Ticking Time Bomb

I left work early on Wednesday so that I could be home when Ashley returned from hearing the news. Steve had called her after I saw him on Monday and proposed the idea of meeting up for drinks, which Ashley obviously then spiraled into thinking he wanted her back.

I couldn't blame her, I had thought the same thing. 

When I got home around 7:00, Ash was no where to be found. Frowning, I checked my phone to see if she had called. I knew they were meeting at 5:30, so I assumed it'd be a quick conversation that would inevitably end abruptly with Ashley causing a scene and storming out. 

I went into my room to change out of my work clothes when my phone rang. I jumped for it, assuming it was Ashley having a panic attack on her way home. Instead I was greeted by Dylan's name.

"Hey!" I said enthusiastically.

"Well hey yourself," he said, and I could feel his grin through the phone.

"Guess what?" I asked.

"What's that?"

"I see you in two days," I said, flopping onto my unmade bed.

"Is that so?" 

"Mmmhm."

"What are you up to tonight?" he asked, and I could hear the sounds of Philly behind him. I tried to imagine him in my mind, bag slung over shoulder with his laptop walking home from work. I knew the route from his office to his house was only about a ten minute walk, crossing down the best shopping street in the city and ending with a shortcut through Rittenhouse Square. Picturing it made me crave the openness of the Philly streets, lined with trees, so much less suffocating than NYC. 

"Just got home, waiting for Ashley to get back," I said. I had filled him in on the Ash/Steve situation after coffee on Monday. "Presently laying on my bed, I was mid-changing when you called."

"So let me get this straight," Dylan said, lowering his voice from the pedestrians nearby him. "You're presently in bed, half naked?" 

I grinned even though he couldn't see me. "Excellent deductive skills Mr. Harper." 

"God what I wouldn't give to be in that bed with you right now," he said, a desperation in his voice that wasn't there before.

"What would you do?" I asked slowly.

"I wish I could tell you, but I'm presently in the middle of Walnut Street and I don't think that the passerbys would enjoy hearing my rendition of 50 shades."

I laughed out loud and the ache of missing him grew stronger. "God I can't wait for Friday," I said.

"Me neither. I made reservations Friday by the way," he said. "I remember you saying you wanted to try that brazilian steak house."

"Perfect," I replied.

"Okay, I'm about to head into Happy Hour, just wanted to call and say hi," he said.

"Happy Hour?"

"Yeah, it's Wednesday, one of the last SIPs," he replied. 

"Oh, right," I answered, remembering the city-wide Philly drink specials every Wednesday. I tried to stop my mind from picturing the time he went to SIPs and ended up sleeping at Kara's, but my subconscious threw it right in my face. 

"I'll call you later, okay?" he said, and just then I heard the front door open to my apartment. 

"Okay, sounds good," I said distractedly, hauling myself out of bed and grabbing for a tshirt to throw over my bra and underwear. 

"I miss you Dani," he said.

"Me too," I replied quickly before dropping the phone on my bed. I headed out into the hallway cautiously, unsure of what type of Ashley I was going to stumble upon.

"Ash?" I asked tentatively.

"Living room," she replied casually. I strolled out and found her flipping through US Weekly on the couch. 

"How was Steve?" I asked, taken aback by her unexpected demeanor. Maybe Steve hadn't even told her?

"Engaged," she said shortly, casually. She didn't know that I knew, so I tried to react as if this was brand new information.

"What?!" I yelled, and she looked up at me with a bemused expression.

"Oh knock it off, he told me that he told you," she said, rolling her eyes.

I walked over and perched next to her on the sofa. "You're not mad?" 

"At you or at him? Because no, neither. It doesn't surprise me that he told you first, since he probably assumed I would freak out. And I know you would want me to hear it from him, so I get why you didn't say anything. Although I do feel like an idiot for prancing around the past two days saying he probably wanted me back," she said, rocking her second eye roll in two minutes.

"Oh, well, good," I said, folding my hands in my lap. This had to be, hands down, the most awkward conversation I had ever had with Ash. Here was my best friend, the person who dramatized everything in life as if she was on a stage, shrugging off her ex-boyfriend's engagement as if he told her he had decided to buy a hamster.

"So don't take this the wrong way but, aren't you upset? Angry? Anything?" I asked.

Ashley shrugged and turned the page of the magazine, studying the "Stars, they're just like us!" spread with intensity.

Taking the hint, I slinked back into my room wordlessly and grabbed my phone, opening up a text to Steve.

Either you crushed up tranquilizers in her drink before telling her, or she was intercepted on the walk home and aliens took over her body. 

I paced my room, waiting for his response. I heard the bleep of my phone within a minute.

She barely blinked when I told her. I think she thinks that I won't go through with it.. either that or she's going to explode in about a week. Ticking time bomb. This is the same way she reacted when her parent's divorced.

I tried to think back to the divorce a few years ago, and he was right. When she had told me about it over the phone back in college she had said it almost on autopilot - as if she was reciting a headline she had read that day. 

You're right. It's just like that.

Ashley had ended up having a complete meltdown a few weeks later, when we went home for Christmas break. I took a deep breath, it was going to be a long few weeks of waiting.