One Page #9

He took a step towards her and then stopped. They looked each other in the eyes. Really, he asked? Yes, she said. He looked at the ground and nodded vaguely. Then he turned and without looking at her again he walked away. She watched his back, soft in his worn flannel shirt. His feet scuffed on the ground and she could hear his footsteps after he had disappeared around the corner. She stood in the middle of the road. She wasn’t sure why they had had this conversation here, in the middle of nowhere, when they both had to walk the same road back towards home. She sat down on a rock and decided to wait a half hour before following him. The rock was hard, even though it was covered in moss, but she didn’t move. She folded her hands on her lap and tried to distract herself by looking around at the trees and watching the clouds pass slowly in the sky. They were in no hurry, and she shouldn’t be either. But she felt the beginnings of something stirring within her, and she couldn’t sit still as much as she tried. So she stood and paced back and forth across the road. The road was mostly deserted and the chances of a car coming were slim. She closed her eyes a moment and stood in the center of the road with her face tilted toward the sky. The sun fell on her skin and warmed her. Her heart beat a little faster. She couldn’t wait to get home. She wished that she had been the one to walk away first, but he had left before she could, and in that awkward moment she had to let him go first. She tapped her foot and listened to the sole of her shoe crunch rhythmically against the uneven gravel. She opened her eyes and looked at her watch. She could leave now, but couldn’t walk too fast or she would catch up with him. She didn’t want to see his flannel shirt again. She wouldn’t regret anything, but she would feel sorry for him, seeing his head bent low she would imagine his tears. She started walking towards home and thought about the girl who would be sitting on her couch when she got back. She thought about the girl’s short blond hair and deep olive eyes that stared so intently into her own. She thought about the curve of the girl’s breast as it caught the early morning sunlight and the way her teeth were impossibly white. And she thought about the curve of the girl’s jaw line running up to her ears and into her scalp. She shivered with anticipation. A car was coming down the road and she moved to the side. She couldn’t help but look in the car as it passed since she had seen so few that day, and in the passenger’s seat was her flannel-shirted ex. A girl sat next to him in the driver’s seat. She had blond hair and impossibly white teeth.