Let's Connect by Kelly Jensen

Author:Kelly Jensen [Jensen, Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Shaggy Dog Productions, LLC
Published: 2020-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

Ninth Date

Trevor said nothing on the way back to the parking lot. Dan attempted to draw him out twice before deciding silence might serve them better. They’d rolled back the carpet to discover a trapdoor to which neither of them held the key. They just had to go find one, right? It’d be in a drawer, or a shoebox under the bed. It was probably on top of the washing machine, retrieved from a pocket years ago and dropped into the cup that held green pennies and lint.

When they’d found it, they could get together and open the door. Or, you know, talk. Figure out what was hidden beneath the floorboards. Haul each and every one of those boxes out, line them up, and start opening them one at a time.

Driving home, Dan repeated these thoughts to himself, half with the intent of setting this fantastical plan in motion, half with the thought he might actually write it all down. He’d been selling books for nearly three decades. Wasn’t it time he wrote some for himself?

But even as that thought fizzled beneath the weight of the usual objections to actually writing rather than simply reading, Dan continued playing the metaphor over and over in his mind. It was damn apt. When he cast his thoughts back to the very beginnings of his friendship with Trevor, he could see the empty boxes standing around them, flaps folded back at uneven angles, waiting for their load of denial.

“I should have asked him out that very first day,” he said to the steering wheel.

The steering wheel chose not to reply. It did deliver a slight shudder to his palms, though, suggesting he might need new tires. Or a wheel alignment or—

What a mess.

Dan checked for messages when he got home. Nothing from Trevor, nothing from Robin. He tossed the phone onto the table in the kitchen and went to hang from the fridge door while he peered disconsolately at shelves populated by condiments. Suspect shadows lurked inside the vegetable drawers. He shut the door and pressed his head against the stainless steel, the appliance’s hum buzzing into his brain and quieting all thought for a blissful moment.

He clearly remembered meeting Trevor for the first time seven years previously. Dan had signed up for a lecture series at the university library. Trevor had been the lecturer. After the first lecture, Dan had stayed for a Q&A, and had been delighted by the invitation to join the smaller group for drinks at a nearby bar.

Lifting his head away from the fridge, Dan opened the freezer door. He tugged a package of frozen tortellini off the icy bottom shelf and tossed it on the counter. With the motley collection of vegetables wilting in the drawers, a can of crushed tomatoes, and some stock, he could put together a stew or soup that might last a few days.

The simple task of cooking set his mind free to wander again.

Before they entered the bar, Trevor had been Dan’s focus.

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