This is another little episode in the fictional tale I am weaving about Annabelle. It follows these two posts from earlier this week:
Annabelle shivered as a sharp gust of wind disturbed the branches of the wide-girthed tree trunk where Robin had scored his name and the word “loves”, above a heart followed by “Belle” below. She ran her fingertips over the carving and mustered up the memory of their parting words. She remembered the way he had held her tightly but how he had seemed to struggle to keep eye-contact with her. There had been a certain guilt in his eyes. “I guess he knew he was breaking my heart”, thought Annabelle to herself. She turned away from the copse and looked out over the fields beyond. “Where are you Robin?” she whispered into the wind.
Jenna looked through the stack of CDs on the bedside table while Chris in the kitchen was making coffee. “Did you break into a middle aged man’s house and steal his music collection Chris? It’s all Pearl Jam and Def Leppard…and Meatloaf” she pulled a face showing her contempt of Chris’ music taste.
“Sorry Jenna, you won’t find any Britney Spears there.” he smirked. “Would you like some toast?”
“Nope, I don’t do bread. Do you have any fruit or yoghurt?”
Chris left to check his fridge. He was bewildered that he had ended up with Jenna. He stared into the fridge trying to remember what happened after he and Jenna had left the bowling alley together. Chris returned stating, “There is something in the back there that might have been fruit once but it seems to have fossilised. Other than that, I have cold pizza and beer.”
“Men!” laughed Jenna, “Just coffee for me Chris.”
Chris gulped down his coffee after realizing the time. “I have to get ready for work Jen. I am starting a new job over in Glenelg today.”
“I am going to head home and get some decent breakfast Chris. This was fun. Call me if you want to do it again some time.” Jenna started putting her clothes on while Chris looked awkward because he needed to get ready for work and wasn’t sure how to leave things with Jenna.
“Well, maybe we should go out for dinner or something?”
“You don’t owe me anything Chris. Besides I would have thought you knew I am more of a get drunk and get laid type than a fancy dinner kind of a gal. I presume you were not thinking of dinner over at the diner?”
Chris didn’t know whether to laugh or not, “Jenna I feel terrible.”
“About what? We had fun last night Chris. You looked as if you needed fun at the bowling alley last night. In fact you looked kind of pathetic. You could not keep your eyes off Blackwood’s favourite “girl-next-door”. I saw you sitting there sulking because Annabelle Riley wasn’t impressed by you buying her drinks and picking out blue bowling balls for her.”
“Was it that obvious? Hell, the whole of Blackwood are going to know I was rejected by her.”
“Don’t take it personally Chris. She was not rejecting you. But she is madly in love with some guy she met in New York.”
“Who?”
“Oh I don’t know him. But the Blackwood Women’s Zumba Group have provided lots of delicious gossip about him. And I heard that he felt he had to go and find himself or make peace with God or something, before he settled down with Annie – he was having some mid-life crises or something.”
“Sounds like a right jerk.”
“Sounds like your average forty-five year old actually. You should be careful, you are listening to all the right music to set you up for a mid-life crises.”
“She deserves better than that.”
“Don’t go getting ideas that you are going to be a knight in shining armour. If you really like her you need to be very careful not to frighten her off. The only way you can get close to Annabelle is to pretend to be her friend. If she thinks you are just trying to get into her knickers, she will run a mile.”
“Jenna, I am not that kind of guy.”
“Sure Chris, anyway, if you want to know about Annie ask Burt Jennings about Annie. I am sure they know more about the whole story.”
____________
The next part in Annabelle’s story is here:
What On Earth Was He Thinking?
Kim, the creator of Writer Side of Life has given us some great writing prompts. Several of them appealed to me, but I have only chosen one to work on for now, because I am still playing catch up with blogging, after my trip to Australia:
I chose a prompt under the ROMANCE section: 3. Who is she waiting for?
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