Page 45 of I Love My Mistake
People are looking at us.
“I’m sorry. It’s just uh…” I point to my head and make a ‘crazy’ circle, grabbing my napkin to dab at my eyes. “I just remembered something funny. I’m so sorry. I have to go to the bathroom.” I jump up, grab my bag and take off as he stares at me
In bathroom mirror, I giggle to myself and wipe mascara streaks away. I don’t want to go back out there. I feel like I’m an asshole, and so is he. Pulling out my phone to text Jess and Amber about the debacle this date has turned out to be, I see that it’s been blowing up for the past twenty minutes with texts and calls from Josh! Oh no… something happened to Amber. I call him back immediately without reading them. My heart races. I’ve gotten these kinds of calls before. Please let her be alright!
As soon as he says, hello, I burst out with, “Josh?! What’s going on?! Is Amber okay?”
He sounds lost and confused. “She left me. She threw an apple at me and then she left.”
“Wait. So, she’s not in the hospital? Jeez, you scared me.”
“She’s in the hospital?”
“What? No! I thought from all the… never mind.”
“Didn’t you read my texts? Listen to my messages?”
“No Josh. Sorry. I just saw how many there were and I freaked. Okay. Start over. She did what?”
“She threw an apple at me, started screaming out of nowhere, then she ran out the door and left! Her phone is off and I don’t know how to find her. Nicole, please come. Please come help me. I can’t live without her.”
My mind is processing quickly everything he says. Amber was in trouble.
“Josh, let me call you back.” I hang up. I need more information, but he’s right. Her phone is off and my call goes straight to voicemail.
“Amber, it’s me. Josh just called. You okay? Do you need me to come get you somewhere? Do you want to stay at my place? You’ll have to sleep in bed with me, since I don’t have a couch anymore…but that’s okay. Call me.”
I dial Jess next. It rings and rings, and goes to voicemail. “Jess, Amber’s in trouble. She left Josh. Where are you? Oh, you’re probably out with Chris. Okay, call as soon as you get this.”
I call back Josh and say, before he has a chance to say hello, “I’m coming over.”
“Oh thank God!”
“Stay right there.” I hang up and swing open the door to the bathroom, speeding out like I’m a hit woman who’s pulling out her gun, running for the target who’s right outside. As I see my date, I stop fast at the table and say, “I have to run. There’s been an emergency.”
“Wait! What? Do you know how expensive this bottle of wine is, and this food? You’re just going to leave after that fucked-up laughing fit?”
I pick up to bottle of wine, look around and walk it over to a table with a happy young couple who’s definitely on a better date than we are. “See that guy?” I ask them, pointing to Not-So-Sexy Bartender. They nod. “He wanted you to have this.”
“Thank you!” they call out to him. He forces a smile, but he is pissed.
I speed back to him. “There. You just did a good deed. That should feel good. I’m about to do the same, so… bye.”
As soon as I’m outside, a cab drives by. “TAXI!!!”
It screeches to a stop and reverses. Peering up at me from the driver’s seat is the same cabbie who helped with my paint supplies. “Hello again!” he calls through the open window.
I jump in. “Well, hello to you, too! You’ve come to my rescue!”
He grins. “I have a feeling you’re not the type of girl to need rescuing.”
“You’d be surprised.” We drive off so fast my head swings back.
“What am I rescuing you from?” he asks, looking at me from the rearview.
I grin and answer, “The wrong guy!”