Where We Left Off by J. Alex Blane Read Free Book Online Page B

name tag. Angie!! That’s right, now I remember you, he said to himself.
    Her name was Angela but she preferred to be called Angie, at least that was some of what he remembered.
    “I didn’t know you worked here,” he said.
    She paid little attention to his attempts at small talk, or his seeming to be interested in any conversation at all.
    “Do you want something to drink or don’t you?”
    “Um, yeah I guess…I’ll have a Captain and Coke.”
    She turned away without saying another word and walked towards the bar.  Angie, he thought to himself.  The last time he’d seen her had to be months ago, three or four maybe.  Where they met was a distant memory, but everything in between was pretty obvious.  Why she seemed so irritated with him, though, he was still searching for the answer.  Before his thought was even finished, his Captain and Coke slid in front of him. Angie started to walk away before he could even look up to mouth the word thanks.
    “Angie,” he called out.  “How have you been?”
    “Are you serious?” she asked, turning back around, sickened at just the sound of his voice.
    He looked shocked at her response.
    “Oh my God, he’s serious,” she mumbled to herself.  “Okay first off, unless you’re ordering something from the bar I’d appreciate if you didn’t say anything else to me.”
    “Wow, okay.  Um, I’m sorry,” he stuttered.  “I don’t understand.”
    “Of course you don’t.”  She shook her head, resting her hands on the edge of her hips. “Do you even remember me?”
    “Yeah, actually, I do remember you,” he assured her.
    The longer she stood in front of him the more he remembered.  They’d met at a local bank, where she was working at the time.  She waited on him at the counter and Mason, being himself, was the usual charmer.  She was attractive, very well spoken, and engaging, and he talked himself right out of the bank and into her bed only hours after she had gotten off work. 
    “I thought you worked for the bank,” he said.
    “I do.  This is what’s called a second job.  I have bills and daycare.”  She paused.  “You know what, it doesn’t surprise me that you didn’t know that.  I guess it didn’t really matter in the end anyway.  You got what you wanted.”
    Daycare! Then it really started to come back to him.  That’s right, she has kids.  Wait, she has kids.
    “You have kids?” he asked. 
                  She shook her head, laughing, “You’re such an ass,” and brushed him off.
    In his conquest, he never noticed the car seat in her car as he walked past it, and he never noticed the toys sprawled across her living room floor either.  He went straight into the bedroom and after the night was over he left her alone, sound asleep in her bed.  He never called her again, and he never returned her calls.
                  “Look, I’m sorry.  I have an extremely bad memory.”
                  “No you don’t. You remember exactly what you want to remember, just like you call back exactly who you want to.  If you weren’t really interested in me, you could have just been honest instead of pretending like you were just to sleep with me.”
                  “I’m sorry,” he uttered, stunned at her abruptness.
                  “Don’t be,” she responded, “that’s who you are. I was just stupid enough to think you were more than that.”
                  She walked away from the table and never came back over.  Another waitress had come over to serve him.   She made no mention of Angie or why she was now serving him.  He wasn’t bothered by it, not as much as he was starting to be by the last comment that Angie had made.  He never really considered how the women he’d been with viewed him afterwards, or whether he’d hurt them or not by not calling or only coming over for one reason.  A part of him had grown used to women with