Hello Adventure

Chapter 35

A week went by and I fought against falling into my old routine. But I had to pick up a few shifts at TGI Thursday to make some money, while I was waiting to hear back on the job in New York. I did a phone interview with them and they all but said I got the job, but still, I was stuck here waiting for an official offer letter and I couldn't help but fall back into a rut, thinking about the team in Zermatt. They'd just be finishing up now...

My feelings for Dale hadn't changed, but just because he was actually worth having feelings for, it didn't make it any easier to have them.

"I don't get it," said Amina when I told her about him. "Why did you just leave him like that? Can't you at least call him, especially since it's looking like you guys will be in New York at the same time?"

"Amina, I'm not sure I can do it again. I asked for a sign and this was it. I need to keep moving forward. No more 'just as soon as,' right?"

Amina shrugged. "I just don't know, Sloane."

Later that evening Jason, Amina's boyfriend came over with take-out from his new restaurant on Newberry. "You should stop by Friday; we're having a party to mark the end of the soft launch," he told me. I could see it in his eye he never expected me to say yes to his invitation. So that's why I did.

"That's great, Jason, Congratulations. I'd love to stop by. Amina, do you want to meet before and go together?"

"Wow," Amina said. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"You really did change, huh?" Amina said.

Jason just blinked twice in surprise. "So this is like, a whole new Sloane, huh? You know I think my friend Hunt is going to be there too—the guy I keep trying to hook you up with."

Amina jumped up from the table spread with takeout. "Oh my God!" She ran off into my bedroom and returned a moment later, a scrap of paper in her hand.

"Do you know what this is, Jason?"

Both Jason and I shook our heads at the scrap of paper.

"It's Hunt's phone number that you gave Sloane like a year ago! She saved it this whole time because she planned on calling him 'just as soon as' she got it together." She handed Jason the slip of paper.

I had been sitting in my jewelry box since I graduated—since back when I had been waiting for The Life I Always Wanted to start. And now it had.

"You saved this?" Jason said examining the paper and the name and number scrawled upon it. "You should definitely shoot him a text and get him to come meet you at the party. You guys would get on really well. I think he was just traveling too actually, in fact, he may still be. But he should be back in the states any day now—I've been trying to hire him for like, the past year. If you talk to him, you let him know that the job offer is still on the table."

Amina took the paper from Jason and handed in back to me with a gentle shrug. She made her voice low so that I only I could her here: "I mean, if you really do want to move forward, maybe you should text him? Maybe there's a reason you saved his number this whole time..."

I accepted the paper and gave her an insincere smile.

*

Later that night, when I was alone in my room and Amina was in hers with Jason, I stared at the phone number. But as I stared at unfamiliar digits on the scrap of paper, I thought of Dale—and I was wildly aware it wasn't good for me to keep doing that.

So I took out my phone. If this is what it took to keep me moving forward, then I'd try it. The least I could do was say "hello," the least I could do was open a door to another adventure. I wasn't going to wait around anymore, so hard as it was for me, I was going to put myself out there.

My hand was shaking as I dialed, and I couldn't get Dale's face out my head. I took a deep breath and focused on the mechanics of the task. I couldn't even believe what I was doing. In the past, I wouldn't have even been able to send a text—but here I was, calling some guy and inviting him out with me.

When he answered, I almost dropped the phone.

"Hello?" The voice was on the line was familiar that I gasped aloud. "Hello?" he ask again when I couldn't yet respond.

"Hunt?" I asked in a whisper, but then hearing the guttural rasp of my own voice, I coughed and tried again. "Hi, I'm looking for Hunt..."

"Yeah?" He asked.

I squinted into the darkness. Was this a joke?

"Who is this?" I challenged, now half-desperate, now half convinced. It couldn't be him. It just couldn't. I mean...Could it?

Then, there it was—his laugh. Not really a laugh more of a husky smirk without any nastiness. My whole body throbbed with recognition, with understanding, with stupid, unsophisticated, one-dimensional joy. I know that sound, said my body.

Suddenly, it all clicked. I understood. Getting fired wasn't the sign I had been asking for—this was. Finding him again in this impossible, ridiculous, marvelously silly way was the sign. I suddenly realized that running away out of fear was the wrong move. Of course it was the wrong move.

But I was getting another chance.

He wasn't irritated by my question. He was patient—like he always was with me. "It's you, isn't it?" I asked.

Then, he spoke. He answered me slowly, and I think then that's when he got it too. He heard what I had heard. We recognized each other.

"Yeah," he told me. "This is Hunt. Dale Huntley." He paused for another moment. I grinned into the phone. "So, you just couldn't stay away from me, huh kid?"

THE END