More Than a Kiss

Amy Runs

Amy ran out the front door, thinking about the movie The Graduate. She felt like she was Dustin Hoffman’s character, Benjamin Braddock. Not the Benjamin that slept with an older woman at the beginning of the movie. She felt like the Benjamin that ran after Elaine and pounded on the glass at the church and grabbed the bride and rode off into the sunset by bus at the end of the movie. However, Benjamin had been wearing shoes. He had on pants. All Amy had on was a towel. She only ran as far as the corner when she stopped. She turned and began to limp back home.

A car pulled up alongside her. Great, Amy thought, just frickin’ frackin’ great. This was exactly what she didn’t need. She kept her eyes straight ahead. She didn’t want to give the driver any more ideas.

“Hop in,” the driver said.

Amy looked over at the car. Isabel was behind the wheel of her Jeep, motioning for her to get in.

“What’re you doing?” Amy said.

“Are we going to go get the woman you love or not?”

Amy smiled and hopped in the car. Isabel gestured to a gym bag in the back seat. “My workout clothes are in that bag. They’re clean. Put them on.”

“Thank you,” Amy said. “I’ll name my first born after you.”

“I hope it’s not a boy,” Isabel said, “Or he’ll get beat up a lot at school.”

Amy opened the gym bag and pulled on a pair of baggy gray sweatpants and a T-shirt. Isabel threw the car into D, saying, “Let’s do this thing.” She peeled off down the street.

Amy looked out the back window. "You're not going to believe this," she said, "but Chad is running after us."

"This whole thing about you being with a woman has sent him into hyper-drive," Isabel said.

Isabel took the next corner without slowing down, leaving Chad standing in the middle of the street waving the wedding ring up in the air. It caught the light from the street lamp and flashed. He resembled a deranged Statue of Liberty.

As they drove across town, Amy got cold feet. “What am I going to say to Jordan? I mean we almost had sex and then my not-boyfriend comes over and proposes to me. Think how that must look to her.”

Isabel snapped her fingers like she just had an “eureka” idea. “I know! You’ll tell her the truth.”

“What, that I got drunk and slept with him once and now he’s got this idea in his head that we’re going to get married.”

“Don’t forget the banana peel part,” Isabel added.

“Thanks for reminding me,” Amy said, plucking Isabel’s phone out of her purse.

“What are you doing?” Isabel said.

“I should try and call her first. Maybe she doesn’t want to see me yet.”

“You’re not chickening out are you?”

“No, I’m evaluating. I need to know what I’m up against. I mean how would you feel if this just happened to you?”

Isabel considered it. “Well, I’d be pretty mad because I’d feel like I’d been played.”

“It looks like that doesn’t it?”

Isabel raised her eyebrows. “Kinda,” she admitted.

“So I don’t think going over there while she’s angry is such a good idea.”

“Okay, I think you’re right on this one. You should call her and see what the temperature is.”

Amy poised one finger over the phone’s keypad. “If she asks me to explain, what do I say?”

“Duh. That Chad is a stalking madman and you’re not getting married.”

Amy took a deep breath and called. It went right to voice mail like she knew it would. She hung up.

“Text her instead. She won’t be able to not look at it,” Isabel said. “It’s a scientific fact.”

“Okay. But what do I say?”

“That Chad is a stalking madman and you’re not getting married.”

Amy quickly typed that in.

Only five seconds passed before she got a return text. It read, “Fuck you.”

“I think she’s mad.”

“Ya think? Ask if you can see her,” Isabel said.

“We need to talk. Can I see you?” Amy typed.

The return, “Still fuck you.”

“This isn’t good,” Amy said.

“What now?”

“Take me to her house. Benjamin didn’t get Elaine by giving up.”

“Who’s Benjamin? Who’s Elaine?”

“Can’t you drive any faster?”

Isabel laughed gleefully and put the pedal to the metal.