My life is not a saga

So two mondays ago, I went to get my hair cut, and Taco Bell is in the same strip mall as the haircut place, so I figured I would drop by to follow up just to see what would happen and what would be said.

The drive-thru line was long as hell so I was glad I was going in. I ordered (to go) and saw Shera in the back, but she hadn’t seen me yet, and seemed to be busy doing things.

She looked up and saw me from the back office and started coming up front. She said “Hey how’s it going?” never breaking her walk up to the front and around the counter. “Hey, fine, how’re things with you?” “Good, I gotta go to the bathroom.” She disappeared around the corner (towards the bathroom).

I’m not very fond of waiting, especially for things I don’t care much about and made a decision that after I got my food I was leaving. There were some rednecks sitting to eat (I thought I’d finally escaped them, but no) and I overheard them say Shera’s name (all the while wishing I’d brought headphones) while waiting for my food to come. It finally came and I was walking out and literally reaching my hand out to open the door when Shera came out of the restroom. I stopped and said, “Hey, how was your week?” She mumbled something about it being fine, and I said “Yeah, sorry we haven’t been coming in lately, everyone is out of town and I hate eating alone.” I was ready to know, so I added, “So… weren’t you supposed to call me last Thursday, what happened with that?”

She got a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face, and hesitated. It was a 2 second silence followed by a slow shrug. That was about what I expected, but I couldn’t anticipate it being so funny. I chuckled, and about that time the rednecks started yelling her name from across the store and walking over. She looked in their direction, and I, being done with the situation, took the opportunity to leave. “See you later,” I said, and turned and walked out the door.

I was satisfied. It made a decent amount of sense, but most of all, there was nothing more to think about.

Except, on the way home, I got a phone call. Not surprisingly, it was her. “Sorry for the interruption.” she said. I told her it was no problem, and asked what was up. “Why didn’t you call me?” She said. I said, did she not remember that we had agreed that since she had more things to do, she should call me? She said no, and I said “Well, that was sort of an important part.” She said, “You should have called me this past Thursday, I just sat around and did nothing, why didn’t you?” I don’t remember what I said, something like “I didn’t know if I should,” something at least, where I had to avoid talking about how I had no clue what the fuck she wanted with me. She said, “And why haven’t you come to see me at all?” I mentioned again how much I hate eating alone.

I thought it was noteworthy that she would take time to call me while she was working, and curious to see what this was all about, I said, “Well, would you still be up for doing something another time?” She said, “Yeah, definitely.” I asked her when would be good for her and she explained how she was on vacation this weekend and had to go to bed early the remainder of the week, and so we should wait until after she got back. Having learned my lesson from the time before, I told her I would call her.

So I had to do it, but at this point I have to say it was less out of interest and more out of curiosity. I went in last night to get some food, planning to see if she was up for hanging out. I ordered and she walked up and said hello, I asked her how things were going and how her vacation was. I was trying to wait for the guy who took my order to leave, but it didn’t look like he was going to. I said “So, are you busy tonight, do you want to hang out after you get off?” She said “Um…” and then silence. She started messing with some stuff behind the counter, and I had waited for around 12 seconds since she spoke. I said “Good answer.” She said, “Um…” My food had come, and I picked up the bag and said, “Ten seconds.” She took about seven before she came out with, “I thought there was something I was supposed to do tonight but I can’t remember. You should just call me if you’re still up.” I said, “Ok.” and left.

So I went back home and slept for a few hours (I had gotten up at 2am) and took a shower (our hot water is still not back on) and called her. I fully didn’t expect her to answer, and left a message saying that I was going to try again in thirty minutes and then I was giving up, and that she should call me back before then.

She called me about ten minutes later. “Hey,” she said, “How are you?” “Fine.” I said, “Did you think of a reason why you can’t hang out yet?” She laughed and said, “Is that what you think?” I laughed. “Well?” I said.

She said that I kept her up so long last time and that she was really tired tonight. I told her that’s why I picked tonight, because I knew she didn’t have to work the next day. I asked her if her day was too packed full tomorrow for us to do anything then, she said no, and I said what would be the best time for me to call you. She gave me a time, and I said, “Ok, well, you better answer, or I’ll be pissed.” She had just finished talking about how her phone rings all day on her day off, but she mostly doesn’t answer it. “She said, OK, Jeffrey.” in reference to her saying I had Jeffrey Dahmer eyes. I laughed and asked her to re-explain how that was a compliment again.

So we ended up talking about this and that for around 45 minutes, before I told her I was gonna go, and reemphasized that she had better pick up when I call her.

So I’m going to give her a call tonight in about an hour and a half. My lack of patience is one non-answered call away from overcoming my curiosity.

I hope something or nothing comes of this, because I’m beyond bored with the semantics of the whole ordeal, they’re too much trouble to write out.

It’s nice now, though, because of how decided I am to not overthink it. I’m completely not worried about what any of this means. Maybe I’m trying to put the magic back in meeting new people, but more likely, I’m tired of reason being completely ineffective, and resolved to just float with the tide.