Age gap
There he is again, gassing up his car near my workplace. We must be located close to his home. My co-workers are talking about how hot he is again. This time one of them takes the pump intercom and asks the guy if he’s seeing anyone. He looks over at our direction and they squeal and wave. He smiles, I pretend to keep doing my work for the day, and watch him from the corner of my eye.
“uh, no. I don’t. perfectly single” his voice echoes inside the shop and my co-workers squeal again and laugh. I roll my eyes at this sound, but I must admit that I understand it. being this guy’s girlfriend must be nice. Soon he finishes gassing up his car and goes inside to pay. He glances at us all, as if wondering who of us asked the question. All three of us are busy with our work and he seems almost uncomfortable to interrupt one of us. I put my price gun down and approach him.
“would you like to pay for the gas? Or is there something else you’d like to buy?” I ask him. he smiles in relief and approaches the counter.
“just the gas. Thanks” he says. I stop in front of him and take his money, extracting his change from the register, only a few pennies. Our hands touch when I give him the change and he smiles at me before dumping the pennies into the tip jar. He takes a pen and puts it on the receipt I give him for the gas. He looks at me.
“I promise I’ll call” he says quietly. he wants my number then. I smile, should I give it to him? from the corner of my eye I can see my co workers staring, nodding. Yes, their eyes say, give him your number. I take the pen and write my number at the edge of the receipt. He smiles at me as he takes it and folds it into his coat pocket. He thanks us all before leaving the store. My co workers jump on the counter with squeals of happiness. They’re happy for me. after all, I haven’t gone on a date since Mary, and he turned out to be the worst boyfriend ever. He was dating a few other girls as well as me and cheated on us all with a fifth girl. I don’t know what happened to the other girls, but I dumped him the second I found out about all of them. I go back to the drink section, where I was repricing them for the upcoming sale. We always have a sale at our gas station store. There’s always repricing to do, so we always work in trios.
After my shift ends I go back home, only a few blocks from the store. It’s so cold, even for December. Christmas came and went, and we went from the Christmas sales to our new year’s ones. I breathe on my hands to warm them up before opening the building door.
“hey Martin” I say to the front desk guy. He smiles and nods at me as I make my way to the elevator. When the elevator opens it’s completely full, people came home in their cars, the parking lot is below the lobby and official entrance to the building. It’s too crowded for me to enter, but one person is making his way out of it.
“I’ll wait to the next one” he says to the girl holding on to his arm. The doors close on her surprised and abandoned expression.
“are you visiting someone? Or just stalking me?” the guy asks with a smile. It’s the same guy who asked for my number earlier.
“oh, hi” I say. Sometimes it’s better to not say anything. Don’t tell him how bad it is of him to assume I don’t make enough money to live here, or that I was desperate enough to stalk him here.
“she lives here” Martin calls from the front desk. I turn and smile to him.
“thanks Martin” I call and turn back to the guy. He looks embarrassed.
“oh, I’m sorry, I just assumed because of your job” he stammers.
“it’s ok. I’ve been working there since high school and they’ve been good to me, so I kept working there, but I have a better paying job now so I only take a shift or two a week” I explain.
“well, if we live on the same building maybe you don’t need my number after all” I add with a smile. I wonder who that girl is, she seems too young to be his girlfriend, which he said he doesn’t have. Maybe a younger sister?
“or. How about you come have dinner with us? I’m sure Kelly will be pissed that I left her alone in the elevator, and she always likes to meet new people. It’s on me” he suggests.
“oh, but I don’t even know your name” I say dramatically. We laugh about it.
“it’s Liam” he says after the laughter dies down.
“Amy” I say and reach for a handshake.
Liam leads me to his door, same floor as me, but I don’t say it. the girl, Kelly, jumps up from the couch when he opens the door. she looks like she’s about to yell at him, but when she sees me her angry expression softens and she walks over to us.
“you must be Kelly. I’m Amy” I say and reach for a handshake. Kelly just stares at me, then turns her head to look at Liam in the kitchen.
“who is that?” she asks. I can almost detect a hint of jealousy in her voice. Almost.
“Amy is our neighbor. Kelly is my niece. I’m keeping an eye on her while her parents are away” Liam explains. Kelly looks back at me.
“why are you here then? Go home if it’s so close” she says. yep, definitely jealous.
“not a way to talk to your elders, Kelly” Liam says hintingly.
“it’s ok. I understand you, actually. I was obsessed with my aunt growing up. no one was good enough for her in my eyes” I say. Kelly gasps.
“I always wanted to meet one” she says with a smile.
“meet one what?” Liam asks from the kitchen. Kelly grumbles something before drugging me to the couch after her.
“how did you find out? How did you come out? Was it hard?” she asks, practically bombarding the questions on me.
“I’m not gay” I say. Disappointment destroys the smile on Kelly’s face.
“what? But you said you were obsessed with your aunt growing up” she eventually says.
“yeah. She was like a big sister to me; I was very overprotective of her. I wasn’t attracted to her though” I explain.
“are you attracted to your uncle?” I ask, whispering. She blushes, and it takes her a while to nod.
“he’s only an uncle by marriage. my stepfather’s brother. I fixed my mom with him because I thought that way I could be with Liam, but he keeps laughing it off saying I’m too young for him” she says.
“how old are you?” I ask.
“15 next month” she says.
“and Liam?” I ask again.
“32” she answers. I laugh.
“I might be too young for him too, so don’t worry about it” I say.
“how old are you?” she asks.
“a decade older than you” I answer.
“24?”
“25. Just last week, actually”
“happy birthday” Liam approaches us through out this little exchange and is the one to wish me a happy birthday. We both turn our heads to him in surprise, and see him smile, holding two plates filled with fast food.
“I hope takeout is ok, it’s the only thing I know how to make” he says as he gives us the plates, one each.
“it’s great, I was going to reheat some leftovers that are probably ruined from being in the fridge too long” I say. He hurries to the kitchen and takes his own plate before sitting on the couch with us.
“you’re not too young for me, by the way” he whispers when he passes me.
After Kelly goes to sleep Liam and I sit on the couch and talk. We tell each other our stories and get to know each other. I tell him about my real job, a personal assistant to a big-time car manufacturer CEO. He tells me about his job, school principal. We talk about our personal lives and our families.
“hey, so where are Kelly’s parents?” I ask.
“her father was never in the picture and her mother always hopped from one boyfriend to another. She eventually met and married my brother, he’s a big-time doctor and they always travel to third world countries to help them medically. They’re currently in Africa somewhere, he’s doing surgeries on cleft lipped kids and she’s making sure he has the equipment he needs for them. They didn’t want Kelly to go with them so they left her under my care. They should be back in a few months” he tells.
“that’s great of them to do that, but Kelly must be so lonely” I say and look at the closed door to her room.
“if she is, she never showed it to me. she has friends and she seems like a happy girl” he explains. My eyes catch the time when I turn my gaze back to Liam. I gasp.
“it’s so late. I should go and let you go to sleep” I get up, Liam right after me, and hurry for the door.
“will I see you again?” he asks. With my hand on the door handle I turn to smile at him.
“I’d like that” I say.
“maybe an actual date next time”
The next time Liam and I are together we go on an actual date to a restaurant near the building. Kelly is having a sleepover at friends and we have the night to ourselves. During this date I feel just how much older Liam is than me. he orders so well and even requests a rare wine to be brought to our table. He pays without saying a word and walks me out like a perfect gentleman. When we stop in front of my door I wish him a good night and he kisses my hand before I open the door. I spend most of the night thinking about it. he is far too old for me, I end up deciding. I need to end it. but when I get up the next morning a surprise awaits me. Kelly is knocking on my door frantically.
“Liam’s sick. He can’t get out of bed, help me, please” she calls when I open the door, still yawning. I lock the door quickly and hurry after her to their apartment, Liam is lying on the floor, panting as if he just finished a marathon.
“Liam, what happened?” I kneel down next to him and check his temperature, he’s boiling. Behind me Kelly panics about how he was too heavy for her to lift unto the couch.
“Kelly, call 911” I say, whipping my head towards her and back to focus on helping Liam.
“you didn’t have to come, you know” he barely says.
“you’re still needed, I can’t just let you die from a silly fever” I say as softly as I can. Behind me Kelly calls 911 and describes everything she told me. she gives them the address and thanks them for helping us. When the paramedics come, they get Liam unto a gurney and as they carry him out into the elevator he takes my hand.
“I have broken heart syndrome, I thought I was better by now” he says as loud as he probably can before his hand slips from mine and the paramedics carry him out of his house. I rush back home to change clothes, as I’m still in my pajamas, and rush to get Kelly. We drive to the hospital he’s taken to and meet up with him at the E.R. the doctors confirm his broken heart syndrome confession and say that it’s treatable and not life threatening, but only if he listens to them. I promise them that I will make him do whatever it is they tell him to, even if I have to force him into it.
“I’m sorry for scaring you two, it was quite a surprise for me too” he says after the doctors are all gone.
“don’t ever do that again” Kelly says.
“I promise” he says with a weak smile. Kelly hugs him and leaves the room.
“so, broken heart syndrome. Who broke yours?” I ask.
“today’s my sister’s death anniversary. We were really close and her death three years ago caused this to happen. She was your age, actually. Died on her way from a trip in to see penguins. She loved penguins so much she travelled to a freezing wasteland to see them. That’s how she described their natural habitat. She went with a lot of other people, it was a research trip. One day the power just went out and many of them froze to death. My sister held out the longest and died on the way home, she was the one who told the world about what happened, and when she died we were on our way to see her. we saw her only a few minutes after she died, though, and that’s when my heart just broke” Liam tells.
“I’m so sorry, Liam” I say, my hands drawn to his. He gently squeezes them and smiles at me.
“you know, I never thought I’d love anyone after she died. I thought my heart would never recover from this heartbreak. When my brother told me that he’s getting married I couldn’t understand it. how he could just get over her death and find someone new. How he could be celebrating when her death was still so freshI told him that he was replacing our sister, it was only a few weeks after she died when he told me. I refused to attend the wedding, but she would have wanted me to attend, so I went. Everything I did in the past three years was because I knew she’d want me to do them. Taking in Kelly was supposed to be the same, and it started out that way, but just her presence in my life made me feel whole again for the first time, she’s like another sister really. And she brought me you” he says.
“were you gassing up your car because of Kelly?” I ask. he laughs, then coughs once.
“both her and my sister. Kelly wanted to go to the zoo for something she had scheduled with friends. I didn’t want to go, but my sister would want me to, so I went. We ran out of gas on the way back and I walked quite a long way to get emergency gas from the nearest gas station. I dropped her home and went to fill up my car, someone in the store asked if I was seeing someone and I saw your face from a far and knew my sister was telling me to ask you out” he tells.
“so you did” I fill in the blanks.
“yeah, I must have known you’re my neighbor deep down, but it must have been too deep that I didn’t even know it until you showed up outside the elevator a few hours later” he adds. He kisses my hands.
A year later I move in together with Liam. Kelly’s parents came back and she moved back in with them, they’re both so nice. Kelly spends as much time as she can with us, and really grew to love me, so much so that she calls me big sis. She got over her crush on Liam, just in time for him to propose. She’s the one who brought me the ring, and I happily said yes. The wedding is still undetermined, with both of us being so busy with our work, but we’re thinking about a small ceremony in the cemetery near where Liam’s sister is buried, since she basically brought us together. The age gap doesn’t bother me as much now, not since I found out how much of a baby Liam can be about his broken heart getting better. I still love him, I don’t think I’ll ever stop, no matter how much of a baby he might be.
