The Last JoyRide

Part 19

Thursday 7:18pm.

I sat in my trailer and drank Stoli's straight from the bottle, alternating between that and Ocean Spray cranberry which I too drank straight from the bottle. The overhead air-conditioning unit was humming along nicely cooling me off and making the turkey and provolone sub sandwich go down all the easier. Well, that and the Stoli's. The day was finally over. Though the day had begun with a beautiful girl, breakfast and a raging hard on it quickly went down hill from there.

After pissing Joy off royally I made it to the closing attorney's office only to have to wait for the other parties. The closing on the house was a clusterfuck of legal wrangling on the part of the buyers and their mortgage company. That and the legal secretary at the attorney's office had misplaced paperwork before taking her leave of absence for her honeymoon. It was unbelievable and I, after three hours in had volunteered to just call the whole thing off until all the parties involved, including myself had their shit together. I announced it loudly too. At that point one of the attorney's asked if it would be possible to postpone the closing until three that afternoon. All parties agreed. It would give me time to get lunch and check in with Joy.

She never answered even after three messages. I figured she was still upset with me. I liked her, couldn't get the taste, smell and feel of her out of my mind. I could fall hard for this girl but that was opening myself up to a world of possible hurt. I still wasn't sure about that. It was just happening too fast. Still, I didn't want her sore at me.

The closing was not over until after five at which point I called Joy again only to get the Betty's Repo pitch on her phone. She was either busy or mad. I was leaning hard toward mad.

The attorney's told me it would be three to five business days before the proceeds from the sale of my home would be deposited into my account after of course the original loan had been satisfied. That was all I had to wait for and I was completely unbound, untethered and able to leave. It was not as euphoric as I thought it would be, but still a relief.

Naturally I got stuck in traffic on the way back, traffic so bad I decided to get off and have a bite for dinner. I called again to see if Joy wanted me to pick up something for her too. Still no answer. I was frustrated with everything by that point in spite of having closed on the house. I was becoming really angry with Joy, well maybe disappointed at the childish way she was acting and feeling justified but admittedly melancholy about my decision to stop where we had that morning.

Baldino's was my favorite deli and it was close so I decided to err on the side of friendship and pick up a couple of foot long turkey and provolone's all the way, threw in a couple of bags of chips and fresh Chocolate fudge brownies. How could you go wrong? Her eating habits were atrocious and her lack of a dietary schedule had started to affect me.

To add to the frustration the damned air conditioning in the Landcruiser decided the perfect time to crap out would be in traffic on the way home. The thing had manual windows too and without Go-Go Gadget arms I only managed to get the drivers window down for the relief from the heat. I arrived home a sweaty, stinking miserable mess.

Joy wasn't even there when I got back. I pondered just hanging the sandwich and accouterment on the door handle. It would be okay, it was in the shade and if she wasn't home soon I would get it and stash it in my small fridge in the trailer. I decided to just leave her a note. I would probably fall asleep and it would sit there and spoil.

After eating I had to get the grit off of me. The hot shower felt so good. I decided just to dry off and lay on the bed and enjoy the AC in my boxers. Of course I dozed off.

Thursday 8:27PM

There was a knock on the trailer door, a faint knock, more of a tapping. I wasn't sure I even heard it. I raised my head, and lowered the metal detecting magazine and listened. Nothing. I went back to reading. Then the tapping came again, this time harder and more metallic. This was an obvious sound, someone at the door. I put the magazine down and slid off the bed. All I had on were boxers and a teeshirt. I stopped before opening the door and looked down. Everything covered? Good. I opened the small door and it swung out. Joy took a half step aside out of the way.