Better Man

Nate would be home any minute now. Amy was scared to see him. She knew he wouldn’t be happy. She sat in the dark living room, trying hard to focus on the TV but she was distracted. She got up from the couch and started to pace around, contemplating what he would tell him about this morning. He would be looking for answers and she didn’t know what to say. She had so many emotions running through her mind. So much to think about.

She had a wonderful time with her new friend, Carl, this morning but she couldn’t get rid of that sinking feeling in her stomach when she thought about Nate.

“Amy!” Nate yelled walking into the apartment. He slammed the door shut behind him.

Amy could hear the anger in his voice. Calmly, she got up from the couch and stood up. She turned around to face him and could feel her body begin to shake nervously. His blue eyes were darker than normal and his cheeks were red. He walked up to her quickly, the floor shaking with every step he took. She could feel her heart beating faster and faster.

“What the hell is your problem?!” he yelled, grabbing her arms tightly. “What makes you think you can just get up and leave?!”

“Nate. Please.” She begged, trying to wiggle her way out of his grasp. He grabbed on tighter.

“Don’t you ever, EVER leave here again like that. Do you understand me?!” he yelled, pulling her in close and tight.

Amy just looked up into his eyes, scared for her life.

“Do you?” he yelled, shaking her.

Still, she didn’t respond.

“Useless.” He said pushing of her back and walking away. He went into the bedroom and slammed the door shut leaving Amy with nothing but tears in her eyes and fear in her heart.

She stood there, in the same spot, stunned staring at the bedroom door. Tears formed at the back of her eyes and her body trembled. Who was this man, this evil no good man? This was not the same person she once knew.

What was she to do? Slowly, she stepped back toward the couch and grabbed her phone. She scrolled through her contacts, stopping on her mom’s number. She stared at it for what seemed like an eternity. She couldn’t call her mom. Her mom was against her moving off to New York in the first place. She scrolled through her contacts some more then stopped on his name.

Carl.

Should she? Should she call him? She didn’t want to pull him into this mess, if she did call him, she wouldn’t even mention what had just happened. She barely even knew him. But something about him stuck with her. He was a good guy. It would be nice to talk to him again and take her mind off of whatever just happened.

She took a seat on the couch and hit his number with her thumb. She held the phone to her ear and listened to the ringing on the other end. With each ring she was more and more disappointed.

“Shit.” She swore under her breath. She threw the phone down on the couch and buried her face in her hands and cried.

The Rangers touched back down in New York close to midnight after a three-day road trip through the south. Coming back home from the sunny south was never easy, especially now that the fall weather had finally found its way to the city. But for Carl, he couldn’t get back soon enough.

Carl was on edge the entire trip. He lost his cell phone and he was scared that because of that, he had missed out a chance on Amy too. Even Michael, his best friend and roommate on the road, was starting to get fed up with him. His head wasn’t in the game and he couldn’t tell his teammates that it was all because of a girl.

The night the plane landed back in New York, Carl made way straight back to the rink. It was after-hours at Madison Square Garden; only the equipment guys were around. Luckily, when he got to his locker, his phone was sitting there on the bench. He had numerous missed calls and texts, but he ignored most of them just to check to see if she had tried to contact him. Sure enough, she did.

He missed a call from her and he hoped he didn’t screw it up by not calling her back right away. He knew it was late but he wasn’t about to let another opportunity waste away.

“Breakfast tomorrow?” he sent. He sat back in his stall and let out a sigh.

“What are you getting yourself into, Carl? Focus on your game.” He said to himself.

__

The next morning, Carl headed toward the diner where he spent that first day with Amy. She didn’t respond to his text message, but he went to the diner just incase there was that small chance that she would show.

“Good Morning.” The same waitress who served them said. She must have remembered him because she had a knowing smile on her face.

“Morning.” Carl replied with a nod.

“Same table?” the waitress asked.

“Um. Actually…” he said, pausing for a moment to look around to see if maybe Amy was there. “Um. Yeah.”

“Okay.” She replied.

He took a seat at the same booth he sat in just a few days earlier.

“Are you expecting someone else?”

Carl looked up at the waitress and smiled. “Um, well, this might sounds kind of weird but,” he said before looking around once more. “That girl I was with a few days ago, has she been back here?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t seen her.”

Carl slumped down into the booth.

“I’ll be back to take your order in a moment?”

He nodded his head. Carl let out a sigh as the waitress walked away. “This is so stupid.” He thought to himself. He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Michael and Dan. They were both at the diner about 20 minutes later to join him for breakfast.

“Hey, Hags.” Dan said taking a seat in the booth. He looked around at the diner then gave Carl a strange look. “What are you doing at a place like this?”

“It’s a long story. Anyways, the food’s good.” Carl replied. He grabbed his phone and stared at it, hoping for a reply from Amy.

“It better be.” Michael added.

The waitress came back to the table with coffee and water for the guys. She happily took their orders and then let them be.

“So Hags, what was up with you during the trip? Seemed kind of out of it.” Dan asked.

“Yeah, I didn’t like it.” Michael added. “Lamest roommate in the world.”

Carl just shrugged his shoulders and looked at his phone again. “I don’t know. Just putting a lot of pressure on myself, I guess.”

Dan took a sip of his coffee then looked at Carl with a serious stare. “You realize that you’re playing on the first line right? The first line for the New York Rangers. You have nothing to worry about, Torts isn’t sending you to Connecticut any time soon.”

Carl looked up at him, and then smiled after realizing that Dan fell for his lie.

“You’re not worried about your game, are you?” Dan asked, catching on.

Carl looked at his phone again.

“Give me this.” Michael said, taking the phone out of his hand.

“Hey!” Carl said, reaching for it.

“You invited us to come eat with you but you keep reaching for your phone every 5 seconds. Who are you talking too? You’re new boyfriend or something?” Michael said.

Carl laughed. “No.”

“What’s going on, Hags?” Dan asked? “Hot date?”

“Something like that.” Carl said, looking down at his cup of coffee.

“Oooooo!” Michael said.

“Who is she?” Dan asked.

“Just a girl I met the other day.”

“She’s not just a girl. Not if she has you acting this way.” Michael said.

“Whatever, I just met her one morning, I literally ran into her. We spent all of 5 hours together. I don’t even know if she’s interested. I texted her last night asking her to join me here for breakfast and she still hasn’t responded.”

“Wait. The other morning when I waited for you in the park for an hour and you never showed?” Dan asked.

“Uh, yeah.” Carl replied.

“Hmmm.” Dan said, taking a sip of his coffee.

“She hot?” Michael asked.

Carl’s cheeks started to turn red. “She’s,” he said, smiling. “Beautiful.”

“Then why are you bringing her to a dump like this?” Michael asked.

“Because this is where I brought her the other day. Like I said, I ran into her. She fell down and cut up her hand pretty bad, this was the closed place that was open where I could take her to make sure she was alright.”

“Wow, what a jerk.” Dan said.

“What?” Carl asked.

“You checked her like you did Alfie? Ass.”

Carl rolled his eyes. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I should have just kept my mouth shut.”

____________________

“I mean the city is good and all, but I really miss you guys, I miss Michigan.” Amy said. She was walking down the street and talking to her best friend, Samantha on the phone.

“We miss you too, Am. I’m coming to visit you soon, I promise.”

Amy had a smile on her face. It was so good to talk to her best friend again.

“So what are you doing right now?” Samantha asked. “Standing outside of 30 Rock? Strolling around in Central Park? Hanging out on top of the Empire State Building with Jay-Z?”

Amy laughed. “No, I’m just walking to the grocery store.”

“Have you met anyone famous yet?”

“You seem to have a lot of misconceptions about this city.” Amy replied.

“Yeah I guess. But I mean, I’m just a girl from the Midwest. I just dream about the city…” Samantha sighed. “How’s Nate?”

Amy must have zoned out of the conversation. She looked down the street a little further and recognized the diner. It brought a smile to her face and she wondered if Carl was there. She got his text message last night but was to scared to respond. Especially after thinking about what Nate would do if he found out. She felt butterflies in her stomach the closer she got.

“Amy?” Samantha said. “Hello… Amy?”

“Oh, sorry Sam. Hey, can I call you back in a little bit?”

“Yeah.”

“K. Bye.” Amy said ending the call. She walked past the window the diner and spotted him inside.

There he was. Carl. With his blonde hair and his stunning eyes. He wore a smile on his face as he chatted with two other guys he was sitting with. Seeing him brought a huge smile to her face. Suddenly, all her negative feelings from Nate were gone. She walked into the diner and approached their table slowly.

Carl looked up at her first. “Amy!” he said getting up from his seat. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her closely.

“Hi.” She said, hugging him. “I didn’t know if you would still be here.”

“I didn’t know if you got my text.” He replied. His face was beaming with joy.

She smiled and awkwardly looked over at the two guys Carl was with. They were both staring at her.

“These guys are uh,” he paused. “My co-workers. That’s Dan and that’s Michael.”

“Hi.” Amy said, shaking their hands. “I’m Amy.” She nervously smiled at the two muscular, attractive men.

“Nice to meet you, Amy.” Michael said.

“Yeah, do you want to sit down with us? I think Mike and I are going to take off here in a few minutes, but you can join us if you’d like.” Dan said.

“Sure.” She replied. She took a seat in the booth and Carl sat down right beside her. She felt a bit nervous and a bit intimidated.

“So you guys all work together?” she asked.

“Yup.” Michael said, smiling at Carl. It was obvious that she had no idea what kind of profession they were in. “How do you two know each other?” he asked, playing dumb.

“We met a few days ago.” She said smiling at Carl.

“Cool. Cool.” Michael replied, still sizing her up.

“Amy, it was great meeting you, I’m sure we’ll see you around soon. But we should get going, Michael. Let’s let these two catch up.” Dan said. “See you at the office later, Hags.”

Carl felt his face turning beat red. “Yeah, later.” He said.

“Amy, it was a pleasure meeting you. Hope to see you around.” Michael said shaking her hand once again.

“Oh and thanks for breakfast, loser!” Dan said as they both walked out of the diner.

“Sorry, don’t mind them. They’re uh, they’re idiots.” Carl said, turning to her.

Amy let out a laugh. “They seem very nice.”

“So what are you doing this afternoon?” he asked.

“Nothing, I was just about to go to the grocery store, pick up a few things.”

“Oh.” Carl said. He grabbed his phone and looked at the time.

“Do you have time to hang out or something?”

“Yes. Of course, yes.” She said instantly.

He smiled. “Good.”

“What did you have in mind?” she asked.

He smirked. “Well. I have an idea. I’ll tell you when we get there.”

“What?” she asked.

“You’ll have to wait and see.” Carl picked up the bill on the table and left some cash behind. He got up from the booth and helped her up too.

Amy smiled and followed his lead out the door and down one of the busy streets of the city.