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The first time Daniel met Henley was when he was making out with Rebecca Shields in front of her car.
“I love you.”
“I love you.”
Henley cleared her throat, humming to herself.
Daniel has been dating Rebecca Shields throughout his whole four years of college. Now he was moving out to New York with a plan to never see her again.
“Oh, hi Henley. Henley, this is Daniel Atlas. Daniel, this is Henley Reeves.” Rebecca spoke, wiping her lips, looking at her boyfriend adoringly.
Daniel turned to the car.
“Nice to meet you.”
“You want to drive the first shift?”
“No, you’re there already, you can start.”
Henley shrugged, giving both of them a look.
“Back’s open.”
Rebecca Shields wrapped her arms around his neck. He almost rolled his eyes. Jeez.
“Call me.”
“I’ll call you as soon as I get there.”
He won’t.
“Oh, call me from the road.”
“I’ll call you before that.”
He won’t.
“I love you.”
“I love you.”
Well, he’s not saying the truth here either.
Rebecca Shields kissed him again and he pulled her closer. Might as well enjoy it before he goes away and ignores her forever.
Henley honked the car. “Sorry.”
“I miss you already, huh, I miss you already.”
Henley raised her eyebrow, as if seeing right through his lie.
“I miss you.” Rebecca awed.
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
-
Daniel and Henley were in the car on their way to New York. He noticed she had red hair and wore these weird, leather gloves. Cleanliness freak, probably.
“I have it all figured out. It’s an eighteen-hour trip which breaks down into six shifts of three hours each or alternatively we could break it down by mileage.” She spoke, looking ahead on the road.
Daniel climbed to reach into the backseat for something. Henley didn’t really care, but just hoped he didn’t mess anything up. She had a system.
“There’s a... there’s a map on the, huh... visor that I’ve marked to show the locations, so we can change shifts.”
He popped a grape into his mouth, only half-listening to her.
“Grape?”
“No, I don’t like to eat between meals.”
Daniel only gave her a weird look. He tried to spit the pits out through the window, but it was shut. She winced, letting out a quiet *eugh*.
“I’ll roll down the window. Why don’t you tell me the story of your life.”
“Story of my life?” She asked, tilting her head, eyes focused on the road.
Daniel shrugged, popping another grape into his mouth.
“We’ve got eighteen hours to kill before we hit New York.”
“The story of my life isn’t even going to get us out of Chicago, I mean nothing’s happened to me yet. That’s why I’m going to New York.”
He looked at her intensively. It made her a bit nervous.
“So something can happen to you?”
“Yes.”
“Like what?”
“I can go into journalism school to become a reporter.”
“So you can write about things that happen to other people.”
She grimaced and he gave her a smirk. Henley thought that he looked as if he was born with it. Observational jerk.
“That’s one way to look at it.” She murmured.
“Suppose nothing happens to you. Suppose you lived out your whole life and nothing happens, you never meet anybody, you never become anything and finally you die in one of those New York deaths which nobody notices for two weeks until the smell drifts into the hallway.”
She scrunched her nose in digust. The smell would have been terrible. Henley didn’t really care about the rest.
“Rebecca mentioned you had a dark side.”
“That’s what drew her to me.”
“Your dark side.” She deadpanned.
Daniel shrugged.
“Sure. Why don’t you have a dark side? No, you’re probably one of those cheerful people who dots their i’s with little hearts.”
She scoffed, because she would do that if she had an ‘i’ in her name. Whatever.
“I have just as much of a dark side as the next person.”
He almost snorted.
“Oh, really. When I buy a new book I always read the last page first, that way in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side.”
Henley rolled her eyes at him. Such a pretentious jerk.
“That doesn’t mean you’re deep or anything, I mean... yes, basically I’m a happy person...”
Daniel grinned.
“So am I.”
“...and I don’t see that there’s anything wrong with that.”
“Of course not, you’re too busy being happy. Do you ever think about death?”
She grimaced in surprise, as if his words only irritated her more.
“Yes.”
“Sure you do, a fleeting thought that jumps in and out of the transient of your mind. I spend hours, I spend days...”
Henley raised her eyebrows, pink lips pursing into a slightly annoyed frown.
“And you think that makes you a better person.”
“Look, when the shit comes down I’m gonna be prepared and you’re not, that’s all I’m saying.”
“And in the meantime you’re gonna ruin your whole life waiting for it.”
He only shrugged and she shook her head.
-
“You’re wrong.”
“I’m not wrong, he wants...”
“You’re wrong.” She repeated.
“... he wants her to leave, that’s why he puts her on the plane.”
“I don’t think she wants to stay.”
He scoffed.
“Of course she wants to stay. Wouldn’t you rather be with Humphrey Bogart than the other guy?”
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in Casablanca married to a man who runs a bar. I probably sound very snobbish to you, but I don’t.”
The conversation was going on for at least thirty minutes now. Neither of them were backing down, although Henley was more and more annoyed. Daniel weirdly enjoyed that.
“You’d rather be in a passionless marriage.”
“And be the First Lady of Czechoslovakia.”
“Than live with the man you’ve had the greatest sex of your life with, and just because he owns a bar and that is all he does.”
He looked at her, as if wanting Henley to snap at him.
“Yes. And so had any woman in her right mind, woman are very practical, even Ingrid Bergman which is why she gets on the plane at the end of the movie.”
-
They pulled up to a road side café filled with people and worn-out seats.
“I understand.”
“What? What?”
“Nothing.”
He opened the door for her, and she rolled her eyes. They walked into the café-diner.
“Forget about it.”
She furrowed her eyebrows in an almost desperate curiosity.
“For... what? Forget about what?”
“It’s not important.”
It riled her up and he enjoyed it. Bastard.
“No, just tell me!”
“Obviously, you haven’t had great sex yet.”
He turned to a waitress while her jaw dropped.
“Two please.”
An older woman with bored expression pointed to a table.
“Right over there.”
“Yes, I have!” Henley squeaked.
“No, you haven’t.” Daniel hummed with a grin.
“It just so happens that I have had plenty of good sex!” Henley snapped. Finally.
The restaurant got silent for a moment, everyone’s eyes on her. She walked over to the table with a tilted head, embarrassed. He seemed fine.
“With whom?”
“What?”
“With whom did you have this great sex?”
She looked scandalized. The remnants of being raised in a (heavily) christian house.
“I’m not going to tell you that!”
He shrugged.
“Fine, don’t tell me.”
It only took twenty seconds.
“Jeremy. His name was Jeremy.”
“Jeremy? Jeremy? No, no, you didn’t have great sex with... Jeremy.”
“I did too.” She argued.
“No, you didn’t. A Jeremy can do your income taxes. If you need a root canal, Jeremy’s your man, but humping and pumping is not Jeremy’s strong suit. It’s the name. Do it to me ‘Jeremy’, you’re an animal ‘Jeremy’, ride me, big ‘Jeremy’. Doesn’t work.”
Henley looked at him like an older lady in the church finding out her granddaughter just lost her virginity. She was utterly scandalized.
“Hi, what can I get ya?” The older, bored waitress asked.
“I’ll have a number three.”
“I’d like the chef salad please with the oil and vinegar on the side and the apple pie à la mode.” Henley asked sweetly.
Daniel almost snorted.
“Chef and apple à la mode.”
“But I’d like the pie heated and I don’t want the ice cream on top, I want it on the side and I’d like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it, if not then no ice cream just whipped cream, but only if it’s real, if it’s out of a can then nothing.” She rambled, not realizing that she came out like a huge snob.
“Not even the pie?” The waitress mumbled.
“No, just the pie, but then not heated.”
“Uh huh.” The woman walked away, mumbling under breath something along like *wackadoo*.
“What?”
“Nothing, nothing. So how come you broke up with Sheldon?”
She tilted her head.
“How you know we broke up?”
“Because if you didn’t break up you wouldn’t be here with me, you’d be off with Jeremy, the wonder-schlong.”
“First of all, I am not with you, and second of all, it is none of your business why we broke up.”
She crossed her arms on her chest.
“You’re right, you’re right, I don’t want to know.”
Ten seconds.
“Well, if you must know, it was because he was very jealous and insecure and I had these days-of-the-week underpants.”
Daniel let out a sound that imitated a wrong answer buzzer, playing with a napkin.
“I’m sorry, I need a judge’s ruling on this... days-of-week underpants?”
“Yes. They had the days of the week on them and I thought they were sort of funny. And then one day Sheldon says to me, ‘You never wear Sunday’. It’s all suspicious, where was Sunday, where was Sunday? And I told him and he didn’t believe me.”
“Why?”
“They don't make Sunday.”
“Why?”
“Because of God.”
Daniel only hummed.
-
They’ve both finished eating, plates empty. Henley was talking to herself, writing on a napkin with a black pen.
“Okay, so fifteen percent of my share is ninety... six ninety. This leaves seven.”
Daniel looked at her with interest, tilting his head. She noticed.
“What? Do I have something on my face?”
“You’re a very attractive person.”
“Thank you.” Henley smiled. Just a little bit.
“Rebecca never said how attractive you are.”
She shrugged.
“Well, maybe she doesn't think I’m attractive.”
“I don’t think it’s a matter of opinion, empirically you are attractive.”
“Rebecca is my friend.”
Oh, right. He was dating Rebecca.
“So?”
“So you’re going with her.”
“So?”
She scoffed.
“So you’re coming on to me!”
“No, I wasn’t. What?”
Henley’s jaw dropped, eyes widened and she almost fumed.
“Can’t a man say a woman is attractive without it being a come-on? Alright, alright, let’s just say, just for the sake of argument, that it was a come-on. What do you want me to do about it? I take it back, okay? I take it back.”
“You can’t take it back.”
He was so casual about everything it made her want to rip her hair out.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s already out there.”
Daniel rolled his eyes.
“Oh, jeez, what are we suppose to do, call the cops? It’s already out there.”
She sighed, feeling a little flattered. But mostly uncomfortable. Rebecca was her friend. Sort of. A colleague would be a better word.
“Just let it lie, okay?”
“Great! Let it lie. That’s my policy. That’s what I always say, let it lie. Wanna spend the night at a motel? See what I did? I didn’t let it lie.”
“Daniel.”
“I said I wouldn’t and I didn’t.”
“Daniel.”
“I went the other way.”
“Danny.”
He blinked. Danny. That’s new.
“What?”
“We are just going to be friends, okay?”
“Great! Friends! It’s the best thing.”
-
They were in the car again and she was driving again. He was supposed to take the next shift, but when he was just about to sit on her place she said she can do another. Ugh, his germs.
“You realize of course that we can never be friends.”
“Why not?”
“What I’m saying is... and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form, is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.”
She pouted a bit, her eyebrows furrowing. He found it cute. Just a little bit.
“That’s not true, I have a number of men friends and there’s no sex involved.”
“No you don’t.”
Henley scoffed.
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
He snorted.
“You only think you do.”
“You’re saying I’m having sex with these men without my knowledge?” Henley glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.
“No, what I’m saying is they all want to have sex with you.”
He looked at her for a moment. Yeah, she was pretty cute.
“They do not.”
“Do too.”
“They do not.”
“Do too.”
“How do you know?” She asked, scrunching her nose.
“Because no man can be friends with a woman he finds attractive, he always wants to have sex with her.”
“So you’re saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive.”
“Nuh, you pretty much wanna nail them, too.”
Henley looked utterly confused. He was just talking for the sake of talking, she thought.
“What if they don’t want to have sex with you?”
“Doesn’t matter, because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.”
She thought for a moment. He kept watching her.
“Well, I guess we’re not going to be friends then.”
He shrugged, looking away.
“Guess not.”
She tilted her head.
“That’s too bad. You are the only person I knew in New York.”
-
They both reached for Daniel’s luggage, fingers brushing. He looked at her.
“Thanks for the ride.”
She nodded, shrugging.
“Yeah, it was... interesting.”
“It was nice knowing you.”
“Yeah.”
They shook hands.
“Well, have a nice life.”
“You too.”