He couldn't enjoy the walk until a few minutes in when he finally gave up checking his phone. He had wondered if maybe Jasmine had woken up and texted him, but there was nothing but silence on her end. Surely she couldn't still be a sleep? She had been on the couch. People woke up always when on a couch. Maybe she had woken up and simply limped straight to bed without looking at her phone. He would've made sure to message the other person.
But she wasn't him. He couldn't expect her to do the same as he.
He had gotten the urge to call somebody... anybody on his contact list, but then he realized two things. It was past 1 AM and he saw that the urge was just his desire to be talking to her again. Maybe he should not have left. Although things would've been awkward had he remained there the entire night. He would've eventually have had to left. Either that or sleep with her. But then who knew what would happen. Maybe come the morning she wouldn't want to speak to him at all. Ever.
Leaving was probably the best thing to do. Todd's excited prance made him more sure of this. For the sake of not fucking a good thing up, it was surely the right decision to leave.
It was nice to be taking Todd on a walk. It was so late that nobody was around. It reminded him of his late night walks he'd take during
college
. Back when staying up late never made him feel guilty. It was just part of the experience back then. Nowadays it was a bad habit. A sign of lacking
discipline
.
Damn those were the days. He watched Todd prance around on a loose leash near a lamppost that was in the olde style. The aesthetic reminded him of the neighborhood he had lived his senior year. He felt his face stretch a little. A smile was growing.
Then his phone vibrated. His smile turned into a serious look, but his insides felt a spiked elation.
By the time he could see the screen he knew it wasn't Jasmine. A sudden ping of disappointment before he saw that it was his ex Cassie. Usually he would feel annoyed by getting a call from her, but this time he felt eager to answer.
"Oh good you're up."
"Yeah. Hi, what's up?"
"Oh it's just really shitty over here. This trip has not been good, PT."
"Oh." PT paused for a moment. "Sorry to hear that. What's going on?"
"It doesn't matter. I just wanted to call to let you know I'm coming back a little early."
"Alright no problem."
"Well I could've texted you that. And I will so that you don't have to write it down. I guess I called just to let you know that I appreciate you. Even with the things we've been through."
"You mean because of the things we've been through."
Laughter came from the other side. They exchanged a few more words of comfort before PT said he had to go. He was taking Todd on a walk. She got excited about that and that excitement lasted a few more exchanges of comforting lines until she let him off the line.
"Nice night for a walk and a chat, huh?"
PT gripped his phone so tight that he thought it would bend. He looked over to his left and focused his eyes into a figure that was half in the dark and half in the lamp's light. He bent down to pet Todd and he could see that it was a man wearing a
baseball cap
.
He couldn't recognize the person, but he swore that he knew him.
When the mysterious man stood back up his cap cast a shadow on the top of his face and PT could only see his body and the bottom half of his face... where his mouth were.
"I know you," he said.
PT chose his next words carefully. "Do. I. Know. You?"
"Well of course you do," the mouth smiled, "I mean you might not know you know me but guess. Guess where you know me from."
"I don't know." PT hoped the other man would simply give him the answer right here. But the pause sustained. PT gave in. "Do you happen to be. Trevor?"
"No. That's not my name. I don't know why you thought that. But look, I'll give you a clue. You know me but you don't know my name."
"Okay..."
"And until just a moment ago, I knew you, but didn't know you're face."
