Shoe Strings

with
anticipation.   The wine could have
been the best in the world or caster oil.   “Good.”  
    “Shower okay?”
    “Perfect.”   He’d
rested his bare feet on the coffee table and crossed his ankles.   His arm stretched along the back of the
futon and she could feel his fingers playing with the damp ends of her
hair.   It was just the kind of
casual contact he’d tormented her with throughout the day.   Except now they were alone with nothing
to do but wait for dinner to arrive.   She needed a distraction and fast.   “I heard you and Cal arguing the other night.   I hope it wasn’t serious.”
    Jesse looked into the fire for a long time and she wondered
if she should have asked.   “Cal and
I…well, let’s just say we’ve been avoiding this argument for years.”
    She hated to see the pain in his eyes, especially when she’d
witnessed Cal’s behavior the day before she left.   She could only guess they hadn’t settled
anything or made up.   Didn’t they
know how precious their relationship was and that it shouldn’t be compromised
by petty disagreements?   “Want to
talk about it?”
    “No, it’s…it’ll work itself out.”  
      “Okay.   If you don’t want to talk about your
problems, then how about we talk about mine?   Were you able to reach your friend at
the paper about the consulate?”
    “Umm,” he nodded and put his feet on the ground.   “I talked to him yesterday.   He said he’d check it out.   He hadn’t heard anything, but he’s a
feature’s guy, so he might not have paid much attention.”   He put his empty bottle on the coffee
table and looked at Angelita.   “I
told him to let me know as soon as possible, so maybe by Monday.”   
    Jesse got up to get a beer and added another log to the fire
on the way back.   “Have you made any
decisions about your father, what you’re going to do?”
    Making decisions about anything wasn’t her forte.   “No.”   She sighed.   “I need to talk to Sophie about it.   He’s been hounding her too.”
    “Sophie?”
    “My business partner.   You’d like her.   She’s blond,
southern, and very attractive.”
    Jesse laughed.   “You’ve just described every woman in Atlanta.”
    She’d forgotten he’d lived there.   “I can’t imagine you in Atlanta.   You seem so happy here.”
    “I am happy here.   I…”   He took a deep
breath.   “My mom had just died,
Kerri Ann and I were headed for divorce, and I needed to get away.   It’s hard to explain without it sounding
shallow, but, for the longest time, I felt like I’d missed out on
something.   The freedom I assumed
I’d have in college.   Ty changed all
that.   It’s hard to go wild taking
night classes and going home to a wife and kid.   Atlanta was my time to sow my wild oats,
as they say.”
    “How long did you live there?”
    “Three years.”
    “That’s a long time to sow your oats.   What made you come back?”
    He was staring into the fire again, his feet propped lazily
on the table.   But there wasn’t
anything lazy or easy about the look on his face.   “I worked hard there, made a lot of
money.   I played as hard as I
worked, sometimes harder.   It was
fun at first, really fun.   I’d see
Ty every other weekend and we’d go do all the stuff you do in a big
city—the zoo, museums, ballgames.   Thankfully he remembers those times as being as fun as I do.”   He took a sip, smiled wistfully like he
was reliving the good times in his mind.   “But then, after a few years…”   He shrugged.   “It got old,
the constant work and play routine.   Whenever I slowed down long enough to think about things, I realized how
bored and unhappy I’d become.   The
city and all its impersonal glitz, all the stuff I couldn’t get enough of at
first, started closing in on me.
    “One night,” he continued as if in a daze, “I was out at a
bar and someone offered me a line of coke.   For a second, just a second, I actually considered doing it.”   He looked at her then and held his eyes
to hers.   “I’d never done drugs
before, ever.   But I was feeling
restless and unhappy and I thought, why not?   I could use a pick me up.   That’s when I knew it was time to go
home.”
    “I take it you didn’t do the line?”
    “Nope.   I went
home and started packing.”
    “You’re very decisive, Jesse.”   It was one of the things she found so
attractive about him.   Amongst all
the