All We Leave Behind

All We Leave Behind - Chapter Seven

Seven

The phone woke me up. I woke to an empty bed. Tiffany had left sometime while I was sleeping. She never was one for goodbyes. Sometimes she’d cry, sometimes she’d brush me off acting all aloof and on occasion she just wouldn’t be there when I woke. I looked over at the clock while reaching for the phone. It was 9:00pm.

“Hello.” I said groggily.

“In bed at nine?” It was Adam.

“Just taking a nap.”

“Did you just fuck someone John?” I told him the story once about how I get very sleepy after sex and almost always fall asleep. I very much regret the drink that led me to sharing that story because it had led to a series of Adam induced headaches.

“No.” I lied. He laughed in return.

“Sure, sure John. I just hope it wasn’t Tiffany.” I grabbed at my hair with my hand.

“Fuck, alright, it was Tiffany.”

“John!” He started uproariously laughing. “John, John, John.” The laughter continued.

“Remind me again why I’m coming to visit you.”

“I’m sorry John.” He was fighting the laughter. “You just have to stop with her. You need a new fuck John. The notion that you either make something real of it or move on has long passed.” I rubbed my forehead. I could feel another Adam induced headache coming on fast.

“Why did you call?”

“You are booked, tomorrow morning, eleven o’clock, first class.” He always told me it was first class and every time I’d get on the plane I had a seat at the back next to the lavatory. My luck couldn’t be that bad. I’m sure he was requesting the seat right next to the toilet.

“Yeah first class, I’ve heard that before. When you request seats do you tell them I have a weak bladder by any chance?” He laughed.

“See you tomorrow. Sun, fun and L.A. living.” He hung up the phone. I got up and checked to make sure Tiffany had in fact left. There was no sign of her, only the empty condom wrapper on the floor and the faint smell of her perfume to give any indication that she had been here. I picked up the wrapper and tossed it in the trash. I began to pack and in doing so I started getting excited for the trip. I packed a lot of exercise clothes. It was high time I lost some of this weight. Adam always ate healthy. I figured I could take this as an opportunity to right myself. Last time I was down he jogged every second day and hit the gym on the off days. If I could match even half of that without having a heart attack I ought to be able to shed some of these extra pounds. Things weren’t going to fix themselves. Frank should have made his changes earlier. I didn’t want to make the same mistakes he made, put things off till I was out of time.

I finished packing and went for a walk. Half way through I tried to ramp up to a jog but I wasn’t at it for more than a minute before I was completely and utterly winded. My lungs on fire, I stopped to catch my breath. I returned to my condo feeling a little queasy. That’s all I need, to have my stomach act up again. It was probably stupid of me to push myself so soon.

 I grabbed a microwaveable meal and finished off the rest of the milk in the fridge. I made the last of my preparations for the trip. I always forgot something no matter how hard I tried to think of everything. Satisfied that I’d thought of everything, I sat in front of the computer. I had every intention of continuing my work in progress. I stared at the novel unable to will my fingers to do any more than erase a sentence here only to rewrite it much the same four or five minutes later. After this continued for an hour I called it quits. So far both my desire to improve my health and my intention to refocus on my work had proven to be a spectacular failure. I went to bed and fell asleep yet again to the mental image of my brother embracing Sarah.