Now, Where on Earth Did I Park that Car …
Oh that smile, and that look of yours. You were so tall and sexy. At least when you weren’t telling me you’d be right back, and ending up running into a friend, having drinks and returning an hour later.
I couldn’t find my car. No idea where I’d parked it. I looked everywhere. And I kept pushing on those buttons, the unlock one so the lights would come on and the beep one thinking I’d hear the horn. But I didn’t. The music from the bar was too loud. It worried me that I couldn’t find the car. Was I losing it? Surely the parking lot wasn’t that big. But it kinda was.
We ended up at another party. But you weren’t there. You were probably off having drinks then with your other friends. I was with Kjerstine. There was another girl there too. It was fun, I think. We were wearing lots of pastel colors, wigs too.
The next thing I remember we were sitting at a picnic table. You were kitty-corner from me, Kjerstine was in front of me and there was someone to my right, but I can’t remember who it was. Not the other girl; she had to leave. There was a storm coming. They were especially warning all those with lots of windows in their homes. You had lots of windows. I’m guessing it was in Seattle because you lived by the water, maybe on Shilshole Bay. At some point, it came out that you had a girlfriend. You looked sheepish at that point. “Ooooh, a girlfriend,” I asked teasingly. So that’s why you were acting so strangely. You were forced to admit it, right there, because Kjerstine knew about her. I asked Kjerstine to come over the next day. We’d cook, and drink wine and have a slumber party. “Can I come over sooner than Sunday?” she kept asking. But tomorrow was Sunday, or today really. It was 4am. When did she want to come over? It was already Sunday. I didn’t get it. We figured out that she meant come to my house now. So yeah, that was totally doable. We were getting excited about it. Girls day! I asked you to come too, to stay away from the storm. I lived on Capitol Hill where the storm might not hit as bad. But you said you needed to go back to your apartment, to gather some things and assess how bad the damage would be. I figured it was also because you felt like a douche since you hadn’t told me you had a girlfriend to begin with. “Oh, I forgot,” I remembered, “my friend April is coming over this afternoon too.” Kjerstine didn’t look so happy about that. You exchanged glances with her. “Oh great, another ex?” I coughed. Ok, so there was some bad blood there. Couldn’t we just get over all of this and have fun? The bad vibes were ruining everything. Oh, and remember when you didn’t show up in real life? Yeah, that was dumb.
Anne-Julia Price 