3. 3
Cowboy sat at his desk in the office of his shop drawing up a design a client from out of state wanted for a bike when his phone rang. Distracted, he didn’t even glance at the screen, just hit the button on the screen to answer, letting the headset that had been streaming music to block out the noise in the shop switch over to the call.
“This is Cowboy.”
“Um, Hi,” a hesitant woman’s voice said. “My name’s Ava and I don’t know if I’ve got the right person,” she let out a nervous laugh, “but I think you brought me home last night.”
Those words pulled him out of his distraction.
“I’m sorry. Did you say your name is Ava?”
“I did. Did I not tell you that last night? I hate to admit it, but I have no memory of you.” She paused and he gave her a moment in case she wanted to say more, but she didn’t.
“Not surprising. You were pretty shitfaced last night. I hope you’re feeling okay this morning.”
“As good as can be expected, I guess. I won’t be doing that again any time soon.”
“Which part?” He couldn’t help the teasing note in his voice and hoped she wouldn’t be offended by it. “You looked like you were having fun, and I’ll never support giving up fun.” He leaned back in the swivel chair, stretching out the kinks from having been over the desk, then getting a little more comfortable.
“No, I’m not giving up the fun part, but drinking till I don’t know where I am or who brought me home? That’s not going to happen again. I just hope I wasn’t too stupid.”
“I’ll agree with not letting yourself get so far gone you don’t know where you are, or who you are with, but you weren’t totally stupid. I watched as several men hit on you and you turned them down. I don’t know why you let me take you home, but I was the only guy you didn’t refuse all night long. Maybe because I wasn’t hitting on you. I just wanted to make sure you made it home.”
“Thank you for that. I can’t say that enough.”
“No need. I just did what was right.”
“Did you leave water and Tylenol beside the bed? I thought at first that I had and just didn’t remember it, but that was before I realized you’d brought me home.”
“That was me. We got you home, you went into the bedroom and passed out as soon as your head hit the pillow. I wanted you to be comfortable, so I took off your boots, but didn’t want to intrude so I left your clothes on. If I’d thought about it before you made it into bed, I would have had you drink water first, then you wouldn’t feel so bad this morning. Since I was too late for that, I put the water next to the bed.”
“Does water really make you feel better?” She sounded doubtful.
“It does. The hangover is mostly from dehydration. If you drink water while you’re drinking, it’s not so bad. But I have to admit, even knowing better, I still sometimes forget.” He wondered how she didn’t know this. He would have guessed her age at thirty at least. Surely, this hadn’t been her first time drunk?
She groaned. “I don’t think I’ll be drinking much in the near future.”
“I wouldn’t say you need to give up drinking, not if you enjoyed it, but maybe next time go out with a friend. Someone to help make sure you make it home safe.”
“I planned to last night, but she cancelled last minute. One of her kids got sick. It was just around the corner, and I didn’t see the harm. I see why people go out in pairs and groups now.”
A glance at his watch told him he needed to get busy. The client he was doing this sketch for was in town and wanted to see it in just over an hour.
“I’m glad you’re not feeling too bad, but I need to get back to work. I’ve got a meeting soon and I need to be ready.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I assumed you’re off today like I am. I’ll let you go but really quick I wanted to take you to lunch, as a thank you for bringing me home.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“But I want to. I don’t know many people who would do something like that, and lunch is the least I can do.”
“All right but I’m busy today. I can do tomorrow if that works for you?”
“I can do that. Where do you want to go?”
Cowboy named a diner he liked but didn’t get to often, she didn’t know where it was but said she’d figure it out and she’d meet him there tomorrow, then rang off.
The music turned back on in the headset he wore, and Cowboy turned his attention back to the sketch he was working on. He was running out of time and as much as he’d wanted to keep talking to Ava, this was more important.