The GEEKs

23. no more mambo, homemade wine, and important secrets

PREVIOUSLY: Jeff is out jogging and contemplating his attempted dumping of Heather when he runs into Chris and his dog Lucy; while chatting with Chris about how different relationships are for different people, he decides that he needs to get a hold of himself and break up with Heather once and for all, for the sake of his own happiness; Mike, who's been absent for a while, doesn't show up at dance class so Gwen decides to cheer herself up by drinking martinis, which leads to her calling him; at first she talks to Sean who tells her that Mike's not home, but then the bassist takes over the phone, telling her that he misses her too, mentioning nothing about the rumours of him being a bad lover; Chris is spending the night over with Kat in her bedroom, they end up talking about what love and relationships mean and she opens up to him about her past experiences; after finishing her first day as the new receptionist at the Fairmont Hotel, Lizzy runs into Jerry, who still works for a delivery company that deals with the hotel; they have a friendly chat about how they each spent their holidays; Jerry mentions that he didn't get a gift for his girlfriend Dee because she doesn't care about that stuff, but Lizzy's reaction makes him feel like he made a mistake; since Jerry's busy, Lizzy promises to take him to the hotel swimming pool some other time.

Shit, I'm late. Only by five minutes, but every tap of my fingers against the steering wheel makes it seem like those minutes are stretching into hours as I sit stuck in traffic. I'm not usually late, that's the one quality I have that I can put on my resume, so it's kind of ironic that this had to happen today, on my way to see Gwen and make her forgive me and forget about anything that might upset her about my behaviours.

I didn't want to talk to her when she called, I thought I could just phase her out slowly. Even though I can't stand the idea of her being with some other dude. Maybe I wasn't trying to phase her out so much as show her that I'm not always gonna run to her when she calls... Either way, when she was on the phone with Sean, just hearing her voice and the things she was saying... I don't know, I didn't expect that. I disappeared on her and when you do that shit, girls either tell you to go fuck yourself or have a tantrum and accuse you of being a shitty boyfriend or using them or something. But Gwen said she misses me instead. And fuck, I miss her too. It's like no other girl compares to her.

Finally, I pull into a parking spot, get out of my car, and make a dart for the entrance to the café. She's not there?.. I'm fifteen minutes late, give or take. Did she...show up and leave because I wasn't here? I scan the place with my eyes again. Nope, definitely not there.

"Hey, did you see an Asian girl with bleach blonde hair come in or leave in the past fifteen minutes?" I practically lean over the counter to ask the back of the barista's head.

"Uh, don't think so," the guy casts a glance at me and goes back to making coffee.

Just as I turn around, contemplating whether I should hang around here or do something else, Gwen walks in and I get that same sensation of time slowing down a little. Of course she'd be the one who's even more late, of course. She lives to her own rhythm, as if nothing affects her, not even the passing of time.

"Before anything else happens, you should know that I was drunk when I called you," she gives me a disclaimer immediately, making me snort out a laugh.

"So what, you didn't actually want to meet up with me?"

"That's not what I said."

"Wait, so did you really miss me or did you only say that while under the influence of probably a martini?"

"How did you know I was drinking a martini?" Gwen pops her eyes out.

"Isn't that your favourite drink?" I shrug.