Aidan
awoke late the next morning. He relished the chance to stay in bed a
bit longer, but the sun was already high in the sky, carpeting his
apartment in warm light and letting him know it was time to get up.
He was shocked to see it was already past 10:00, but he was thankful
not to be waking up with a hangover. He suspected Dan was probably
still passed out on the couch and might be for some time.
Still
in his pyjamas, Aidan wandered over to his kitchen to get something
to eat. He had more time to eat this morning, so he took a look
through his fridge for something that seemed appealing.
Unfortunately, he hadn't been grocery shopping in some time and there
was depressingly little to choose from. He settled upon fried eggs
and toast. He turned on his stove and heated his frying pan, then
coated it with olive oil and cracked two eggs into the pan. They
were just starting to sizzle when the phone rang.
“It's
probably an ad”, he thought. No one ever called him. The phone
rang again.
Maybe
it was Dan, finally getting up and wanting to know what happened last
night. Or to call and complain about the game. That also wasn't
worth ruining his breakfast for.
Still
the phone rang again. “All right!” he groused, and quickly ran
to grab the phone.
“Hello?”
he demanded, sternly.
“Aidan?”
He recognized the voice instantly, it was Tina, an old friend of his
from university whom he didn't see very often anymore. “I'm glad I
caught you, I tried to call last night, but you weren't home.”
He
tried to drag the phone over towards the kitchen but the cord
wouldn't quite reach. “I was out”, he responded, quickly, almost
dropping the receiver.
“That's
good”, she responded, cheerfully. “You need to get out more.”
“I'm
kind of busy at the moment, can I call you back?”
“Oh,
sorry, but there's not much time. It's just that we're in town and I
was wondering if you wanted to meet up for lunch. You still haven't
met Frank.” Frank was her fiance, but Aidan merely knew of his
existence and little else.
He
could smell his eggs, they were burning. “I guess I can do that”,
he said, hurriedly, “when and where?”
“I
was thinking we could all go to Ellie's Diner at 11:30.”
“Sure,
that's fine, I'll see you then.”
“Bye
Aidan”.
He
had already hung up and was back in the kitchen. His eggs were
overdone, and he hadn't even started his toast yet. He quickly took
the pan off the stove and tried to scrape off what remained of his
eggs. If he only made one slice of toast, maybe he could eat around
the parts that were the most burnt. He would be having lunch soon
enough, anyway.
“So,
I finally get to meet Frank”, he mused to himself as he suffered
through his ruined breakfast. “I wonder what kind of guy he is?”
Ellie's
Diner was only a few blocks from his apartment, so he had time for a
quick shower before he left. He dressed moderately for the occasion,
in a pair of khaki pants and a long-sleeved button shirt. He
suspected they would be wearing casual clothes, but he didn't want to
risk being under-dressed. He took a warm jacket and left his
apartment to walk the couple blocks to the diner. It was a crisp
morning, cold enough for his breath to hang in the air for a moment.
That seemed a bit appropriate somehow, ever since getting off the
phone he'd been feeling a bit apprehensive about this lunch. Aidan
found himself hurrying along, not wanting to spend any more time
outside than he had to.
He
arrived before they did and sat down at a booth. A waitress came
over, but he told her he was waiting for some friends and she left.
He wondered how he was supposed to greet Tina and her fiance, he
didn't want to seem too affectionate towards her, particularly as an
old friend. Perhaps it would be best to greet Frank first, that was
safer. A solid handshake was always an acceptable greeting when
meeting someone for the first time...
“Aidan!”
He
stood up instinctively upon hearing her voice, and she gathered him
up into a big hug before he even had time to react. “It's been too
long”, she said, cheerfully. He smiled. She looked great, she was
wearing a pretty green blouse with a low neckline under her jacket,
her face looked just as youthful and vibrant as he remembered it, and
her long blonde hair practically glistened under the ceiling lights.
“This
is my fiance, Frank!” She gestured to him, as though Aidan
couldn't figure out which one he was.
“Nice
to meet you”, Aidan said, shaking his hand. Aidan already knew
Frank was a writer, and he looked the part well enough, with short
black hair that hung down a bit to one side, a trendy black beard, a
firm handshake, and a smug, confident expression on his face. “At
least he doesn't feel intimidated by me”, Aidan thought to himself.
“You
must be Aidan”, he said, “Tina's told me a lot about you.”
“I
deny everything.”
Frank
and Tina both laughed at that stock response. “I told you, he's a
character”. They all sat down, with Aidan and Tina sitting on one
side of the booth and Frank on the other.
Frank
tried to break the ice: “So Aidan, I hear you work at a bank, or
have I been misinformed?”
“It's
not really a bank, it's just a lending company. We do student loans,
mortgages, business capital, that kind of thing.”
“What
kind of work do you do there?”
“Process
loan applications, mostly. It's not too exciting.”
Tina
nudged him with her elbow. “I'm sure some funny stuff might happen
there sometimes.”
“Oh
sure. Sometimes they don't get the money.”
They
laughed. Tina scooted over a little closer to him and he felt her
leg brushing against his, which really caught him off-guard, but
Frank didn't seem to notice.
“What
was it that attracted you to finance?” Frank asked, after things
quieted down again.
“Oh,
I don't know. Stability, good pay, lots of work. Those kind of
things.”
Frank
nodded. “That must be nice.” It was true, for all of the issues
with his job, it did have a few benefits. At least he never had to
worry about running out of work to do or that his company might
disappear. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle the uncertainty
that came with a job like theirs.
The
waitress came by, and they placed their orders. Aidan was grateful
for the momentary lapse in the conversation, talking about his job
wasn't really something he found interesting, but he wasn't sure what
else to talk about. The waitress returned a moment later with their
drinks and the conversation started up again.
“How
has it been working for the magazine?”, he asked Tina, not wanting
her to feel left out.
“Oh,
great”, she responded energetically, “it's a lot of work, and we
have to work a lot of late nights, but it's really exciting and since
we work together the long hours aren't so bad.”
Frank
reached across the table to touch her hand “You say that, but you
always shoo me away when I drop by your desk.”
“Well
sometimes I have work to do!” she swatted his hand away playfully.
He could tell by the way they interacted with each other that they
were very close, there was a kind of looseness to their interactions
that spoke to a strong comfort level between them. It seemed nice,
and he found himself feeling a bit envious.
“You
know, maybe you should try to meet someone at your work”, Tina said
offhandedly, as if reading his mind. “It might make your job a bit
more exciting.”
“No,
no, can't be done”, he said, shaking his head. “Men and women in
finance don't mix. We want to talk about their figures, but they're
only interested in their figures.”
Tina
laughed uproariously. It took Frank a moment to get it, but then he
started laughing, too. That was a good one, he should have come up
with that back when he used to do that comic for the school
newspaper.
“I
was a finance girl for a little while, you know”, Tina said,
placing her hand on his shoulder and leaning on him a little when she
finally started to regain her composure. Aidan blushed slightly and
was very relieved that she didn't finish that thought, though when
she moved away he thought he felt her rub his leg with her hand. She
already had it back on the table, so he convinced himself that he
imagined it.
Their
food arrived. They had all ordered sandwiches, and they ate in
relative silence. Perhaps it was that the food was very good and no
one wanted to stop eating, though there was something eating away at
Aidan as well. He really hoped it wasn't bothering anyone else.
“So,
I have to ask”, Frank said, after they had all finished their food,
“how did the two of you meet?”
Aidan
swallowed. Just how much had she told him? He really hoped it
wasn't much. “We met at university”, he said, not wanting to
leave too much of a pause. “It was during the first week of our
first year, in one of the big lecture halls. Neither of us knew
anyone there, and we just happened to sit beside each other.”
“It
was an English class”, Tina joined in. “I didn't have the book
yet, so I was kind of looking at yours, and then you asked me if I
wanted to share and that's how we started talking.” She put her
arm around him and hugged him close to her. “It seems like so long
ago now, doesn't it?”
“Yeah,
it almost seems like a different life”, he said, thinking back on
it
“So,
how come the two of you never got together?” Frank said, asking the
question he had been dreading. “It seems like you get along really
well.”
Thankfully,
Tina answered it for him. “We do. But what we both needed was a
good friend, not a lover. Sometimes that's all you're looking for.”
That
answer seemed to satisfy him, they paid the cheque and left the diner
with Tina and Frank arm in arm. Outside, Aidan excused himself to
run errands, and they said their goodbyes.
Aidan
spent most of the rest of the day taking care of various chores. He
found time to get to the grocery, and bought himself another loaf of
bread, some more eggs, a box of cereal, a number of frozen dinners
and some assorted raw vegetables. Later, he stopped by the bank to
pay some bills and got roped into a discussion about switching his
accounts to earn higher interest. He even went to the mall to pick
up a few new shirts and some underwear, and by that time it was
getting late so he picked up some dinner at the food court before
heading home.
But
unfortunately, no matter what he tried to busy himself with, that lie
just stuck in his head, and he couldn't get it out.



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