Short Story: The Meeting

Short Story: The Meeting

Where the hell was he? she wondered. Richard was twenty minutes late. It was the fifth time in so many minutes that Sarah had glanced up at the clock on the wall as the door thundered open. Sarah watched her lover, Richard, quickly scan the room searching for her. He'd put weight on in the last few months; stress and little sleep had recently aged him. Grey hairs poking through his thick head of slicked black hair. He was still smart in his all black suit; like a member of the Rat Pack appreciation society.

He quickened his pace, the sweat started to run down the sides of his face and his beer belly began to wobble, as he navigated around the other tables. He saw her and waved. It was at this moment he was thrown back by a woman getting into her chair. That was what always attracted her to Richard, his continuing comedy of errors through no fault of his own. Give him an empty room, she would often say, and something would always befall him. It was destiny. Richard's bumbling, uncomfortable and awkward innocence drew her to him in the first place; what you saw was what you got.

They had met all those years ago. Sarah was at that party, she’d had far too much to drink, which, at the time meant her mission had been accomplished by half past nine. Her new shoes where killing, it was funny how something so expensive and luxurious had became so lethal. She quickly took them off, and saw Richard. He was alone in the kitchen, hiding in the corner, nursing a beer.

He seemed to be the only person not showing off in front of the TV. The others were pretending to be Bono on some stupid karaoke game, all screeching out, Where the Streets Have No Name. The usual guys who were always full of shit. It was normally those guys she latched onto. If the conversation wasn’t about what car they drove, it was about the places they’d gone to during gap year; the usual cookie cutter conveyor belt of stories from Asia to Australia. She often felt like saying to them after a few drinks, “I don't care about fake experiences in foreign countries, what are you doing now that makes you feel like you've not wasted your time? What makes you feel alive....now?” She never did, but all the same, the look on her face couldn't disguise her short fuse.

It was the story Richard would drag out every time he’d had too much to drink at Christmas and birthdays; Sarah with her shoes off, wandering around the party half drunk with her new Luboutins in hand.

“Look after these, darling,” were Sarah’s first words to Richard as she handed him her shoes and attacked the bottle of vodka on the kitchen table. Richard, slightly bemused, did just that. He wandered around wherever she went for the rest of the night. Beer in one hand. Shoes in the other.

“Hi Rich,” Sarah spoke warmly smiling as he approached, finally making his way to the table.

He retuned the smile, the first since he walked into the room. She rose from her chair slowly and steadily. Richard quickly helped his pregnant girlfriend up and embraced her for a brief moment, then aware of the strangers looking on they both quickly sat down.

“I'm sorry I'm late Sarah, the email exchange server has gone down and caused all kinds of stress. Everyone is pulling their hair out.”

The job he had taken up a year ago was eating all of his time, it was smothering him. He looked at Sarah and worried. Would he have enough time for the baby, to be there when it mattered? Being a manger of an IT department was not all that he hoped it would be. Looking tired and haggard was quickly becoming his fashion statement to world.

“No need to say sorry lovely, everything is fine.”

The words stuck in Richard’s conscience and turned like a bullet in his mind, Everything is fine... he quickly looked around at the other tables, at the other people. Most seemed normal, happy. Couples with children, some where handing over gifts and laughing. Just another lunch time. He suddenly realised the forgotten flowers.

“Shit,” he said absentmindedly.

“What's up love?” Sarah quickly leaned forward concerned.

“I forgot the flowers I was going to get you on the way in. I'm sorry I couldn't get anything for the anniversary. I can't believe it. I never forget.”

This was true. He was like clockwork when it came to dates. Sarah on the other hand was always flying off in tangents and chasing windmills. Richard was the organiser, except for lately, recently things had been a bit adrift.

“Don't be silly, the card I got this morning was fine!”

Richard also always had a back up plan.

She smiled and gave him that look; the one that could cut through a crowded bar, stopping Richard in the middle of his tracks. That smile. It evoked the smell of her smoke on his clothes when they first met, the memory of when she took his shirt off for the first time. He knew just from that smile he was safe, whatever was pissing him off would soon pass. With that same smile Sarah would pounce on Richard when his defences where down, washing the dishes or brushing his teeth, and he always willingly surrendered.

They both fell into a comfortable silence, as is usually the case with people who have no secrets. Sarah slowly stroked her belly, while Richard nervously looked around at the other people who sat near them. The baby kicked and Sarah responded with a sudden jolt.

“Ow you little bugger!”

She was still amazed that she hadn’t gotten used to it yet.

“Are you okay? Is he kicking again?” Richard quickly responded leaning forward.

“Oh he's fine, just been a bit quiet today so I think he's just waking up or saying hello!”

They both decided to find out the sex of the child. She had resisted to begin with, but as soon as she saw the image of her baby on the monitor, she had buckled. It ended those funny conversations they’d had when Richard started to call the child a he. Sarah instantly disagreed. It turned out Richard was right.

“I'll get us some water,” Richard quickly made a move for the queue.

Sarah start to muse on her future. The idea of giving birth scared her rigid. The baby had given her such a grounding effect. She was bullet proof before, fearless and cocky. She spoke her mind, never worrying about the outcome. Now she was scared for the first time in her life and there was nothing she could do about it.

It was that sense of her own will that drew Richard like a moth to light. It was her cavalier attitude to life that always led to a couple of drinks and then to a few more. She’d feel centre stage, the star of her own creation. That night six months ago when she found out about the pregnancy she drank so much. Richard was working late. That time it was different. The stage became cold, silent and empty for the first time in her life.

Richard stood in line. He thought of the early days. Those nights where they would both cling on to each other for dear life, trying to keep steady, while steaming drunk on the London tube escalators. The warmth of her coat and that smell. Sunday doing nothing. Hours just spent snuggled against her in bed, he wondered how things had changed so quickly for them. Their lives evolved so fast from what they had known. Now everything was so uncertain. His child became his constant hope and yet was a constant worry. It was all going fine until he started that job.

He’d only recently started to long for the early days of their relationship. Her recklessness was alluring, attractive and contagious. With her, life was an adventure, anything could happen. He missed that old side to her. That caviller life. This creature had taken over Sarah's body, it had inhibited her mind, and it had changed her.

He was not getting much sleep these days, not after what Sarah had been through… what Sarah had put them all through. This new Sarah. That smile was always there of course. Tee-total now and nicotine free. The fire in her replaced by something he had never seen in her. Uncertainty.

Richard returned to the table with glasses of water.

“Here we go, babe.” He looked into Sarah's face, her glance a million miles away.

“Thanks,” she replied snapping out of her thoughts before gingerly taking the drink.

“So,” Richard started. “It's not too long now love. The room’s all sorted. Everything’s gonna be cool. Just you wait and see.”

It was alright for him to think that. It always surprised Sarah to see Richard's stubbornness. He didn't care that everything had been a disaster, a disaster she started. A creation in her own image. Richard, this nervous, quiet and clumsy oaf was starting to do the bravest thing he ever had done before; fight for a future. Their future.

All of a sudden the alarm bell rang on the wall of the hall. Instantly Sarah saw the sadness in Richard's eyes and his face darken. His deep brown eyes filled up. She began to slowly and steady rise from the table.

“Time to go Richard,” she said softly as a prison guard quickly made his way up and helped her.

Richard rose to his feet and began to rummage in his pocket for a tissue.

Before she was escorted back to her cell, she took Richard’s hand, “It's not that bad, a few weeks and then I'm out. It’s lucky really, I only hit those cars. If I’d hit a person it would have been the end… for us both.”

Let’s see what motherhood brings, she thought. She shot him that smile again as she joined the queue to leave the hall.

Richard looked on as the only person he had ever loved slowly walked away. Her hands were placed in cuffs by the gruff prison guard, before he led her away into the maternity care unit. The feeling of complete helplessness burned and welled up inside him again. He didn't care that his eyes were welling up. Loneliness had lost its melancholy charm. Richard knew how he would feel later; hearing the front door of the empty house slam shut was his own sentence. The things he should have said, should have promised. They would never release him.

He shouted those words out in a howl. Let it all fall where it may and fuck the consequences. He didn't care what they would say, his family or his friends. Fuck them. All he ever wanted was her.

“Sarah! Marry me?”