Charlie Tucker slouched down in his seat at the back of the movie theater, pulling his baseball cap down to obscure his face. He couldn't see them yet but he could hear them, talking loudly as they walked through the hallway that led into the theater. In particular, he could pick out Michelle's laugh. He knew that laugh well.
The theater was mostly empty, since the movie they were coming to see was on its fourth week of release. Charlie was by himself in the last row. In fact, he hadn't seen anyone come in and sit in any of the last five rows. The theater was angled downwards and the seat backs were high enough that he couldn't really be sure where the nearest person was. His seat, in a niche to the left of the aisle, allowed him to view anyone entering the theater. The entrance opened onto a walkway that crossed through the middle of the theater, with patrons having the option to go up the stairs to the upper levels of seating, or down to the lower levels.
Cody appeared in the entrance first, with Ryan appearing a moment later. Cody looked at the seats, quickly glancing upward without coming close to looking towards Charlie's seat, then turning his head to look towards the lower levels. He was clearly more interested in the lower seating, closer to the screen. He pointed at a row and Ryan nodded in agreement. They walked down the stairs.
The rest of them followed. Vampire Vanessa. Blonde Sandy and brown-haired Tina. And then Michelle. Michelle was wearing her green jacket and a pair of tight blue jeans. She was saying something to Tina. Charlie shrank down in his seat and his fingers scratched at his chin through his thick beard. He imagined Michelle, sensing his eyes on her, abruptly turning and looking up in his direction. Searching him out, finding him in his hiding spot in the back of the theater. Would she even recognize him the way he looked now? Or would she just see a ragged man in disheveled clothing and an old baseball cap, face obscured by a scraggly beard, someone unworthy of notice?
The last person to enter was Glenn Mack. Charlie watched as Michelle turned, smiling, and said something to Glenn, something too far away to overhear. Glenn Mack. How could it have been, Charlie mused, that he had once thought Glenn Mack was a nice guy? Now, looking down at him, Charlie could think of no one that he hated more.
He watched Michelle, walking with Glenn, bringing up the tail end of their pack of friends. All of them turned, one by one, to go down the same row, with Michelle and Glenn the last two. Charlie could see just their heads over the tall seat backs as they walked towards the center of the row. He picked out Michelle's black hair and watched her intently to see where she sat. The seating arrangement required some discussion, apparently, and Charlie watched the heads moving back and forth, appearing and disappearing, as seats were shifted. He didn't care where the rest of them sat. He just wanted to see where Michelle ended up.
She settled in the center of the group, and his spirits plunged as he watched Glenn take the seat next to her. He couldn't see either of them after they sat, but still his eyes remained on those two seats. He felt desperate to know what Michelle and Glenn were doing.
An hour and fifty-five minutes. That was how long the movie was. That was how long he would have to sit there, in the darkness, looking down at the spot where Michelle and Glenn sat together, wondering how things could have gone so wrong.
****
Maybe Charlie should have sensed something was amiss on the Sunday when he and Michelle went out to celebrate his acceptance into Jefferson University's Apex film program. He wanted to take Michelle out to brunch and intended to pay the check, but she insisted that it would be her treat. After all, she said, they were celebrating his accomplishment, so why would he be the one to pay? He tried to argue but she wouldn't budge.
Okay, Charlie finally relented. She could pay, but he would drive.
Deal, she said.
He could have told her that she didn't need to do anything more for him because she had already done so much the night before. Walking naked through the Macy's parking lot, just so he could gaze at her nude body in the glow of the street lights. Pulling him onto her as she lay naked on the hood of her car, making love to him under the night sky. She had given herself to him, unconditionally and completely, where anyone could see, all to fulfill his lurid fantasy; how could he ask for more from her?
He could have said that, but he found himself reluctant to speak of what they had done the night before. It was starting to seem like a dream in his mind, a memory too incredible to be real. Perhaps he and Michelle had put on masks that night, assumed roles; her the angel, himself the devil, coming together, making love, then fleeing before anyone saw them. She had said it was too much, too risky, she had said she wouldn't do it but Charlie had gone to that parking lot anyway and waited for her, knowing she would be there eventually. He knew she wouldn't be able to resist. The risk made it even more irresistible to her.
Michelle was also reluctant to talk about what they had done. She didn't bring it up, either.
He picked her up at a juice bar on the west side of Pine Hills. She said it was within walking distance of her house. When he saw her, she was wearing a tank top and a tight pair of black shorts, and when she sat in his car he couldn't help but look down and admire her long legs.
Michelle wanted to go to a place about five miles west of Pine Hills, a place called Nora's Nook. "You've never been to Nora's?" She grinned at him. "You'll like it. They have the best pancakes!"
She was right. The pancakes were very good.
Mostly, he just liked being with her. He liked looking across the table and seeing her face looking back at him. He snuck peeks at her, watching her as she did things. Sipping her orange juice. Taking a bite of pancake. Spreading grape jam on her toast. He wanted to remember the way she did everything.
He liked talking to her, the sound of her voice. He felt like they had reached a level of comfort between them where the conversation took very little effort. She seemed interested in what he was saying, and he loved the moments when he could make her laugh. He loved the sound of her laugh.
He had such a good time with Michelle that it wasn't until later that evening that he realized their brunch date had followed a similar pattern as their previous dates. He always met her somewhere other than her house, they always went somewhere out of town, and afterwards, he always dropped her off somewhere other than her house. In this case, back to the juice bar. The juice bar that she said was close to her house.
A very nice date. But he wondered if it had been a secret date. Did her parents know she had been out with him? Did anyone else know? Did Michelle take them to a restaurant out of town to make it less likely that anyone they knew would see them?
It wasn't hard to shrug off those concerns. They had enjoyed a nice afternoon with each other. When he dropped her off at the juice bar, he leaned over to kiss her goodbye, and she gladly returned his kiss. What did he have to complain about? Life was good on a day when he got to kiss Michelle.
The next day at school, he saw Michelle once in the hallway, in the distance, too far away to wave at her. She didn't see him. Charlie was anxious to speak to her. He felt like he'd failed the previous week when he waited until Thursday to make plans with her for the weekend. By the time he asked, she was already booked for both Friday and Saturday night. This week, he wanted to ask her out as soon as he could.
Also, he needed to set up a second night of filming for their short film "Anything You Want". He was thinking that they could schedule it for Wednesday at Greenholt Gardens, but he needed to confirm the day and time with Michelle and the rest of the cast. Wednesday for filming, and maybe Michelle would be interested in going to the gardens another night, just the two of them. Maybe that could happen Tuesday night.
When Charlie sent Michelle a text message asking if she had time to meet, he already had a schedule planned out in his head. He would see Michelle four out of the next five nights. Tuesday, he would meet her at the gardens for a nude walk and sex. Wednesday, at the gardens for filming. Friday and Saturday, he would take her out, to dinner, or a movie, or whatever she wanted to do.
Michelle texted back: "Do you want to meet at lunch?"
"Okay," he replied. "Come to the editing bay?"
"Okay. To eat lunch there?"
"Yes," he texted. "I'll show you how the film's going."
"Okay!" she sent back, followed by a smiling emoji.
It wasn't until he stepped out of his last class before lunch that he realized he didn't know if he was supposed to provide the lunch or not. Were they meeting in the editing bay? Or buying lunch together, then walking to the editing bay to eat it? He decided he would stop by the cafeteria, and if she wasn't there, he would buy her something.
Ten minutes after the start of lunch, he walked into the editing bay, carrying two slices of pizza and two drinks, only to find Michelle sitting in a chair, halfway done with a salad. "Oh..." She looked at what he was carrying. "I thought we were meeting here?"
"Yeah..." He set down the food. "I wasn't sure... I bought you a slice of pizza if you want it."
"Oh, thanks. I'm all right, actually. I brought my lunch today."
"Oh. Okay."
"Sit down." She pulled out his chair for him. "You've already done some editing on the movie?"
"Yeah. Do you want to see?"
"Sure!"
Charlie pulled out his flash drive and connected it to the computer. He opened the rough cut of the film and showed Michelle the pieces he had edited together. She leaned forward, gazing intently at the screen as the video played. In particular, she seemed fascinated by the clips of herself.
"Do I seem like a good actress?" she murmured. "I mean, am I doing okay?"
