chapter 34
It was now five o’clock and Dana Drew hadn’t called.
So Larry called her at the station.
“WORR.”
“Dana Drew please,” he said breathlessly.
“Hold one minute.”
“Hey, this is Dana Drew and I’m away from my desk. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.” Beep.
Her machine.
Damn it.
Larry hung up. She was on the air in an hour. He could call her then. Then she had to answer. She always answered when she was on the air.
The clock could not move any slower.
Larry watched each minute inch by letting his anger simmer. Dana got his card but didn’t call.
He wrote her a poem. Sent her a picture of them.
Together.
Couldn’t she see how much he loved her?
So much.
That hair.
Those lips.
Those eyes.
Larry took out his copy of the picture he sent her. Dana was smiling. Smiling out of the picture at him. “I love you too, Larry,” he imagined her lips saying.
Larry knew he and Dana were going to get married. Then his friends would be impressed with him. After all, he’d be married to a star. Dana Drew. No, he corrected himself, Dana Carter. Oh, his friend’s would all be jealous, all of them, especially the guys that called him Crazy Larry in high school. The ones that beat him up after class and keyed his car. Yes, they’d all be so envious that he got such a hot wife who was so famous. He’d go back to his twenty-year high school reunion and they’d all stare at him as he made his big entrance. He’d be the big man then.
He imagined Dana in a low cut black dress and himself in a fine Italian suit. He always heard the Italians made the best suits.
They’d walk into the reunion and everyone’s head would turn. Kenny Miller who called him “loser” for four years would wet his pants with envy. Farrah, Linda and Carrie who all turned him down for dates and then laughed at him when he showed up alone to senior prom would see what they missed out on. His stupid brother Paul, “the doctor” who his mother and father thought walked on water, would finally respect him. They’d all be sorry they ever called him a failure.
Oh, yes, Larry and Dana would soon be one. Surely the card was enough for her to see that he was her soul mate.
The clock ticked six o’clock. It was time to call.
The phone rang endlessly. Finally she answered.
“Hi, it’s Dana, what’s up.”
“Dana, it’s Larry.”
Oh God, she thought, Larry again. “Hi Larry. I got your card today.”
Yes! She got it. She remembered. She was so sweet. “Did you like it?”
“It was very nice.”
Nice? That wasn’t the response he wanted. “You mean nice of me, but the card meant more to you, didn’t it Dana?”
She wasn’t quite sure what he was getting at. “What do you mean Larry?”
“I mean you understood, right? You feel the same way?”
“What way Larry?”
He got shy. “You know...what I wrote in the poem...that we’re meant to be together.”
“Larry, we barely know each other,” she said with no emotion, trying to hide the fear she felt in the pit of her stomach.
His voice grew tense. “That’s not true Dana, we’ve talked on the phone lots and lots. We’re close friends.”
Dana realized this guy was one sandwich short of a picnic. She wanted to get off the phone...now. “Look, Larry, of course I’m your friend, and I appreciate the thought, but I have to go.”
“Why are you blowing me off Dana? That’s not fair of you!” This wasn’t how Larry envisioned the phone call. Not at all.
“Larry I’m not blowing you off. I can only spend so much time on the...”
He cut her off. “But I’m different Dana.” His voice was filled with anger.
“Larry, I really do have to go. I’m at work now and I’m going on the air soon.”
“Dana I don’t think you’re being fair.”
“I’m sorry, but I have to go, bye.” She hung up.
Larry heard the click, then the dial tone. How could she have dismissed him like that? And hung up on him? He wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Yes, he rationalized, she was at work, but he gave her his heart in that card. There was no excuse for her reaction. How could she blow him off? She was no better than any of the others. No better than Farrah, Linda, Carrie or The Bitch.
She is at work, he reminded himself.
Well, then, he thought, I’ll just have to contact her at home.