Invisible Love

Ugh. After weeks of my brother Adam nagging, or ‘advising’ as he put it, I finally made an appointment to go see the doctor. Not like they would do much for me anyways. I probably just pulled another muscle in my back and it would go away. Accept it wasn’t going away. Shit.

I pulled up to the clinic and my truck door groaned in protest as I got out. I winced as my foot hit the pavement. Okay, maybe it was something.

The door chimed as I pulled it open. The receptionist didn’t even look up as she asked for my name. She looked more miserable than me. She pushed a clipboard to me and told me to sit down.

The waiting room was a site for sore eyes, with rows of cracked plastic chairs placed around the square room. I found a seat near the farthest wall and stifled a moan as I sat down.

I started the mundane task of filling out my info. Someone came in and sat across from me, their bag clanging against the metal chair leg. I glanced up to be greeted by a pale, soft face poking out from a main of wild blonde waves. She was somehow keeping her balance while sitting cross-legged on the chair with her one pink sneaker on top of her knee. She must do yoga or something.

She wasn’t looking at me but at her phone as her fingers typed maniacally like she was writing something urgent.

I turned back to my clipboard, letting them know I wasn’t diabetic, or pregnant. The woman across from me let out an exasperated huff. I glanced up to see her staring back at me with a pair of striking emerald eyes. I looked back down and up, making sure I was the cause of her displeasure.

“Everything alright?” I asked.

“Hmm?” She finally looked up at me with a confused expression.

“You huffed.”

“Did I? Oh, that was supposed to just be in my head.”

I chuckled, “What did I do to make you huff?”

“What?”

“You looked at me and huffed.”

“Oh! I must have been staring at space again. The huff was not because of you.”

“Ah.” I paused, looking down at her phone now plopped on her lap. Was that zebras on her case? “May I ask what caused the huff?”

“No.” She gave me a stern look before starting to giggle. What a delightful sound.

“I’m just kidding,” she laughed, “I’m just not happy to be at the doctor’s office.”

“I understand that I’m looking to get out as quickly as I can.”

She snorted, “Good luck with that, I’ll be lucky if my appointment is ONLY half an hour late today.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Well I’m a walk-in, how long do you think I’ll have to wait?” I asked her.

“At least two hours.”

“Seriously?”

She was dead serious.

I shook my head and turned back to my clipboard and started to fill out ‘reason for the visit.’ and heard her start typing on her phone again.

“You know the doctors don’t even look at the form the majority of the time”.

I looked up again, “Oh, why’s that?”

“Usually they’re too busy, running from room to room so they just ask you anyway. Sometimes I like to give ludicrous reasons to see if they notice.”

I chuckled. “Like what?”

She stopped tapping on her phone and looked up at me, “Well this time, I’m putting down that my ears and nose won’t stop growing.

I stared at her with a bemused expression.

“What? It’s a real problem.”

I laughed, “Do you do this often?”

“Meh, only when I don’t want to be here. So yes, all of the time.”

“Are you here often?” I asked.

“Often enough.”

There was only silence for a few moments as she went on her phone again before looking back up and asking, “So what are you in here for anyways?”

“Isn’t that personal?” I asked in more of a teasing way than anything.

“Ah, so it’s bad. I’m guessing something,” she cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered, “Down there?” She tilted her head at me towards my jeans.

Who asks something like that?

I chuckled, half in embarrassment, “No, not something down there, it’s my back, if you must know.”

She curled her lips together in a grimace “Back pain is the worst.”

“I wasn’t going to come in, but my brother wouldn’t stop nagging me so I finally relented.”

“Wise brother, you should listen to him more often.” She said.

“And what are you in here for?” I asked.

“Something down there.” She was dead serious.

Oh.

She started giggling again. I laughed with her, half in relief, half in shock that someone would outright say that with such a straight face.

“I’m just kidding, I need some refills. They make me come all the way down here for a 30-second conversation.”

“That sounds annoying, how long of a drive is it?”

“About 30 minutes each way, so I spend well over an hour here when all is said and done.”

“Yikes, that must really cut into your day. There isn’t anywhere closer?”

“You have no idea. With the ongoing doctor shortage, I take what I can get.”

“No kidding.”

She gave me a half smile and went back to her phone. I racked my brain for something to say to keep this conversation going. It was a nice distraction from the grungy waiting room and occasional cough or sniffles. Before I could open my mouth, someone in scrubs came out, looked down at their clipboard, and called “Samantha Lloyd.”

“Well that’s me, record timing,” she said, grabbing her bag and rising to leave.

“Good luck and nice to meet you” I called to her as she walked away.

She turned around, mouthed “thank you” behind her, and then disappeared to the back of the building.

Samantha, that was a lovely name. Lovely name for a lovely girl. I went back to my form, almost considering writing ’here because of an annoying little brother” but thought better of it. I gave the clipboard back to the receptionist who still didn’t look up and went back to my seat.

What was I going to do for two hours? I pulled out my phone and decided to text Adam, “You’ll be happy to know I am at the doctor’s office.”

After a few minutes, Adam responded with “About time.” I let out my own huff.

“I met the strangest girl here, I don’t know what to make out of her.”

“Strangely hot?”

“Sure, in a disheveled kind of way,” I shot back.

“Disheveled is still in the okay zone. Have you asked her out yet?.”

I just met the woman, and Adam was already trying to virtually wingman me. I made my own grimaced expression. Then again, the chances of seeing her again here or anywhere else seemed slim.

I hadn’t really dated anyway for a while now, at least nothing serious. I wasn’t necessarily looking to now, but there was something about her that intrigued me. Maybe it was her wild hair or blunt way of speaking, or maybe it was her laugh. She had a nice laugh.

I shook my head, this was ridiculous. Who hits on someone at a doctor’s office of all places? I scrolled through my emails, opening the random one and quickly skimming without really reading it.

Fortunately, it wasn’t two hours before I was called into the back where an old doctor with the biggest stomach I’d ever seen came to see me. After a brief examination, he ripped off a page from his prescription book and sent me on my way.

I was trying to make out the scribbles that were his writing as I left through the glass door. My truck was parked right out front and when I looked up to unlock it, there she was a few parking stalls away from me, shaking her door.

I walked over and heard her muttering all varieties of profanities as she tried jimmying her door open.

“Need a hand?” I asked.

She paused for a second to see who it was and then went right back to shaking her door.

“No. It’s just stubborn sometimes” she grumbled. She kicked the door with her dirty sneaker and it miraculously clicked open.

“See?” she sighed, moving strands of hair away from her face that had fallen with her erratic movements.

Her car was an old sedan, which had definitely seen better days. The corners of the body were rusting and the tires were almost bald.

“You know, you might consider retiring your car soon. I think it’s lived its life, plus some.”

She crossed her arms, staring daggers at me. “It runs just fine, thanks.”

Her tone was clipped. I threw up my hands in defeat, “Sorry, not my place.” I quickly changed the subject, “I thought you’d be gone before me.”

She shrugged, arms still crossed, “Yeah me to, but it took longer than I thought.”

“Are you headed back to work?” I asked, trying to prolong our conversation again.

She raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

I tried again, “I enjoyed our conversation earlier, it really made the wait time go by faster.”

“No problem” she mumbled, shuffling her feet. She was clearly trying to end this conversation. Anyone could see that. She turned to get into her car and I was suddenly hearing myself speak.

“Hey wait!” I shouted after her.

She stopped and turned around, looking at me in confusion and annoyance, maybe it was just annoyance.

“Um, I know this isn’t the best place to meet.” I looked around to see the dirty, faded doctor’s office and the busy street across from it. The parking lot was strewn with litter. What was I doing?

“I enjoyed talking to you. You seem very interesting which is not something I find often.”

“Thanks?” she asked, clearly unimpressed.

I rubbed the back of my head, “What I’m trying to say is I would like to continue talking to you, maybe over coffee or dinner sometime?” There it was. I was asking a girl out between a dumpster and a dirty bus stop.

She opened her mouth and closed it again. She looked at me and away again. “Look, you seem nice and all, but I don’t date.”

She didn’t date. Okay, maybe she was seeing someone already. That was fine. “It doesn’t have to be a date” I heard myself say, “We could just hang out as friends.”

She arched an eyebrow, “Do you really want to hang out just as friends?” She put a lot of emphasis on the word ‘just’.

I shrugged my shoulders, “Sure, I mean I was hoping to talk more and get to know you better, and being friends is as good as any way to do that.”

She examined me, still with one eyebrow raised. It looked like she was debating it in her head. I counted the seconds with each beat of my pounding heart. She finally seemed to come to a decision and said, “Look, I ’m sure you are a nice person, but I don’t feel comfortable giving my number out to a stranger.”

“Right.” She had a point, I was basically a stranger. Who knows who I could actually be? “How about this?” I was in full brainstorming mode, “What if I gave you my number, and if you feel inclined to contact me, I will definitely respond.”

She still looked skeptical.

I continued, “And if you do talk to me and at any point don’t want to continue, you can block me and I won’t bother you ever again.”

She uncrossed her arms for the first time. “You seem quite determined.”

My lips curled up, was she giving in?

She pondered the idea for a moment,,“You don’t have any guy friends you can talk to?”

I chuckled, “I do, but they aren’t nearly as interesting as you. Trust me.”

“I’m not a good friend. I suck at communicating and getting back to you. You might not hear from me for months at a time.”

“Fine by me. I’m no communications major myself”

She stared at me, trying to make me out.

“One wrong move and I WILL block you.” Her tone was stern.

“Agreed.”

She continued to stare, “No flirting, no nothing, and that’s if I even use your number.”

“Yes ma’am”

She waved her finger at me and I did my best to hold back my laugh.

“Does that mean we have a deal?” I asked.

She nodded slowly and pulled out her phone, “Digits”

I gave her my digits and waited while she saved them. “I’m John by the way.” I realized I didn’t even know her name.

“Samantha.”

“Lovely to meet you, Samantha.”

“You to John.” I liked the way she said my name.

“I will wait to hear from you.”

“Or not” she reminded me.

“Or not.” I grinned.

She gave me a half wave and sank into her car, the door creaking as it closed. Her engine started with a groan and I watched as she pulled out of the parking lot. That poor car was barely hanging in there.

I got into my own truck with a wince, yet my face was still smiling. I had no idea if she was actually going to use my number, but I was sure hoping she would.