First off, I have to tell you I love Angela. Honest to God, I really do. I've told her this a million times. And I kind of understand her outrage and why she's doing what she's doing. I wish she wouldn't but I can understand it. God, I wish she would stop and be mine again.
Okay, maybe that's not the best place to start. Maybe the beginning would work better.
I met Angela at a party some college friends of mine were giving. It wasn't anything special, like end of finals or someone finally graduating, just a get together where we chatted about what's going on and who's doing whom. It was college, so someone was
always
doing whom. A little friendly gossip. Some of the guys actually liked word getting out that they were finally getting laid. Like I said, college.
I mingled with some people, saying hi to the ones I knew and checking out the girls I didn't know. There was this one girl, a leggy blonde, who was getting a lot of attention. Guys were pasted to her like wallpaper and she seemed to be enjoying the attention. I watched her for a while and decided she was just trying to figure out which one of the hunks was going to get her pussy that night. I wasn't in the running.
After musing over the dynamics of that group, I wandered around and spotted a girl with dark hair and a bemused smile. She seemed to be looking at me, so I sauntered over.
I looked at her without speaking for a while. I was normally pretty shy and would struggle to strike up a conversation with a woman, particularly one that was drop dead gorgeous. This one was very pretty, but fell just a little bit short of tongue-tying beautiful. I decided I would try "smooth," not that I had any chance of pulling it off.
I smiled at her and she smiled back. "Okay," I started, "it's clear something is amusing you."
"Yeah," she said, "it's a little bit funny."
"Care to fill me in?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
She pointed her chin at the blonde surrounded by the dragging tongues. "I'm just wondering how long it will take her to make her decision."
"What decision?" I asked.
She shrugged. "Which one she'll take home to fuck."
I was taken aback by the directness. "What makes you think that's what she's trying to decide?" I asked.
She smiled. "I've seen her before. She'll go to this party or that, hang around for a while, then drag someone off and we'll never see them again for the rest of the evening."
I turned to look at the group. "Ah," I said, "so
that's
what she's doing. I would never have guessed." She and I both laughed.
"The thing is," she said, "she's a nice girl, really sweet. It's just that she is insecure about herself and uses men to make her feel better. It's too bad, but it never works. After she screws someone, she always feels worse."
"You know her?" I was surprised.
"Yeah," she said, "I went to high school with her. She had problems then, too, but it seems like they're worse now. I try to talk about it with her, but she's still in denial. It's a real shame, because she deserves better than what she's getting." She sighed. "Maybe she'll wise up after a while. Maybe."
We stared at the blonde and her groupies for awhile in silence. I finally put out my hand and said, "Brad, in case you were wondering."
She smiled as she shook my hand. "Angela. Glad to meet you."
Not much happened that night. I chatted with her until it was time for her to go. We talked about school, of course, and some of the things we had had time to do when we didn't have to study. I found out she liked to go to plays at small theaters. There were a number of them around and she said she really liked the Odyssey. I had never been there and said so. She suggested we try it out sometime. She said she could give me a call when a new play she wanted to see was going to be there. I practically broke my hand grabbing a pen to write my number down.
I didn't hear from Angela for a couple of weeks. One night, when I was trying to figure out some phase space problem that, as far as I could tell, was unsolvable, my phone rang.
"Hey, Brad," a voice said, "how are you? It's Angela. Remember me?"
"Of course I do," I said. "What's up?
"I was just wondering what you were doing," Angela said.
"Oh, sitting around by the phone, waiting for you to call," I said.
I could almost hear her eyes rolling. "Well, a good thing I finally did. You must be running out of food right about now."
"Yeah," I laughed, "I'm down to the last can of cat food. At least now I can go out and get some real food, like ramen or something." Students are always broke and laughing about how they eat cat and dog food, but I've never actually seen anyone do it. Well, except for Raymond, but that was a joke.
"So," she said, "up for a play?"
"It depends on when, but yeah, I'm up for it. What, where, and when?" I asked.
"The Odyssey, eight o'clock Thursday, and it's called Simple Pleasures. It's a story about a guy who slowly figures out that bigger isn't better and excitement at the expense of contentment isn't a good trade. Want to go?"
"Sure," I said. "I'll meet you there."
********************
I showed up in front of the playhouse a little before eight and saw Angela walking toward me.
"Hi," she said with a smile, "glad you could make it."
"I wouldn't miss this for the world," I said. She took my arm and we walked in.
It was a good play and we had a great time. Afterwards, I bought her a burger at a little burger shack down the street that was known for good, unhealthy food. We talked about the play and what it meant. She was smart, clever, and kind, laughing at my jokes even when they weren't funny. I was smitten.
