Mary practically vibrated as she logged off and set her headset on top of her keyboard. In an hour she would finally get to meet Tom. Face to face.
Her stomach was a mess with butterflies. In fact, she couldn't think of a single moment in her life where she had ever felt more nervous. Her eyes went to the small picture she kept tacked to the cloth walls of the cubical. It was the last picture she had taken with Kevin before...they found out about the cancer.
Kevin. Her best friend. Her first love. She still couldn't believe that he was gone, even though it had been years.
Reaching out, Mary ran her fingers across the glossy picture. It was a candid shot her friend had taken during a camping trip just days before they'd gotten his diagnosis. She was sitting on a log and he was behind her, with his arms wrapped around her shoulders. Her head was turned up, a wide smile lighting up her face in the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees. Kevin was smiling down at her. She hadn't noticed it at the time, but the picture showed faint shadows under his eyes. His smile was tighter than usual, also, from hiding his weariness from her.
What would he think of all of this, she wondered? No doubt he'd want her to be happy and not waste her life mourning him. Kevin had never had a jealous bone in his body, and she couldn't imagine that he would be any different in the afterlife.
God, what she wouldn't give for just five minutes to talk to him. She would love to tell him about Tom and get his thoughts on the only man she'd let into her life besides him.
Grabbing her jacket and purse, she headed toward the back of the building and the parking garage. She rarely bothered taking her car to work. The subway was just as fast and she hated the hassle of traffic. Today was different though. It was much faster to drive to the restaurant Tom had picked rather than hop a dozen busses or put her life in the hands of a cabbie.
Even though it was technically indoors, the garage was freezing. Sliding into the driver's seat, Mary hit the heater and seat warmers. While she waited for the car to warm up she pulled up the GPS directions for the restaurant they were to meet at on her phone.
It was a winter wonderland outside of the garage. Colorful lights decorated buildings which reflected off the wet roads and snowbanks. It was beautiful, but distracting. Busy holiday traffic and icy roads made the drive into a white knuckle affair and slowed her down more than she had anticipated.
"Turn left at 156th..." the GPS pleasantly instructed at the same time she drove through the middle of the intersection she should have been turning at.
As soon as Mary realized she'd missed the turn she spit out a string of curses that would have made any New Yorker proud.
Great. Now she had to go two more blocks just to turn around. For the hundredth time, she eyed the clock. She was supposed to be meeting Tom in five minutes and she was still several blocks away!
A car suddenly pulled out in front of her, and Mary had to slam on her breaks to avoid becoming a passenger in their backseat. She pounded her fist on the horn and screamed some more obscenities, even though it was probably her fault for not paying enough attention.
As she made her way around the block to her missed street, Mary reminded herself that a ticket or accident would only slow her down more. She turned down 156th and felt her heartbeat speed up. The worst of the drive was behind her and she began scoping the sides of the road for a parking spot.
If Mary had been paying more attention, instead of worrying about where she was going to park, she might have had more time to react when the man stepped right out in front of her car. Instead, she barely had time to gasp and hit her breaks.
For a split second she could swear that the man looked like Kevin, just before she squeezed her eyes closed and waited for the collision.
Instead of feeling the thump of hitting the man on her grill, the impact came from behind.
As she was rear ended, her car was pushed into the opposite lane where another jarring crash sent her little Honda rolling into the next intersection. When her car finally came to rest, it was on its side, driver's side down. Mary blinked and her breath came in pants as she tried to make sense of what had just happened. The last thing she saw was a glaring pair of headlights just before a yellow taxi cab slammed into her.
