Page 6 of New Girl in the City
Thank you. This is the kind of support I want in my life.
Always.
The elevator pinged announcing we had hit the ground floor and I stepped off, doing my best to think about anything other than whatever was going on between consenting adults on my now emptied out office floor. Walter’s familiar smiling face helped me in my effort to not brood and I waved at him when I saw him leaning casually against the door to the town car. It was a nice night and he had been taking it in with his face upturned to the sky.
“Hey, Walt!”
“Evening, Mel. Have a long day?”
I shrugged. “As long as any. How about you?”
“Usual assholes but now it’s better. Come on in and we can get some curry on the way back, yeah?” He opened the door and my heart soared. This guy was my best friend. I didn’t care if he was paid to be nice to me.
“You’re the best friend a girl ever had, Walt.” I told him, touching his elbow on my way past as I slid into the back seat.
He laughed and shot me a wink. “Whatever, you’re buying. Don’t get soft on me, Mel.”
I stuck my tongue out but he didn’t see as he was closing the door on me. I leaned back in my seat and pulled my phone from my coat pocket when it buzzed. I froze when I looked down at the text message link staring up at me from Claudia’s message. My finger hovered over the link and I bit my lip.
Was I ready for elite fuck boys...er, fuck men?
“Hey, earth to Mel. What’s going on back there?”
I nearly dropped my phone like it was a hot stone but managed to keep a grip on it. “What?” I blinked up at Walter and he rolled his eyes in dramatic fashion.
“I asked you about two times if you wanted to get garlic roti and you said zip. We are talking about garlic roti, Mel. This is serious.”
“I spaced on garlic roti?” I gasped and thrust my phone into my pocket without a second thought. I didn’t care who was on the app, men, boys, champion fuck people, whatever. It was not worth missing out on roti. No. Never. “Look, that’s not okay. Get two orders, no three, we can split one on the curb before we head out.”
Walter hummed in approval and pulled away from the curb and into traffic. “That’s more like it.”
The rest of the ride to the curry place was filled with laughs and smiles and very intense discussion over what we would order from the restaurant. Our dinner shared over the hood of the car was as good as any five-star restaurant I had ever set my ass in. Then Walter dropped a bomb right on my head.
“Won’t be picking you up tomorrow, Mel. Today is my last day.”
I paused, a piece of roti halfway to my lips and raised an eyebrow. “What the fuck, Walt?”
He barked out a laugh. “I know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded to know.
“I couldn’t,” he frowned and looked down at the saag paneer in front of him, before raising his eyes to mine, “I couldn’t make the last day sad. You’ve been a good friend, not just a client, Mel. Seemed better this way.”
My throat tightened and I swallowed hard past the lump in my throat. “Are you going upstate?” I managed to get out.
He nodded. “Yeah, kids finally got their old man right where they wanted him. Couldn’t say no when they put the newest grand kiddo in my arms. I said yes, about a month back.”
My eyes closed briefly and when I opened them, I knew they were shiny with unshed tears. “This sucks, but I’m happy for you Walt. Real happy.” I shoved the roti in my mouth and reached out an arm, snagging him around the neck and yanking him across the hood of the car and into me. “I’m gonna miss you.”
He hugged me back. That sort of grandfatherly hug that you knew was only from a real and true grandfather, the kind that enveloped you and ended with a hearty clap on the back. I loved it. When we pulled back from the other it was definitely with teary faces and maybe a smashed roti piece between the pair of us, but that was okay because that was what friends did.
“I’m gonna miss you too, kiddo.”
“Will you come visit?”
“Yeah, you think they can keep me out there like some old shit forever? I’ll be back, but not until the fall. The summer is coming and it’s too damn hot.” He made a face and I laughed, nodding. I was going to be hitting my first summer season in New York and from what I heard it was going to be a doozy.
“Fine, you wimp.”
