Page 46 of August
“Yes,” Elisa replied, forcing that smile again.
Myra tried not to read anything into this as they walked to the truck in her driveway, but it was hard. Elisa wasn’t leaning into her or trying to be close at all. In fact, she was at least five steps away from her until Myra opened the passenger-side door for her. Remembering only then that she had her metal clipboard and some invoices on Elisa’s seat, Myra got around to her side of the car and climbed in quickly.
“Sorry. I should’ve cleaned this out.” She shuffled the paperwork into the clipboard haphazardly before tossing it into what amounted to half a back seat in her trusty pickup. “And I have an old cup of coffee in here, too. Sorry.” She laughed a little, totally embarrassed. “It’s from this morning, at least, so that’s not too bad.”
“Why does it smell like cigars in here?” Elisa asked.
“It does?” Myra asked back. “Oh. The guys sometimessmoke them when we finish big jobs. The cheap kind. They do it by the trucks usually, but no one smokesinhere.”
“Oh,” Elisa said.
“Sorry. Is it bad? I don’t really notice anymore.”
“It’s fine.”
There was that forced smile again.
“Want to take your car instead? I should’ve cleaned this today, but I had a client call just when I was leaving the office. It took longer than I thought, and I forgot.”
“Myra, it’s fine,” Elisa said. “It’s just a car. I really don’t care about cars. Let’s just go wherever we’re going.”
“Okay,” she replied. “I thought we could maybe go grab something to eat by the water. There are these food trucks that line up, and their crab cakes are really good.”
“Food trucks?”
“Do you not like food trucks?” she asked, trying to read Elisa’s confusing expression. “We can go somewhere else.”
“No, it’s fine. I just… I’ve not been to a food truck before. We didn’t have them where I used to live. Small town. And I haven’t checked any out here since I moved.”
“It sounds bad, food coming out of a truck, but there are some really good ones, and you get to sit at picnic tables and walk around outside instead of sitting in a stuffy restaurant.” Myra’s eyes went wide. “But if you want to go to a restaurant, I can do that, too. I didn’t make a reservation, but I can call ahead, at least.”
“Myra, it’s okay. Let’s go. I just haven’t been to one before. I’ll follow your lead. Tell me what to order, and I’ll give it a try.”
Elisa seemed a little more like herself now, which made Myra feel like maybe she’d just been nervous before and was slowly turning back into the woman Myra recognized, so she started the truck and reversed out of the driveway. Not long after that, she pulled into a parking lot, and they walked to the line of six food trucks. One was something with bacon mixed in or on everything. Another was the best burger truck in town, according to the green-painted signage on the truck.There was also a dessert truck with cupcakes, cookies, and homemade ice cream. The fourth one was some Asian fusion truck. The fifth was the crab cake and Old Bay fries that Myra loved, and the final truck was Italian. They had an actual pizza oven that attached to the truck, and they drove it around and made some pretty decent pizza with it.
Myra told Elisa to pick whichever line she wanted, but Elisa followed her to the crab cake truck, where they waited silently in the line. Myra ordered for them when they got to the main window, and after they got their food from the other window, they walked to one of the empty picnic tables and sat down with both of them facing the water.
“So,” Myra began. “How was your day?”
“Fine,” Elisa replied. “Yours?”
“Uh… Fine. I had a client who wants us to do this big job for him. We’ve worked with him before, and he’s got another house he wants us to take on. It’ll be good for us.”
“Yeah? Good,” Elisa said.
That was how their conversation had gone for much of the night, with Elisa giving her one-word responses, looking like she had been forcing herself to participate. At one point, when a few people had walked past them, Elisa had shifted a little on the picnic table as if she hadn’t wanted to be seen next to Myra to not be perceived like they’d been on a date. Myra had no idea what to do here. The other night, Elisa had been clear that she was ready for a date, but her demeanor on their actual date had shown no sign of that, so Myra had not even attempted to touch her, not even to take Elisa’s hand as they walked or to rub her back or something.
Their dinner finished, Myra wasn’t sure she wanted to walk around anymore like she had originally planned, so without words, she stood, picked up their trash, dropped it into the nearby can, and Elisa followed her back to the truck just as silently. Having paid for parking, they left the lot and joined traffic. During the entire drive back, Elisa asked her nothing about where they were going, and she didn’t say a word when Myra pulled them into her driveway and turned off the truck.Somehow, this had been possibly the worst date of her adult life, and Myra had no idea why. When Elisa said nothing to help the matter and just got out of the truck, Myra followed her and watched as Elisa opened her house door.
“So…” she let out. “I guess I’ll just go home.”
“Okay,” Elisa replied and turned back to her.
“I don’t really…” Myra stopped herself.
“Good night, Myra,” Elisa stated.
She then leaned forward, kissed Myra on her left cheek, and moved inside her house, closing the door behind her. Just like that, Myra was left standing there on her porch, wondering what in the hell had just happened.
