“Dude, don't lie, you need a woman like constipation needs a laxative,” Levi jokingly says.
Oh, this guy. He’s too much sometimes, yet he may be right. Watching Hayden and Summer all night makes me have a longing and an ache in my heart that I’ve never experienced before. It’s foreign, and I don’t really know how to respond to it, but I do know that even thinking about Romi calms the uncertainty stirring in me.
On a groan of frustration with the internal battle waging a war inside me, I lift my phone and say to the loud bar, “To hell with it, just go with it.” Then, I text Romi before I excuse my way out of it again.
Clay: What exactly would a man wear to an engagement party in Austin?
Romi: I’ve got it all covered, just send me your measurements.
Clay: What time do we leave?
Romi: I can come pick you up in the morning.
Clay: No way, if I’m doing this, I’d rather drive. What time should I be there?
Romi: Can you pick me up tomorrow morning, no later than 10?
Clay: Send me your address.
Romi: Ok, will do. And Clay…
Clay: Yes?
Romi: Thank you, you really are my lifesaver.
Clay: You’re welcome. Good night. See ya tomorrow.
Romi: Good night.
As soon as I see her ending text to our conversation, it’s a mad dash out of Jackson’s to get everything finished that needs to be done, which mainly includes, asking my sister to help me get the emergency calls rerouted for the time I’m gone.
“Hanna, I need a favor,” I rush out with little air in my lungs as I toss clothes in an overnight bag.
“Damn it, Clay, I told you I am not your gigolo pimp.”
“Ha-ha, very funny. I’m being serious.”
“You always need a favor. What’s the matter this time? Need a patient file? Need an excuse to get away from a crazy one-night stand? Need me to run to the store and buy you some condoms? If that’s the case, Clay, I draw the line. Put that nasty thing away and go by your own damn equipment!”
“Whoa there, settle down. I don’t need any of that. I need to be off this weekend to make an unexpected trip to Austin.”
“What, did you order a mail-order bride and are going to run off and get married?” If she only knew that I’m going to an almost equally over the top circumstance, she would flip her shit.
“Of course not. I will only do that if I’m seventy and still single.”
She laughs. “Okay, boss, I’ll call and get the vet from Dallas County to cover you. Have a great mysterious weekend, since you aren’t forking out any info.”
“Yeah, you too. Thanks, Hanna.”
By the time I make it to bed, it’s well after midnight, and then I lie there with my brain firing all kinds of unknowns into my thoughts, causing me to toss and turn until I finally fall asleep a few hours later.
It’s time to go pick up my girlfriend. Ha! This whole concocted idea Romi has planned out is crazy. That word girlfriend is foreign to my vocabulary and sounds weird in my head. I’ve never had an actual girlfriend outside of high school, and my high school relationship only lasted a couple of months at the max. After I graduated, it was a fast and furious ride through college and then through veterinarian school.
Following my GPS to Romi’s, it guides me through a quiet, established housing district made of small bricked townhomes. It’s a nice quaint area.
She must have been watching for me because she steps out of her door as soon as I pull up to the curb in front. I put the truck in park and go around to help her put her bag in the back seat and open the door for her. I am not ashamed to admit that when she stepped up on the running board to climb in, yes, I checked out her lovely curves that were perfectly on display in tight jeans and a dressy tee with little gems that sparkle. Thank goodness we are both dressed casual, as I chose to wear my favorite plain, dark blue tee, jeans, boots, and I left the Stetson at home and wore a ball cap. I figured if I have to wear whatever suit Romi had taylored, this would probably not be a western style getup.
“Good morning. Was the traffic too bad on your drive in?” she interrupts my perusal of her curvy form.
Clearing the lumb from my throat, the fog out of my head and trying to keep Big Tex’ at bay in my pants, I answer, “Mornin’. Na, it went pretty smoothly.”
“That’s great, I hate when I get stuck in it, and my thirty minute trip takes me two hours.” She shudders at the memory, then settles herself into the luxurious soft grey leather seats of my wine color Chevrolet pickup.
“Yes, that would suck. That’s something Heartville definitely doesn’t have to worry about.” I laugh at her over-the-top happy dance she does at my statement.
“I love that. Once I leave the city,and head down the road towards Heartville, I have this since of freedom.” She talks with her hands, with both arms infront of her acting like she’s driving a steering wheel.
Tapping the radio on, the DJ entertains us with the top ten country songs until we reach the edge of town, and I turn on the dash GPS for her to punch in an address. I love the technology and smooth ride of this truck, it’s the one I don’t use for work, and I’d like to keep it smelling like new car rather than wet dog hair and horse shit.
Out of nowhere Romi starts laughing. “What’s going on in that head of yours?” I ask.
“When you picked me up this morning, I was shocked to see this truck.. Talk about riding in style. Your truck is all that. I’m laughing at myself because when you texted me that you were going to pick me up, I thought you would show up in that dirty white work truck I saw outside of the Winters’ place with a medical camper on the back of it, but I didn’t want to ask if that’s what we were going in. I was just grateful to you for helping me out and appreciated you no matter what our ride was going to be.” I laugh along with her at that thought.
“No way, that truck is gross to ride around in when I’m not at work.”
“Anyway, are you ready to play Twenty Questions?” Romi asks.
“Sure, I guess?” My voice comes out hesitant and clueless to what she is seeking.
“We have to get to know each other as fast as we can for this to look like we’ve been dating for a while. Let’s take turns quizzing each other on the important things that make us who we are.”
“Life altering… How about, what major events have happened in your life that I should know about? Any deaths of loved ones, car wrecks, broken bones, ever locked up in the psych hospital?”
“What?” Out of the corner of my eye, I see her head swiftly look in my direction, and I can’t restrain a chuckle. “We need to be serious, we only have a few hours before we get there, and we are supposed to have been dating, so we should know things.”
“Look, Romi, I understand, but if we can’t cut up and laugh, at least a little, that will be the first sign to your family that we are not authentic.”
“Yeah, you are probably right on that,” she agrees and nods her head.
“Alright, back to getting to know you. So, have you lost anyone close or been in any bad car crashes?”
“Luckily no, I have not lost any one close. As for the car crashes… Oh, God, this is embarrassing.” I can hear her take a big breath in and exhale it out slowly. “Okay, here you go. The only car wreck I have ever had was when I was in college and I was driving through campus. I passed three hot guys running without shirts on, and naturally, my eyes followed them. Well, I ran smack into the car in front of me. Then I had to tell the police what had distracted me while I was driving, since they would not take the answer ‘I was just distracted’. They laughed at me and shook their heads as they walked back to their patrol cars and filled out the citation for me rear-ending the lady in front.”