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| Alarmingly Strange Stories |
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The Escape |
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| . "You know, I really don't think I should be left alone tonight." Denise said between dry heaves as I helped open her apartment door, "You don't have to work tomorrow, do you?" "No, I always give myself Saturdays off." "Do you want to stay?" "Sure." The next morning, we slept in until noon. We took a shower and went out to lunch. "Did you have a good time last night?" I asked over the kitchen table. We had moved the pizza boxes onto the floor. "I don't know? I don't think anyone took me seriously, you know? I mean, everyone was supportive and everything, but I don't know if they think I'll really make it." "I don't know, they all seemed serious to me." "You're very sweet, you know that?" I laughed; "you've never seen my apartment, have you?" "No, why?" "Well, I've got something I'd like you to see, that's all." "Great!" she beamed. We drove over to my place, listening to "Hot Hits," my favorite radio station. We rode in silence. In the parking lot, I made sure I opened her door while she blushed a thank you. I led her into the apartment." "Okay, now close your eyes." I smiled. "All right." She stood there nervously while fumbling to unlock the door. I led her past the houseplants I kept on and around the pedestal beside the door. "Are you ready?" "I guess," she smiled. "Okay. Open your eyes. This is my baby..." I gestured to the home entertainment center I'd been building since right after college. I pointed out that the TV, VCR, and stereo were all wired into the eight speakers I had spread about the room. "Wow! It's ... really. Nice." She looked around the room, wide-eyed. "You really like it?" I asked. "Yeah." "Okay! Now, sit here," I pointed to the center seat of the couch, "you'll really love this!" As she sat, I turned on the radio. "It's great, isn't it?" "Yeah, it's like sitting in the middle of a concert or something." "I'm really glad you like it so much. A lot of the people I show it to aren't that impressed." "No, I mean, you could watch movies and listen to music forever here." "Oh, yeah. Oh! Look at this, too." I showed her all of my old bookcases filled with movies and CDs. "I've been putting this collection together since ... well, since high school, really." She went through all the movies and CDs, telling me which ones she really liked and which ones she wasn't into. I agreed with her for the most part. I did have a lot of old stuff that I wasn't into anymore but kept around anyway. We spent the evening eating popcorn and watching the "Die Hard" trilogy. We both ended up falling asleep during the third one. Waking up on the couch the next morning, I drove her home and went to work. She was off, but she promised to call me after I got off of work. The next two weeks flew by like hours. We were together every night after work. We went to a few parties, but mostly kept to ourselves. Denise still hadn't heard anything from the designers, and she was starting to get pretty down on herself, so I told her to just focus on the work she was doing at the store, to take her mind off things, you know? She came over to my apartment that night, I guess it was about a week and a half ago, looking half-dead from work. I gave her a foot massage and asked her how her day was. "It was okay. I sold almost a thousand dollars worth of clothes to one lady who wanted a whole new wardrobe for her new job. She got so excited when I showed her all the new clothes that had just come in...." Denise looked down as she took a drink from her bottled water. "There's something I need to tell you," Denise continued looking at the floor. "I got a call this afternoon from someone at Marie del Rose. They want me to come work for them. I won't be designing just yet, mainly I'll just be drawing other people's designs, but it's a start." Her eyebrows peaked as she stared at me. . |
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