Work Text:
I cannot believe he stood me up again. I went against my better judgement and gave him a second chance and what do I get? A bullshit “I’m sorry! Something came up last minute” text.
Now here I am standing outside this stupid restaurant in stupid Times Square at ten o clock at night trying to catch a damn taxi to take me home and far away from this disaster of a date. And it seems like every taxi is avoiding me. Picking up all the tourists in their matching t-shirts. UGH.
I step out into the road a little further and wave my hand a little more, trying to be mindful of the short blue skirt I have on, and finally get someone to pull over.
“Thank God” I say as I step into the cab.
I give the driver my address without much thought and watch the lights of time square flash past me. I am tired tonight, tired of everything. I’m tired of being alone, tired of meeting losers, tired of giving those losers a chance anyways and tired of being disappointed when a chance given loser ends up being the loser I knew he was from the first time I saw him. I just want to get home, take off this ridiculous outfit, wash the damn makeup off my face and wallow in self-pity with some take out on the couch.
The cab driver interrupts my internal pity party.
“You look awfully pretty tonight.”
Great and the cab driver is a creep!
I discreetly check my bag for the pepper spray I always keep and nod slightly in response without saying anything. I do not want to encourage him in any way or piss him off to the point where he drives me to some secluded location and rapes and murders me.
“Don’t worry I’m not hitting on you. I just wanted to give you a compliment, thought it might make you smile. You look awful sad back there. However, I am gay, so don’t worry I’m not getting any ideas. In fact there’s a picture of my husband and me on our wedding day.”
He points to a picture secured to the center of the car that I hadn’t noticed before. It’s the cab driver fresh shaven in a nice black tuxedo, in a lip lock with a smaller dark skinned man. Underneath that picture is one of the two of them taken in a park. They are lying on the ground together wrapped up in each other’s arms. The cab driver’s blonde hair glowing in the sunlight and his light blue eyes beaming, while he smiles at the camera. His husband though has his dark eyes trained on him, seemingly unnoticing that the camera is there.
I feel a twinge in my heart. They look so happy, and I wish for the millionth time that I could be so happy. That I could have a partner to share my life with. I feel myself tear up against my will and silently shout at myself. Get it together! This is pathetic! I let out a quiet sigh.
“Congratulations. You look very happy together.”
“Thank you we are. He’s away right now, finding his path in life, gaining some knowledge. But I keep those pictures front and center so I feel as though he’s with me.”
“Is he going to school far away?” I ask him confused. What married couple doesn’t live together? Moreover, who just up and leaves their husband to go to school. Especially in NYC, we have no shortage of colleges and majors.
“Something like that. It’s hard to explain. He’s doing a very specific type of educational training. He has to go far away to do it.”
“Oh”
We lapsed into silence at this point. I tried to look at my phone but the battery was dead, so instead I just watched the buildings out the window. He was taking a different way to my house then I’ve gone before, but I could see my address on his GPS so I wasn’t worried.
“What’s your name?” He asked suddenly
“Amy. What’s yours?”
“Jonathon. Nice to meet you. So you want to talk about it.”
“About what?” I scowled.
“Whatever it is that’s got you so upset.”
“It’s not really any of your business.” I replied harshly. Who did he think he was?
“Hey Amy” he said in a quiet, soothing tone. “I’m not trying to judge or make you uncomfortable. You just looked like you might need a friend.”
I felt the scowl slip off my face. I was being an asshole and it might be nice to talk about it. God knows I don’t have any friends to call.
“I was supposed to be out on a date. I met this loser a couple weeks ago, he asked me out, and I thought what the hell? I’ll give it a shot. Then he stood me up. So whatever no big deal, I figured I would just cut my loses, it’s not like we had some big romantic story behind us. Then he calls me again and feeds me some bullshit about his mom being in the hospital on the day we were supposed to meet, for emergency surgery. And he asks me to give him a chance, and at this point I’m like who would lie about their mom having emergency surgery right?”
The cab driver nods and agrees with that but keeps silent.
“So I’m like sure let’s go for another date. He picks this super touristy spot in the middle of Times Square and tells me to meet him there at nine. I wait around for an hour; thinking there is no way this asshole stood me up again and then I get the I’m so sorry something came up text.”
I finish angry and then I just slump into my seat disappointed. Jonathon doesn’t say anything just watches me with kind eyes in the rear view mirror.
“The worst part is that I don’t even care about him. He was just another loser, another meaningless relationship. But I keep having these relationships because I am so tired of being alone. I just…I just want a partner. I want someone to share my stories with, to eat dinner with, to just walk through life with. I don’t have any family and I haven’t really made any friends. There’s a girl I work with but she’s just a bullshit talk throughout the workday friend. Not someone that I would go out with or call when I just need someone to talk to.”
“So who do you talk to?”
He was quiet for so long that his voice actually startles me.
“I don’t know. Myself I guess and un suspecting and undeserving cab drivers,” I say with a side eye look and a smirk. He laughs at that.
“It’s not as bad as I make it sound, I’m just being dramatic. I have a really nice job that allows me to work virtually anywhere in the world if I needed to, I have a great apartment, and a cat who I adore. I’m financially stable I can pay for things that I want, I just sometimes feel lonely. But the bar scene isn’t my thing and those online dating apps don’t work. Where do you go to actually meet somebody?”
“I think that you could meet somebody anywhere. I met my husband in the middle of the street. We made eye contact and I just had a feeling that he was important and so I struck up a conversation. He ended up being the love of my life.”
“That’s so sweet. You sound like he means a lot to you, you must miss him.”
“I do but I know he’s walking the right path for himself and he’ll return to me when he’s done.”
All the sudden his head snapped up and he looked around.
“Ah, it seems that we’ve arrived at your destination.”
This startled me; I hadn’t been paying attention to where we were. Too caught up in my sob story. But I was confused when I looked out.
“I think there’s a mistake this isn’t my house.”
He looked over at me with a knowing smile and then got out of the car and walked around to my door. All I could think was “Oh my God, he was a creep! I’m going to die here.”
He opens my door and says. “Sometimes when we feel lost it’s impossible to know where we’re going. We wander and wander, look for what we’re yearning for in all the wrong directions and sometimes never find the right path. But if you’re lucky you find a taxi like mine. You find someone that leads you to where you need to be.”
With that he reached into the cab a guided me out. I was so shocked that I just followed. Once I was out, he ran back over and go into the car and with a wave, he was gone.
It took me a minute, but I began to laugh hysterically. I found a whack job cabbie who just left me in the middle of NYC somewhere and this would probably be where they found my body in the morning. Slowly the laughs turned into tears, as reality sunk in. What the fuck? Why would someone do this? I had no way of contacting anyone and I wasn’t even sure where I was. In all honesty, I might not have even been in NYC.
I sat and had my pity party on the curb for a minute before formulating a plan. I would just pick a direction and walk. I had to eventually find a bus stop or a bodega. Something that would be open and have people and possibly a map. Then I would find my way to my home and just wash myself of this God-awful night.
So with my plan in mind I started down the street. I saw a street sign and realized that I was on Brown Street, but that wasn’t familiar to me. I kept walking and down the road, I came to a school. It was dark; empty of course it was going on midnight at this point. But its presence was comforting in a way. A symbol of civilization that I wasn’t as lost as I thought. And I realize as I walk right towards the school that I have found a busy street. At least it would be busy during business hours. Lots of stores, all closed now but it gave me hope. I would probably find a gas station around here and most gas stations were open twenty-four hours a day.
So I kept walking, staring at the stores as I passed them, Aldi, Payless Shoes, passing them in a blur. Then in a hallelujah moment, I saw my saving grace. A 7/11! The lights were bright and I knew that they would be open. I started walking a little faster, when I noticed him. A man walking down the street up the road from me and on the other side of the street. I’m not sure what it was about him that caught my attention but it caused me to stop dead in my tracks.
He looked different; I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something about him was calling to me. I felt crazy but I took one last look at the 7/11 and then crossed the street closer to this man. I can’t describe it but I just knew that I needed to talk to him. I’ve never felt a feeling like this before.
He stopped when he saw me coming, his face twisted, he was confused. But that didn’t stop me I kept walking. More sure of myself than I think I have ever been, until I was in front of him.
He didn’t say anything just watched me with wary eyes, and I recognized that this was a man who had been beaten down, belittled into expecting the worse from everyone and all I wanted to do was wipe that expression out of those dark brown eyes.
So I stuck my hand out
“Hi. I’m Amy.”
He looked at me as though I was insane and perhaps I was. What else would give me such a strong reaction towards this stranger? He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair and looked at me wearily. I was beginning to doubt myself when he responded.
“Hi. I’m Jake.”
Then he put his big warm hand into mine and I felt something click into place. I understood what the cab driver was saying. I understood that gut feeling he had when meeting his husband for the first time and I understood that he had brought me not where I had wanted to go but where I needed to. This man was going to be important to me. I might not know how and I might not know why but he was the future. And I was ready to dive in headfirst.