I watched the sun drop behind the skyline from my office window. I was working late. The last mile is always the hardest, but I was really procrastinating this evening. I had been almost done for a few hours, but clacked away slowly at my computer, meticulously double-checking my work as much as I could while my mind was mostly somewhere else. I could hear a couple other people shuffling around the office, wrapping up for the day. At this rate, I'd be the one locking up again.
My phone buzzed.
"You still at work?" read a text from my friend Mike.
"Yes." I replied.
"How long are you going to be there?" He shot back?
"Why?" I was getting irritated at his lack of directness.
"Remember Brianna?" Asked Mike.
Of course I remembered Brianna.
"Where's this going? Maybe a call will be faster?" I replied
My phone started ringing and I quickly answered.
"Mike. What's the word?" I answered.
"Hey, remember that super amazing deal on that espresso machine I found on Craigslist?" Mike asked.
"The one that's 600 miles away and local pickup only?" I replied.
Fuck. I started to piece the narrative together already. I knew where this was going.
"Well, you know Brianna lives down there now and I heard through Jenna that she was coming to town to visit friends, so I reached out. Anyway, she has the machine in her truck and was going to drop it off tonight, but I had something come up. Can she drop it off with you?"
Mike and I were trying to start a cafe. Eventually. Very eventually at this rate. We both worked other jobs to supplement the meager loan we had managed to get. The only thing we had going in our favor is that the landlord of the restaurant space was an old friend of Mike's who was willing to let us accrue debt seemingly forever while we shoe stringed the endeavor, cutting as many corners as we could.
"Uh, yeah. Sure. I guess that's fine. When will she be here?" I replied.
"Probably pretty soon? She was at the space a few minutes ago, but I totally forgot and double-booked myself, so she's probably almost there." Said Mike sheepishly.
"And you just assumed I'd be here an hour late and willing to stay longer? Okay, whatever. I'll see where she is."
"I can give you her number." Said Mike.
"I have it." I said.
"Sorry, man. See you tomorrow." Said Mike. Then he ended the call.
I had spent the last couple years not trying to think about Brianna. We were rotten for each other. The first time we had met was at a mutual friend's housewarming party. She had arrived with her husband at the time. We hit it off immediately. Our chemistry was explosive and shortly after being introduced it was like nobody else at the party existed. We talked and joked and laughed until her husband drank himself into a stupor, got sick and she had to take him home.
Some months later, I ran into her again at another get together. Her husband had taken a job in another city and she was tying up loose ends before following him out there in a few more months. After that party, I'd given her a ride home. She invited me in for a nightcap and I ended up staying at her place the rest of the weekend. We barely left the bedroom, except to collect food delivery, go to the bathroom and re-hydrate ourselves.
The following Monday, I felt awful. I didn't have anything against her husband. He seemed like an okay guy except for maybe a drinking problem. I'd just thoroughly ravaged his wife repeatedly in every which way I could imagine at the time. We continued on like that for the remaining few months until she moved. I caught feelings. Told her I was in love with her. I tried to convince her to stay. She didn't. She would text things like "I miss you" or "thinking about you" from time to time. I didn't reply to her texts or calls for over a year. Eventually I heard through friends that they had divorced.