlos is pissed.
"Yeah, you're right. I've sort of had my head up my ass this past year."
"What's your fuckin' problem? Have you been pissed at me since I left after we got fired?" He was unloading on me, hard and heavy.
"Naw, man, that wasn't it at all. I probably would have left too, if I had a nice home to go back to." I sat down on my futon. "Remember how I let that guy Thomas move in? Well, he brought this other guy in and the two of them went crazy doing drugs and things got pretty bad around here with them stealing my shit, bringing hookers and junkies home, and all kinds of weird stuff goin' on in this tiny place."
"Shit, man, you didn't do drugs with 'em, did you?"
"Hell no!"
"You could've at least called and said what was goin' on, stupid motherfucker. You want me to come help you evict those motherfuckers or somethin'?"
"They're both gone now. One's in jail, one's in rehab."
"Sounds like a good place for 'em. How're you doin' now?"
"Better. Much better. How 'bout you?"
"Got me a new job and a new girl," Carlos laughed in that cocky way of his. Carlos could swagger with nothing more than the tone of his voice.
The rest of our dialogue slid into our old familiar pattern, just like we used to, except we had a lot of catching up to do. He laughed about how I got my new job and of course about how I met my new girlfriend.
"She came up and hugged you, just because you asked?"
"Yeah... well, I guess I helped her out one time when she dropped a bunch of stuff, but she definitely surprised me. She's still surprising me." I was thinking about how Alicia told me to bring condoms, but I didn't tell Carlos that part. I surprised myself because that was the kind of stuff I would normally tell him.
"Well I hope she ain't no 'false advertiser'," Carlos joked.
I laughed, "Nope, definitely not. She's super-hot, but really sweet too. Hey, Marcus is asking about you all the time."
"Ah, really? That's cool. I should come out for soccer and bring my new girl and meet yours too."
"That'd be cool, 'cept I'm gonna' be working the next few Saturdays. I'm gonna play with a few of the same guys on Tuesdays for a while instead."
"Yeah, well, maybe in a month or so." Carlos went on and updated me on what all our old friends were doing, which sounded like just more of the same old same old. We ended the conversation with Carlos telling me not to go "a whole fuckin' year" without calling him and I laughed and agreed.
When I hung up I saw a text from Alicia. It had a selfie with an accounting book covering the lower half of her face and it said, "Stop distracting me!"
I laughed and wrote back, "Whoever this is, knock it off. I have a girlfriend now."
She sent another selfie, this time one of her butt, with her jeans pulled down. She was wearing a pink thong. Damn. Surprised again. The caption said, "Recognize me now?"
I wrote back, "I could pick that sweet ass out of any lineup. Why don't you come over and study on my lap?"
"Hahaha. You have to wait until tomorrow," she texted.
"I know. Feel free to keep those pics coming. I miss you." I texted back.
Then she texted me a row of hearts and said she missed me too.
* * * * *
The next morning I was a few minutes early getting to the address Don had given me. He said he wanted to take Lenny and me out to breakfast. "Don't worry, you're on the clock. Just want to go over some stuff." He was in a great mood, but anxious too. Don explained that we needed to finish up a bunch of work this week and start our new job next week. We would be working on a warehouse that was being converted into residential lofts.
"Do you know what this means, Ray?" Lenny asked, elbowing me in the ribs.
I thought about it for a second and answered, "Prosperity?"
For some reason both guys thought this was hilarious and they repeated it a few times, laughing until Lenny answered, "Yeah, prosperity, Ray. It also means we have steady work for the rest of the year, and come winter, we'll be working indoors at the same place everyday instead of freezin' our balls off!"
"And," Don added, "It means we gotta up our game. Lenny, I want you to spend the next week teaching Ray as much as you can about every trade, which ones we're gonna sub out, and what we're gonna do ourselves. Ray might have to supervise some guys and coordinate shit, and hey, Ray, there's gonna be some days where you're holdin' a clipboard instead of a drill."
Our food came and we dug in, but Don kept talking, "And don't forget, both of ya's, you need to set an example for any new guys: no coming in late, no bein' on the phone."
I had to bite my lip at that. Few things irritate me more than being told to do something I am already doing, or not to do something I'm already not doing, but I knew Don was just looking ahead. "I even ordered some t-shirts with collars. They say DT Construction right here," he was rubbing the left side of his chest and he was grinning with pride.
When we got back to the jobsite, Lenny did proceed to explain everything he was doing while trying to rush at the same time. He gave me specific tips for checking other people's work and also what would catch Don's eye. I took some notes and asked a lot of questions and even made a few video clips when he showed me something new. Lenny teased me about studying at night, but I definitely had my mind on other ideas for that particular evening. Alicia's place.
That morning I had texted her wishing her luck on her test and hadn't heard back from her yet. Lenny caught me grinning a few times and asked, "What's so funny?" I didn't want to tell him I was thinking about the picture of Alicia's butt, so I said, "Don was really excited about those t-shirts."
"Yeah well, it's been a hell of a ride for him. It ain't easy being the owner. I wouldn't do it, I got enough stress with my kids." We were tiling the bathroom of an apartment and I really enjoyed it, except for the smell of cutting tile. We barely finished at five o'clock and I finally got a text that read, "Test is over, home from work, come over any time."
I put my tools away and then literally ran home to take a shower.
* * * * *
It takes me about forty-five minutes to walk to Alicia's apartment, and almost as long to take the subway. I prefer walking, especially when it's nice out. I walked by the flower shop and spontaneously decided to pop in. I saw Flower Girl again and she teased me, "Back so soon? Must be love."
"Sorry, but I don't know you that well yet. I think 'like' would be more honest." I teased her, even though I knew what she meant.
Flower Girl smiled and asked if I was on a budget again today. "Always. But today I do want to buy just one rose and I was hoping you could tell me what the different roses mean."
"I just know that red is love and I'm pretty sure yellow is sympathy. Let's Google it." She looked at her phone screen and walked over to the buckets of roses. Girls with tattoos are confusing. Flower Girl had this tattoo on her thigh and she was wearing short cut-off jeans and black boots, so of course I was looking at her legs. Or rather her tattoos. It's a mind game they play, giving you permission to look at the art on some private body part. Not that her upper thigh was that private, but I usually wouldn't stare like that.
"I like to write," she noticed my staring. "And I like birds."
"Hmmm. That explains it. Very interesting." Her pale thighs
were
very interesting, and so was the typewriter surrounded by birds.
"Okay, here are the ones we have in stock. Let me see, pink means appreciation, oh, unless it's light pink; that means admiration." She looked at me and I shook my head. "Okay, white means purity or innocence, red means love, of course."
"What about this one?" I pointed to a really cool looking rose, yellow with red tips.
"That," she consulted her phone's screen, "Means friendship and falling in love."
I stared at the flower for a few seconds. Then I picked it up.
"Dammit!" Flower Girl exclaimed. "I guess that means there's no hope for you and me," she laughed like she was joking.
"I guess we were meant to be just friends," I shrugged and gave her my most charming smile.
