Out of the frying pan...

Alright; since I left you hanging (and since I had to collect my memories a little more), I'll move along a little bit...but it's late & this next part is probably fairly crucial in the process of the whole Project here, so I'm not going to rush through it...I want to try and remember everything. But, for now...


She didn't say anything else; I knew who it was. She knew that I knew who it was. I also knew that she knew it was me on the other end of the phone when she picked it up in the first place. I didn't know why, but right then, I didn't really care...I was caught; hook, line & sinker.

"Hello.", she said; like that covered everything.

"Hi." I said back.

".............Hi." She said. I could see her there on the other line, twisting her hair in her hands & smiling out of the corner of her mouth. I took a deep breath and just said something like "Well?"

"What are you doing?", she asked. Perfectly deadpan. Nothing unusual going on here.

"Cashing out the register; getting ready to leave work.", I said.


Long pause...


"Do you want to meet somewhere?", she said.


Is the Pope Catholic?


"Well....alright. Where?"


At this point I've counted the same stack of $20 bills about 70 times.


"I dunno, where do you want to meet? I don't want to go to your house."


Of course not, who would ever want to go to someone's house?


"Well, alright...you want to just come meet me here at work?"

"No; I'll meet you across the street at the bar."

"In the bar or outside the bar?" We had never been to a bar together in all the time we'd known each other.

"Inside. I'll be there in 20 minutes."

"Alright, I'll be there. Will you be there?" I was smitten, but I wasn't stupid; this was Kara I was dealing with.

"I'll be there, don't start that now."

Of course not...how silly of me.

We said goodbye...or maybe we didn't, I can't remember, and I hung up the phone. Then, I had a mild heart attack. After I regained consciousness, I knew I had about 15 minutes in which to get over my panic attack, and deal with whatever was about to happen. I called my co-worker in to finish closing up the place; I was in no shape to be doing anything important anymore. All I could think was: what the hell had just happened?

I remember I paced around the break room and probably went through a quarter of a pack of cigarettes in about 10 minutes. I didn't know what to think. I wasn't all that surprised that she had taken the opportunity to talk to me; I knew that, as close as we had been, she wouldn't have been able to just shut it off, either, and for everything that I've said about her, there was a very sweet girl inside Kara that I knew probably missed talking to her old friend X, if nothing else. I didn't know what to expect, but I think I knew that she didn't either...and that, knowing the way she thinks, she probably hadn't given it any thought herself, past the fact that, on a whim, she had decided she missed me & wanted to see me. Anything could happen; this was Kara we were dealing with.

I thought briefly about all the ways I had changed & grown since we had last seen each other, and about how proud I had been of myself for moving on with my life & not living in her shadow. Then I grabbed my jacket & headed across the street right back into it...