She doubted if anyone in the bar had ever been horseback riding, or deer hunting. She pitied these urban types, as she called them, whereas others from her hometown, which was little more than a speck on the map nestled between Highway 77 and the Ohio river, envied them.
“Where are you staying?” Cal asked her, far more relaxed and talkative now that three beers and four tequilas had loosened his awkwardness.
“Oh, some dive,” Louise responded with a wave of her hand, throwing back her drink and grimacing before her face cracked back into a smile. “There’s a shared bathroom!”
“Hang on,” said Cal, “there’s not even a toilet in the room?”
She laughed, and repeated the unfamiliar and very British word back to him. Her pronunciation of the word toilet made Cal erupt into more laughter.
“What I say now?” Louise said with mock indignation. “You keep laughin’ about how I talk, when you should hear yourself!”
“I’m sorry,” Cal said, spluttering, “I just have no idea how you managed to put an ‘R’ in the word toilet!”
“It’s true though!” Louise went on, enjoying herself. “I took one look at that sink and I said to myself, ‘Darlin’, you don’t want to use that sink with how far away the toilet is’ if you catch my meanin’?”
Cal did, and he thought this was hilarious not just because she had turned her accent all the way up to eleven to tell him the story, but because she’d said the word toilet again. He stopped laughing as she settled back to lean on the table and tucked her hair behind her ear again. By joint agreement, the atmosphere seemed to change.
“So,” she said, “y’all going to explain why you’re out here all by your lonesome?”
The elephant in the room had been addressed. It was clear to Cal that Louise was one of those free-spirit types who could just set off for somewhere new at a moment’s notice, but it was obvious to anyone that Cal wasn’t alone by choice.
“I’m here on my honeymoon,” Cal announced, raising his glass to her and knocking back the drink. Louise’s face froze, trying to work out if he was serious or not, and hoping that she hadn’t just wasted hours talking to a married man—she couldn’t abide cheating, having seen first-hand the damage it does to people. Cal saw the look on her face and tried to recover.
“But I’m on my own because the wedding never happened,” he told her.
Louise seemed to perk up at this, but still wasn’t sure.
“She walked out on me, five bloody days before the wedding, with my best friend,” he said, the sullen anger returning to his eyes as they watered involuntarily. “They’re probably in my house right now, and you know the best thing?” He paused, making her uncertain whether the question was rhetorical or not. “She wanted to come on the trip and bring him instead!” His anger surged again but he managed to keep it inside as he remembered the text he got asking to buy his ticket from him. He had politely, yet firmly, told her to go fuck herself. His hand twitched toward his pocket, but the part of him that was still sober stopped the movement. Bringing out the little box now would guarantee to scare her off.
“Oh,” Louise said, lost for words for the first time in as long as she could recall. “I just thought you’d argued with your friends or something…”
“Nope,” Cal said, the momentary anger being forced away as he tried to make himself sound jovial again. “Here on my own, seeing the sights, and enjoying all the money I’ve saved up for over a year to put her up in the bloody Waldorf because she had to stay there.”
Louise, despite the high levels of ambient noise, let out a low whistle, which penetrated the din and brought Cal’s smile back.
“The Waldorf?” she said incredulously, leaning forward. “I can’t even afford to park my car near there.” She paused, thinking. “Heck, I can’t even afford a car!”
They both laughed, but Louise was clearly impressed. It wasn’t like he was one of those rich people that Sebastian knew by name, he was just a fool who had worked hard and saved up to impress a girl, but the girl who was impressed wasn’t the one he originally intended. He was okay with that.
“My hotel is like, thirty bucks a night and I swear to god, I take the stairs every time to the fourth floor because I think that elevator might just fall down much as I even look at it!”
Cal laughed again. Her manner, the way she spoke, the way she entertained him with a story when she could’ve offered a boring but short answer, intoxicated him. The alcohol intoxicated him too, but he just couldn’t get enough of her because she was so unlike any woman he’d ever spoken to. She had literally nothing in common with Angie except her species and gender, and even Cal had begun to doubt Angie’s membership of the human race recently.
“So anyway,” he said, “now that’s out in the open, what about you?”
“Me?” said Louise, hand on her chest as though he had accused her of something. “Well I’m just an open book.”
“No,” Cal said laughing, “you’re not!”
“Well,” Louise replied, “if y’all want to get all deep and meaningful, I’m gonna need some more drinks.”
Louise was aware that she was spending more than she had meant to that day, and each day of her trip had a strict cash allowance that had to be kept to or she would have to go home sooner. She had worked as a waitress for months, spending as little as she could, getting by and waiting for the day she could escape again for somewhere different. She had done this a dozen times; saved up and gone on an adventure before having to come back and beg for her job back. She got it back every time, and the owner of the diner just accepted that it was what Louise did. Her feet just didn’t want to stay still.
Truth was that she did have somewhere to be, but she felt trapped by the open air and the same sidewalks under her shoes every single day. As soon as she was back, as soon as she had lied to everyone about how good it was to be home, she was already thinking about where to head next. She would stick her finger on the map of the United States, and she would go there. Six months ago, she had heard someone in the diner talking about their trip to New York City, and about how much they hated it there with the smog and the tourists and the cops on every corner, but Louise had listened and decided that maybe she needed to see that city for herself.
To hell with it, she thought, buying two more beers and two chasers to go with them. If I have to go home a day early to spend tonight getting an Englishman drunk, then god dammit I will.
“So, what have you seen in this fine city, Cal?” she said as she returned to their table with the four glasses held expertly in both hands.
“Rockefeller building,” Cal said, after sketching a ‘cheers’ and taking a pull of beer. “It looked big and busy so I didn’t go in.”
“Well, ain’t y’all the fearless tourist?” Louise said, laughing at him.
“And I went to Central Park and saw the zoo,” he added.
“Saw it or went inside and saw it?” Louise shot back, drinking her beer but keeping her eyes on him.
“I actually went inside,” he said, sounding proud of himself, “and I went on an uncomfortable boat around some big statue thing with a hangover, saw someone playing saxophone in the subway, had a snake draped around my neck, then went up the Empire State building where I saw a man throw his life away.”
They both laughed, both having the same feelings about the proposal. She called it lame whereas Cal said it was cheesy.