~Part 1~
"Hold on a second," I said through my phone as I was standing in the parking lot looking for my car keys. Ah, found them! "Alright, what were you saying?"
My best friend, Laura, always tends to ramble on a little and if I'm being honest, I occasionally tune some of the less important parts out. "I was seeing what you were doing tonight. Wanna come over? I'm bored."
"Yeah, I'll be over around 6. Make sure food's ready because I'll be starving by then! I haven't eaten all day. See ya, hun." I put the keys in the ignition and started to pull onto the highway, hoping to beat rush hour traffic. In the cold winter of Ohio, it's always much more pleasurable to be snowed inside of a warm, cozy house than it is to be stuck on the highway with a semi-reliable heater in your car. I'm thankful Laura called because I haven't had time to see her the past few weeks. I've been working on this big, commercial real estate project for my company and it's been taking up most of my evenings and weekends. However, I finally have a reason to celebrate after wrapping up the first major step of the project and my team and myself will have the next week relatively free.
My road to the real estate company is somewhat different than I think what most people take. Laura actually got me into the company through one of her friends. She works in fashion merchandising, but knew a few people in the real estate industry from her college years. I didn't know anything about real estate, but figured that I was willing to learn anything that could give me a stable paycheck. I started as an intern, learning the basics of real estate, but being a quick learner, I moved up the chain and am now often chosen as the project manager for many of my company's larger deals.
Laura and I have been friends for about 4 years now. We met my junior year in college, her first year out of college, at a somewhat upscale bar in downtown Columbus. She was out celebrating her first big project lead at her company and I was with a few people celebrating a friend's birthday. Within about the first 5 minutes of being at the bar, I realized the bartender had no interest in serving me, as she appeared to be spending her time schmoozing with some stuffy, overpaid businessman. After about another 10 minutes of waiting, this girl slides in beside me, reaches across the bar, grabbed two beers, and stuck some money where they used to be. I must have shown the shock in my expression because she just smiled and said, "This one's on me" as she handed me one of her "stolen" beers.
The rest of the night, I kept wondering who she was and why she decided to share her little secret with me. There were at least 20 other people at the bar who were waiting for that rude bartender. Later that night, as I was headed out, she stopped me and asked when I was going to return the favor. "Next weekend?," I asked. She smiled, "I'll be waiting to collect."
That night, as my friends and I were walking down the street trying to find a cab, my one friend, Jack started nagging me. "Hey Sara, you got a girlfriend or something?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, a little confused.
"That girl back there. At the bar. She was totally into you."
"You're crazy! She was just being nice." The truth is that, at the time, I completely thought it was innocent. Jack was just giving me a hard time. After all, they all knew I was straight. I'd been dating the same guy for nearly 3 years before we broke up just last summer.
"Whatever you say, Sara. Don't forget, this is the city. Some chicks dig other chicks around here. Not like that small country town you come from," he chuckled.
I started to wonder about what Jack said, but by the end of the night had come to the conclusion that this girl, whoever she was, just wanted to be nice. Everyone can use a new friend, right?
As I walked into that same bar a week later, I have to admit I was a little nervous. What if Jack was right? What if this girl was actually "interested"? I'd have no idea what to even say or do. Oh well. I told myself to suck it up and just have fun. This girl was nice enough to get me a beer last weekend and the least I can do is pay her back.
I spotted her standing next to the bar, she was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and dark jeans. Her wavy dark hair added a sense of mystery to her. It was almost as if, by trying to blend in with the business crowd in their dark suits and monotone attire, it made her actually stand out. She was very pretty, from anyone's standards. I caught her eye and she smiled, waving me over to join.
"Hey, I wasn't sure if you'd show," she said.
"Are you kidding me? I always pay up."
"I'm Laura, by the way. We never actually met last week."
"I'm Sara, it's nice to meet you, finally." I hesitated for a second as she stuck out her hand to shake mine. She was looking at me very intently and it made me feel a little nervous. Her green eyes were a little mesmerizing. "Drinks?" I asked, breaking the silence.
She smiled again, "Absolutely."
~Part 2~
As I pulled up to her house and parked on my usual side of the driveway, I smiled to myself. I haven't thought about how we met in a long time. We've come a long way since that day. We've been through the loss of Laura's grandpa, breakups, and location changes. For the past 4 years, she's been the person I could always rely on and I play the same role for her. It's funny how two lives become connected.
"Hey, where are you?" I yelled as I walked in. I hear her coming down the stairs.
"You scared the crap out of me, Sara. Do you have to yell when you walk in?" She gave me a hug and kissed my cheek, as always. "You look awfully fancy today. How was work?"
I was dressed up especially nice today because of the meeting that I had on that big project. My regular workouts keep me in pretty good shape, so I had just bought an expensive suit that fit my athletic frame perfectly. My dark brown hair was straightened and the bright blue shirt I wore underneath brought out the blue in my eyes. I had to agree with her that I looked pretty damn good today.
"Oh you know, same old, same old." I grinned, waiting to see her response to the next part. "Nothing major, just wrapped up the first $60 million of that giant deal."
Pause. "Are you kidding me?! That's amazing! I'm so happy for you, sweetheart! You should have told me and I would have made something more special than take out Chinese food."
"Haha you know I love Chinese food! Why would I ever need anything more special than that and an evening with you?"
"You're such an idiot, but at least you're happy with what I've got. Seriously, congratulations Sara."
