Page 109 of Fun Together
Great, now I’ll have a babysitter.
When I get back to my desk, I see that I have a missed call and voicemail from Andrew. He’s probably confirming I can pick him up from the airport next week, but I’ll have to listen to it later. It’s bad, but part of me isn’t ready to face the fact that he’s coming back, and Faye and I will no longer be able to avoid discussing our friendship that has evolved into much more than that.
Right now, I need to think about when and how to tell Faye that she didn’t get the job. I also have a ton of emails to sift through. It’s going to be a long day.
I get a text from her a few minutes later.
Faye: How did your meeting with Melissa go? I hope she was able to offer some help.
Shit, I completely forgot that I wanted to talk to Melissa about how things are going at work, but I got so distracted by the conversation about Faye. I can’t talk to her about this over a text, though. I’m also not sure I can talk to her about this today at all. I’m feeling overwhelmed with everything and need to get my thoughts in order.
Eli: I actually didn’t get a chance to talk to her about my issues. We had some other things to discuss.
I could tell her now and just rip the band aid off. But I can’t bring myself to do it. This fucking sucks.
Faye: I’m sorry. Maybe you can find another time.
Faye: No pressure, but would you want to come with me to my grandpa’s tonight? I don’t know if I’ll want to go on Sunday if we get back late Saturday night.
I sit up in my chair. Faye’s grandpa is this sort of enigma to me. She’s told me bits and pieces about him, and she’s mentioned she visits him each Sunday, so he’s clearly an important person to her. Asking me to go with her feels like a huge step.
Eli: I would love to.
Eli: Are you going to blindfold me so I can’t see the name of the town you grew up in?
Faye: That’s a great idea.
If I tell her today, would she change her mind about coming to the party with me?
It’s a weight on my shoulders and I’d be selfish to keep this from her all weekend, but I really want us to have fun tomorrow. And I really want to meet her grandpa. I don’t want to ruin our weekend with bad news.
35
Eli
We pullup to a small brick house with a Ford pickup truck in the driveway that I’d love to take a closer look at. It’s tan with white stripes down the side, and I’d guess it’s probably an ’85 or ’86. I snap a picture of it to send to Emmett since he drives one very similar.
“I see the driveway still isn’t fixed yet,” Faye says as she’s unable to avoid hitting a big hole where the gravel needs to be filled in. She sighs. “I called someone last week about it.”
I grab the grocery bags from the trunk before we walk inside, screen door squeaking closed behind us to announce our arrival.
“That you, Bambi?” her grandpa yells from inside the house.
“It’s me!” Faye shouts. “You can put those bags on the counter,” she says to me.
We walk into a kitchen that reminds me so much of my grandma’s—the same stale coffee smell with a hint of cigarette smoke. I set the grocery bags down next to a pile of mail. “Bambi?” I ask Faye.
“He calls me that,” she says with zero enthusiasm.
“That’s adorable. Can I call you that too?”
She shakes her head. “Hell no.”
We walk further into the house into a living room that looks like it hasn’t changed in decades. The only modern-looking item in the room is a sixty-inch television in the corner. Her grandpa is sitting in a recliner positioned right in front of it.
“I brought a friend,” she says, giving her grandpa a hug.
“A friend? Didn’t know you had one of those.”
