Becca (6 page)

“Really? Now it’s my turn
to say I don’t believe you. You said you go to the movies.”

“I do. I walk.”

“And if you don’t go to
the movies?”

“I don’t do anything else.”

“Oh, that’s right. Mr. I
Don’t Do Anything. You should go out. It might help your disposition.”

“My disposition? What’s
wrong with it?”

“It’s lousy.”

“And I suppose you go out
a lot?”

“Yes.”

“Well, going out hasn’t
seemed to help you.”

“You’re a jerk.”

“Absolutely. And yet, you
keep coming back.”

“I’ll stop.”

“I would appreciate
that.”

“Would you? Seriously…
would
you?”

Bert saw the look in her
eye. She was serious. “Well…I wouldn’t want you to get a reputation.”

“I already have a shitty
reputation, buckaroo.” She shrugged. “I don’t care, really. Besides, we’re not
a couple.”

“We’re nothing. Now you
and what’s his name, Greg? You’re something.”

At the mention of her
boyfriend’s name, the girl’s face went cold for a moment, but she recovered and
rejoined the banter. “I thought you said he and I weren’t a couple.”

“I said you didn’t make a
good
couple.”

“So why are we something?
You said we were something.”

“Well, what I meant was, at
least you and Greg have something.”

“Versus you and I have
nothing.”

“Yeah, that’s what I
meant.”

“We’re nothing.” She
looked at him through some hair that had fallen across her eyes. She brushed it
aside.

Bert watched a car slow
down on the boulevard as if to turn into the station. He waved it on. There was
a Sunoco down the road—a station the girl would have had to pass on her way
here. She could have stopped there and used a phone. He was glad that she did
not.

“Well, look, I’d love to
stand here and chat with you, but I have to be going,” Bert said.

“Oh, yeah, like you have
so much to do…people to see, et cetera. Okay, go. Good bye.” She got into her
car, smiled sadly, backed away from the building, pulled to the exit, and
stopped. She leaned across and opened the passenger door.

“Get in,” she said.

“That’s okay,” Bert said,
“I’m only fifteen minutes away from my house.”

“I want some coffee. Do
you want some?”

“I don’t drink coffee.”

“Cut it out. So you’re
not going to get in my car?”

“Can I trust you?”

She nodded. “No. Not at
all. Get in please.”

Bert got into the car and
closed the door. The girl’s perfume suddenly engulfed him.

She put the car in gear,
pulled out onto the boulevard, and said nothing for a minute. “I feel like
talking to someone, Josh. I hope you don’t mind…and then I’ll take you home.”

“I don’t mind.”

“I hope you don’t think
I’m weird, but I…just feel like I want to talk to you and not some complete stranger.”
She watched him look out the passenger window.

“Like we really know each
other,” Bert remarked.

“You’re not a
complete
stranger,” the girl said, “and I enjoy talking to you. That was flattery,
you can smile.”

Bert smiled and glanced
at her. “Thanks for the compliment.”

“Wow, please don’t sound
too excited there.”

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m
not used to that.”

“To what?”

“Flattery.”

“Really? I find that hard
to believe.”

“Was that flattery?”

“Yes I suppose it was. You’ve
never had a girl flirt with you?”

“No flattery, no flirtery”

She smiled. “Now that’s
also hard to believe. I mean…I would think a lot of girls would have flirted
with you. I mean, I can see why.”

“Isn’t that flirting,
right there with what you said?”

“That’s not flirting,
that’s a compliment. This is flirting: so, uh, Josh, do you want to come up to
my place and see my etchings?
That’s
flirting.”

He smiled. “You have
etchings?”

She giggled. “I don’t
even know what they
are.
So…answer the question.”

“What question? Oh, about
going to your place to see your etchings?”

“No—
sheesh—
about a
lot of girls flirting with you.”

“I didn’t know that was a
question.”

“Oops, you’re right.
Forget about it.”

They drove in silence for
a couple of minutes, each staring out of the windshield as if neither wanted to
look at the other.

“What about Alexander?”
the girl asked suddenly.

“The Great? A ruthless
barbarian.”

“Huh?”

“Alexander the Great was
a military genius but a ruthless barbarian.”

“Holy cow, Josh. I wanted
to know what you thought of the name. Does it have character?”

“Yes it does. I like that
name. Alexander.”

“I like that name, too. May
I call you Alexander?”

“Sure, why not.”

They crossed over the
Allegheny River and turning right at the light on the other side of the bridge.

“Where’re we going?” Bert
asked.

“You nervous? I’m not
kidnapping you, don’t worry.”

“It wouldn’t matter if
you did. You’d never get a ransom.”

“Aw crap, then this was a
goddamned waste of time.” She giggled and started rubbing her thigh, then
stopped because she knew it was drawing attention to her. “I might as well drop
you off right here and be done with you.”

They pulled into the Eat ‘n’
Park restaurant parking lot. “Okay, after the coffee you’re free to go,” the
girl said.

“I appreciate that. So,
is the coffee better here than at the restaurant next to the gas station?”

She did not answer him
and they walked to the entrance, where Bert reached around her to open the
door.

“Booth or counter,
honey?” a waitress asked the girl as they walked inside.

“Booth,” she said,
nodding at one in a corner.

“I’ll be with you in just
a minute,” the woman said to Bert.

“Oh, he’s with me,” the
girl said.

The woman seemed unsure
and then turned her back and walked them to a booth where she handed them both
a menu.

The girl ordered coffee
and Bert asked for a Coke. Then they sat in silence for a few moments. Bert
drummed his fingers on the table and then looked at them. They were dirty, and
it was then that he became self-conscious of the smell of gasoline. He looked
around and saw some diners avert their eyes.

“Excuse me,” he said to
the girl and went to the restroom where he scrubbed his hands the best he could,
and washed his face. He paused as he dried it. He understood why people stared,
and in the same moment, he understood why the girl had brought him to this
restaurant rather than the one next to the gas station.

He still carried the aroma
of the gas station, and he felt self-conscious as he walked back to the booth. The
girl had gone. He looked around the restaurant and did not see her, and sat
down as the waitress arrived.

“Where did she go?” the woman
asked.

“I don’t know. I was in the
restroom.”

Bert sipped his Coke and
saw the girl walking toward him from the restaurant entrance.

“Sorry about that,” she said
as she slid into the booth opposite him.

“I thought you’d run out
on me. Abandoned me penniless and lost in a strange town surrounded by strange
people.”

That drew a smile from
her. She said, gesturing with her hands, “This is an Eat ‘n’ Park restaurant in
Harmarville. You go that way a couple of miles and you hit the Hulton Bridge
and you cross that to Oakmont and then you’re just a mile or two from the gas
station, and from there you’re fifteen minutes from your home. Seriously,
Alexander, did you think I left you here?”

Her calling him Alexander
surprised him. “I thought you couldn’t handle the pressure so you split.”

“What pressure?

“The kind you get from
the people looking at us.”

“People are looking at
us?”

“You didn’t notice?”

“No.” She sipped her
coffee and then dumped sugar in it and stirred it. “Well, if you must know. I
saw one of my friends here.”

“Ah,” he nodded.

“What’s that mean, ah?”

“You came to this
restaurant because you were afraid somebody you knew might see your car at the
other one and if they dropped in to say hello they’d see us and…well…I
understand how that could look.”

“How would it look?”

“Awkward.”

“You think so, huh.” She
leaned forward, resting her elbows on either side of her coffee cup. “I don’t
know what you’re talking about.”

“People look; they wonder
what we are.”

“We’re nothing.”

“Ah, but they don’t know
that. They see a pretty girl who turns heads with her perfume come into a place
with a guy who smells like he’s wearing gasoline aftershave—that’s got to be
embarrassing.”

“Well, I’m not
embarrassed. Why would I be embarrassed?”

“You saw your friend and
ran out on me.”

“I did
not
run out
on you.”

“You didn’t stick around
to introduce me, either. It’s okay. I understand.”

“Do you?”

Bert said, “We’re a
mismatch.”

“So?”

“People don’t like
mismatches. And the next time we do this, give me a warning so I can change my
cologne. But it’s not about how I smell.”

“What’s it about then?”

“How I lo—”

“Stop right there,
buckaroo.” She pointed at him. “That’s not the issue.”

“No? So next time you’ll
introduce me?”

“Naw, probably not.
Before you get yourself all riled up there, this is a one-time shot. There’ll be
no next time.”

“This is it, then?”

“Absolutely. I wanted to
get out of the house and just talk, I figured you wouldn’t mind.”

“I don’t mind. I’m glad
this is the only time we’ll do this. I won’t have to change my cologne.”

She shook your head. “You
are something else, Bert—”

“It’s Bert now?”

“Yes.”

“What happened to
Alexander?”

“You’re acting like a
Bert.”

“How does a Bert act?”

“You’re
really
getting on my nerves.” She sipped her coffee.

“Well,” Bert said, “you
don’t have to worry about that anymore. This is it for us.” He sat back against
the booth and sipped his Coke. The girl stared into her coffee.

“She saw you,” the girl
said. “That friend of mine. She was here with her boyfriend. She saw us come
in.”

“And?”

She shrugged. “Nothing. I
mean, she’s cool. Liberal. You’re laughing?”

“No, I was chuckling. There’s
a difference. I laugh at something funny. I chuckle when someone tells me that
their liberal friend thinks it’s okay for that someone to sit with me.”

She sighed. “She wanted
to know who you were, what your name was, and all that.”

“Which name did you give
her?”

She let a smile tug at
the corners of her mouth. “I said you were Bert.”

“Can you trust her?”

“Of course I can. You
don’t understand.”

“Yeah, I
do
.”

“No—you do
not.”

Bert said, “I’m sorry. Explain.”

“It’s my father.”

“Ah yes. That’s right. I’ve
met him.”

“You don’t…know what he’s
like.”

“No, I don’t.”

Her green eyes seemed to
shine more and Bert realized they were tearing over. She leaned back in seat,
brushed hair out of her eyes, and looked out the window.

“You were wrong before,
Alexander,” she said, not looking at him.

“Ah, so now I’m Alexander
again. Okay, how was I wrong before?”

“
You
are important
to somebody else.”

“My mom, you’re right.”
He watched her stared into her coffee again. “So…what’s wrong? You’re a little
down. Fight with the boyfriend?”

“Yes. No. Well, sort of. Not
a fight…just…well I finally saw the light.”

“Break up?”

She shrugged. “I don’t
know.”

“Well, if you do,
there’ll be another one to come along soon.”