Chapter 8: Meeting your ex by accident is always awkward
Laying on my bed, with Finley comfortably asleep on my stomach, I’m playing a game on my phone. Sunday nights are always boring, in my opinion. If you’re like me, by Sunday you’ve already finished all your schoolwork for the upcoming week, you’ve had time to relax, you’ve exercised (or you’ve pretended to, at least) and now it’s Sunday, 5 pm, you don’t have to cook because there’s leftover pizza from last night and you’re bored. At least, that’s how it goes for me. All my roommates are out, I’ve already watched everything good on Netflix (a few times), and even the cat won’t play with me – he’d rather sleep. My phone rings, caller ID: Sam.
-Hello?
-Hey! It’s me!
-Hi!
-What are you doing?
-Nothing, I’m bored, you?
-Are you up for an adventure?
-Always!
-Come outside!
-On my way!
I jump off my bed, waking the cat. Finley looks at me for a moment, confused, then walks over to where I was laying on the bed and curls into a ball where my head was, because it’s still warm. I jump in my boots, grab my coat and I’m out the door. She’s waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, smiling when she sees me running out of the apartment.
-You didn’t even take the time to zip your coat! She says.
-I know!
I lean in and kiss her, and for a second the world stands still, takes a breath, and then starts turning again. She opens the passenger’s door of her car for me, adding a little curtsy, like I’m royalty. She holds my hand while she drives, and I sing along to the radio, not caring if my voice sounds more like the croak of a frog than actual singing.
-Where are we going? I ask her.
-You’ll see.
She smiles to herself, loving her own mystery. When we reach the Old Port, she searches for parking for awhile and finds a space right in front of the science center. We walk on the promenade, holding hands. It’s not too cold tonight, but it’s humid and the air is heavy by the water. We reach the big skating rink that’s all illuminated with colorful lights. She smiles at me like an excited child.
-Do you know how to skate?
-Well, I’m Canadian, isn’t it a prerequisite?
She laughs and pulls me toward the entrance, where she pays for both our tickets and the rental of skates.
-I could’ve paid for the skates at least, I tell her.
-My treat, she answers with a wink.
A moment later we both have skates on our feet and are carefully walking toward the ice rink. I jump on the ice like a hockey player does when entering the rink at the beginning of a match, do a 180° turn and look at Sam carefully climbing onto the ice. I see she’s not that stable on her skates so I come closer to her, extending my arm for her to stabilize herself on. She clings to my arm like a little monkey and I skate backward a little, dragging her away from the entrance of the rink.
-Maybe I should’ve asked you if you know how to skate? I tell her, laughing at how awkward and stiff she looks, like a tree trying to skate.
-That’s the whole point, you have to teach me!
I laugh, leaning in to kiss her. She pulls closer to kiss me, but she loses her balance and falls to the ground, bringing me down with her! Our butts on the ice, our legs in the air, we laugh until we cry. I can hear people around us laughing too, which makes the whole thing twice as embarrassing. I get back up on my feet and help a laughing Sam up too.
-I didn’t know kissing was so dangerous when skating! She says.
We skate around the ring, or actually, I drag Sam around the rink, me skating backward while she tries to stay up on her skates. After a while, she’s starting to get it and lets go of my hand, skating on her own. I skate around her, like a shark circling around its prey, and she keeps asking me to stop, laughing all the while. I show her how to stop, how to lose speed when she’s going too fast, and more. I try showing her how to spin (my days as a figure skating assistant coach when I was 12 coming back to mind), but she falls every single time, so I give up. She asks me to show off so I perform a few jumps for her, the basic ones that I can remember, and she cheers me on like I’m an Olympic athlete. After an hour, we are both cold and a little sick of skating, so we go sit on the big wooden chairs overlooking by the fire.
We share a chair, her sitting on my lap, holding hands.
–Did you like your adventure? She asks me in a whisper.
-I did, it was a great adventure.
-Next time, you’ll have to teach me how to skate backward like you do!
-I don’t think you’re ready for that! I answer, teasing.
She gives me a little punch on the shoulder, pretending she’s offended while not being able to wipe the smile off her lips. She leans in to kiss me.
-Sam? Someone a few feet away from us asks.
Sam pulls away, her face changing in an instant. She looks over her shoulder at the tall, brown-haired girl, who in return is staring at us.
-How are you? The girl asks.
Sam stands up, leaving me alone on the chair. She looks at the girl, then at me.
-I’m good.
I’ve never seen Sam act so awkwardly, she keeps gazing away at the fire, avoiding eye contact, like she would rather be in the fire than right here, talking to this girl.
-You don’t want to introduce me? The girl asks.
-Hmm…yeah. She mutters.
She bites her bottom lip, looking at me.
–Elliot, this is Jamie.
-Hi, I say, staring at the girl.
By now, with all the awkwardness and the tension, it’s pretty clear that they are exes. Sam looks like she would love to shrink to the size of a dice while the girl, Jamie, looks at me. She is confident and defiant, staring me down. No one is talking, and the longer the silence stretches, the more awkward this whole thing feels. A chill runs down my spine, I feel uncomfortable in my own skin, like someone just replaced all my bones with sticks of wood and now I’m a puppet, and I don’t know what to do to make this feeling leave me. I stand up, walking closer to the fire.
-Well, I’ll get back to my friends, Jamie says.
-Yeah…
Sam still avoids looking at anyone, staring at Jamie’s scarf when she speaks to her. The tall girl turns around, making her hair fly over her shoulder like a supermodel, sending a wave of perfume our way. She smells like summer! I don’t know what annoys me the most about this girl, the way she walks and holds herself, like she owns the ground she walks on, or her care-free attitude. She clearly saw Sam and I from afar, she decided to come over for what, to say hi? Yeah…ok. And then she makes everything awkward and leaves like she just came over to glance at the fire or something, no big deal. Sam looks at me, her eyes screaming with so many feelings I can’t begin to understand what they mean. I just open my arms and she leans into my chest. We stand like that for a moment, but over her shoulder I can see Jamie standing by the skating rink with her friends, pointing at us, all of her friends staring at us.
-Let’s go, I tell Sam.
She nods. She doesn’t say a word in the car, we just drive silently to my place. When we get to my apartment, she drops on my bed, like she’s suddenly exhausted.
-I’m going to make us something sweet to eat, okay?
-Okay.
I go into the kitchen, fish out a roll of Pillsbury cinnamon buns from the freezer and peel off the paper. I hit the roll on the counter to break the sealant. I don’t hear Sam walk in the kitchen, but I feel her arms slide around my waist and her cheek pressed against my back.
-That was weird, she says.
I chuckle, I don’t think weird starts to describe what this was. I turn around and kiss her.
-Listen, I know you’ve dated other girls before me, just like I dated other girls before you. I’m pretty sure that, for both of us, it ended okay with some girls but with others, it ended in a more negative way. And it might happen that we’ll run into each other’s pasts. Let’s just not make a big deal out of it and we’ll be fine. It’s just one awkward part of life, but we don’t have to let it affect us.
-Ok.
I lean in to kiss her again and, when I pull away, she’s smiling.
-Now help me with these before I make a mess, please! I ask.
She laughs and takes the roll out of my hands.
Images obtained from:
http://www.oldportofmontreal.com/activity/natrel-skating-rink
https://www.mtlblog.com/things-to-do-in-mtl/40-bucket-list-things-to-do-in-montreal-this-winter/4
http://www.thejaycast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Awkward-Featured-Image.jpg