“Oh, I do a little of this and that.” Tory took her forefinger and ran it down Travis's arm. “So, how can I contact you so we can find something fun to do together?”
Travis's eyebrows rose in question. He wondered if the woman was hitting on him. She winked her eye at him and he knew she was indeed hitting on him. He must still have had it, after all. He could still turn a woman's eye, protruding stomach and all.
He sucked his stomach in. “Maybe you could give me a call,” he stated, testing to make sure he hadn't misunderstood the woman's intentions.
She pulled her phone out. “Sounds good. What's your number?”
Travis gave her his number. She punched it in and his phone vibrated in his pocket.
“Good, now you have my number,” Tory said.
“Indeed I do.”
“So you can call me sometime.”
“Yes, I can.”
“Thanks again for all your help. I look forward to talking with you again, soon.” She winked at him again.
“That sounds like a good plan to me.”
“Don't keep me waiting,” Tory said.
Travis swallowed hard. He couldn't believe he was getting picked up by this young girl. “Can I ask you a question?” Travis said.
“Yes, what do you want to know, T.J.?” She said his name with a syrupy sweetness.
“How old are you?”
“Now you should know it isn't polite to ask a woman's age.”
“I know, but I want to make sure you aren't jail bait.” Travis chuckled a little. He felt relieved when Tory did the same.
“Oh, please, I am nobody's jail bait, but thanks for thinking so. I'll have you know I am twenty-nine years old.”
“You're lying.” Travis's eyebrows rose in disbelief. She didn't really look a day over twenty-eight to him.
“No, sir, I am not. How old are you?”
“Thirty-six.”
She playfully hit his arm. “Shut up. No, you are not.”
Travis smiled, thinking that the woman really knew how to boost a man's ego. “Yes, I am.”
“Well, I like older men, so don't you worry about any age thing.”
“If you aren't worried then I am certainly not worried,” Travis said.
“Well, I gotta go. Call me.” She used her remote to lock the doors on her car and walked around to the passenger side of her friend's car.
“You'll hear from me soon, I promise.”
She smiled and got into the friend's car. As the friend drove off, Tory waved with her fingers.
After they were gone Travis reflected on the last fifteen minutes. His plan to become a player seemed to have started on its own without any extra forethought of his own. In his head he could hear J. Anthony Brown from the Tom Joyner radio morning show saying, “Playa, playa, play on!”
Chapter 5
“Yes, sir. I can be there at eight in the morning on Wednesday. Thank you,” Travis said, pressed the button to end the call, and sat back down on the recliner in the bonus room.
After almost a week of diligently searching for a job, making a point to put in at least two applications per day, he finally received a phone call and the manager wanted him to start that Wednesday. He was going to be working at a local fast-food restaurant working as a cashier. With all the jobs he'd had in the past, he had never actually worked in the fast-food industry. But he had eaten his share of fast food, and figured there couldn't be much to it. Most of the stuff he'd seen from ordering food involved dropping fries in a basket and flipping burgers on a grill.
So how hard could all that be?
he thought.
He had one more day of freedom until he was back into the workforce. He'd make sure to enjoy it to its fullest. As he pondered how he could fill his day, his cell phone rang again. It was a number he didn't recognize. He answered it.
“Hello?” he greeted in question.
“Well, hello, stranger,” the sweet voice said over the receiver.
Travis knew exactly who it was. “Hello, Victoria,” Travis said.
“Now what did I tell you about calling me Victoria? My friends call me Tory. And I thought you were my friend.”
“I am your friend. I guess in some ways I am a little old-fashioned. Sorry about that, Miss Tory,” Travis said.
“Now that's more like it, T.J.” She giggled. “I hope I didn't disturb you. I am on my lunch break and I just thought I'd give you a call to see how you were doing since you hadn't called me.”
Travis loved the way Tory spoke his new nickname. And he loved the sweetness of her voice. “Tory, I'm sorry I haven't called. I was going to give you a call this evening for sure.”
“Well, look, I won't hold you long. I didn't really want to disturb you at work,” Tory said.
“No worries, this is my day off.”
“Oh, okay, well good then. What are you up to tonight ?” she asked.
“I hadn't made any plans. What about you?”
“Well, on first Mondays, Rollerland has an adult skate party. Admission is free before nine, and all you have to pay for is the skate rental. What do you say? Do you want to meet me out there?”
“Rollerland, huh?”
“Yep.”
“Where is that exactly?”
“It's off Ridge Road.”
Travis racked his brain trying to remember if he'd seen Ridge Road on his bus map. “Is it in the same shopping center as the Super Target and the Costco warehouse?”
“Yeah,” Tory said.
Travis thought about it. He had his unlimited bus pass, and all he had to pay for was the skates. He wouldn't even mind splurging for Tory's skates since he was now able to retain more money due to his new housing situation. It sounded like a good idea. He needed to get out with other adults and have some fun.
“Sure, what time do you want to meet?” Travis asked.
“How about eight o'clock? That will give me time to get home and freshen up a little.”
“Sounds good to me. I'll meet you there at eight o'clock,” Travis said.
After they were off the phone Travis looked out of the window, thinking he heard a car pulling up in the driveway. He saw a truck turning around. He noticed that the grass looked like it was getting a little high, but thought it was too hot to get out in the yard right then. He decided to get up early in the morning to cut it instead.
Starting to feel a little sleepy, he decided to take a nap so he would be refreshed and ready for his night of rolling around. After grabbing a blanket from the linen closet, he got comfortable on one of the recliners and easily drifted into sleep.
When Travis awoke from his nap, he felt refreshed and ready to rock and roll with Tory. He showered, put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and splashed on some cologne just before grabbing his wallet and bus pass.
He'd just made it to the bus stop before the bus pulled up. His timing couldn't have been better. The bus had ended up taking him straight to the shopping center. He was glad not to have had to do any bus transfers. That would make it easy when it came time to get back home later that night. According to the bus schedule, the last bus left at 12:30
A.M.
, so if he wasn't careful he'd be like “Cinderfellow”, minus the pumpkin.
As he stepped off the bus, Travis saw quite a few people standing outside waiting to get on the bus. He figured this particular event must be pretty popular. He craned his neck around looking for Tory but didn't see her. His cell phone made the familiar jingling sound that indicated he had a text message.
Upon looking at his phone, he saw he'd missed a call from Tory and a voice mail. The text message said that she was inside the skating rink. She told him she was wearing a sunshine-yellow jumpsuit, and he wouldn't be able to miss it.
And sure enough, by the time he finally made his way through the line and the crowd of people gathered by the entrance of the rink's front door, he saw Tory sitting at a booth by the concession stand with two other women. There was no way anyone could have missed her. Her jumpsuit was indeed a bright sunshine yellow, from top to bottom. On anyone else, he thought it probably would have looked outlandish, but Tory wore it well. Travis did think that it was something that might be a little young for the woman to wear, but who was he to judge?
He stepped up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.
She turned and offered a big smile, her disposition matching her sunny choice of clothing. “Hey, T.J.” She jumped up and gave him a hug, then turned to the friends she was sitting with and said, “This is the guy who saved my life last week.”
Travis smiled. “I wouldn't say all that.”
Tory looked him up and down. “Glad you could make it. These are my friends Melissa and Jackie.” Both the young women waved at Travis. They, like Tory, looked as if they were barely out of high school.
Tory stood. “Come on, let's go get you some skates so we can get on the floor.” She tugged at Travis's arm. She rolled on her skates and he walked his way through the crowd.
After he had his skates securely tied, Tory then pulled him out onto the packed roller rink floor. He had to dodge a couple of people to keep from getting hit. Tory released his hand and zoomed ahead of him. With more effort than he had ever remembered in past years of skating, Travis did his best to lift his legs with the skates that felt like they'd been plated with lead. It felt as if he had only gone a couple of feet before Tory rolled back by his side.
“T.J., are you okay out here?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Travis yelled over the thumping R&B music. “It's just been awhile since I've been on roller skates, that's all.”
“I see,” Tory yelled over the music and the sound of people skating past them.
When they rounded a curve, Travis made an effort to pick up speed, and found that he could go a lot faster than the creeping pace he'd started at. He was pretty pleased with himself, and Tory smiled as she slowed down to keep pace with him.
He thought about the days when he was a teenager and went to the skating rink with his friends on the weekends. Back then, he skated forward, backward, not only standing high but also squatting down. All of his maneuvers were effortless back then.
When Travis got to the next curve in the rink, he found he was moving too fast. He wasn't going to make the turn in the curve in time. He tried to stop himself with the foot stopper on his skates and ended up flying headlong into the wall. He'd narrowly missed hitting a couple who were holding hands as they skated around the rink.
For a couple of seconds, Travis could have sworn he saw stars. He saw concern in Tory's face when she reached him. She and the guy from the couple who were holding hands helped him stand.
“T.J. Are you all right?” Her face was still wrought with concern.
Travis took a deep breath. His head and shoulder hurt immensely. The DJ had stopped the music, and one of the workers came over to ask if he was okay. It felt as if every eye in the place was on him.
“Yeah, yeah. I'm fine.” Travis brushed his clothes off as if removing imaginary dirt. He was embarrassed to say the least. Not only had Tory watched him crash into the wall, so had many others. And now it looked like he was some idiot who didn't know how to skate.
He whispered to Tory, “I'm going to head to the bathroom for a minute.”
“Okay, do you want me to skate with you over there?”
“Nah, I got this.”
Since no one was skating, waiting to see how hurt he was, Travis took the opportunity to skate in the opposite direction from where he had originally been going. The bathroom was in that direction. He hoped getting to the bathroom would make him out of sight, thus out of mind and focus for the crowd of onlookers.
With his head held high Travis skated on toward the restroom. His pace was faster than it had been when he first started out on the rink floor, but not nearly as fast as it had been just before he flew into the wall.
Once he passed through the doors of the bathroom, he was pleased to hear the music resume, and was also glad that the bathroom was empty. He looked at the top of his head in the mirror to see if a lump had formed. And, sure enough, he saw a raised, reddish-looking area where he'd had the most impact with the wall.
He rubbed the spot and it was extremely tender to the touch. He knew he'd probably have a doozie of a headache in the morning when he got up. He also touched his right shoulder with his left hand. It too was tender to the touch.
Another guy entered the bathroom and made eye contact with Travis. Travis acknowledged the guy with a head nod and the guy did the same. That was the extent of it. The guy commenced to handle his business, and Travis went about his own business before leaving the restroom. He wasn't exactly sure how much time had passed. A couple of songs had played and he figured Tory was probably wondering where he was. He held his now throbbing head up high and set out to see where Tory was.
Again, he found her sitting in the snack bar area. As soon as Tory saw him she skated up to him. “Oh my goodness, T.J. Are you okay? Come on, have a seat.”
“I'm okay, I'm okay,” Travis said.
“Are you sure you're okay?” one of Tory's friends asked. “You hit that wall pretty daggone hard. I saw the whole thing.” The woman cringed as she spoke.
“Yeah,” said the other friend. “Your head has got to have a crack in it, to say the least.”
Women were so nurturing. Travis thought about the contrast between them and how the guy in the restroom acted. The guy hadn't said a word to him to see how he was or wasn't doing, and all three of these women were trying to play doctor. He smiled back at them. “Ladies, I assure you I am fine.”
The desire to roller skate or to socialize was no longer felt by him. All he wanted to do was to get back to the house and take some pain medication. His head throbbed more and his body was already starting to become sore.
He turned to Tory. “Hey, I think I'm going to just call it a night.”
Looking at him with concern, Tory stood. “Are you going to be okay? Do you want me to see you home?”
“No, no,” Travis said. He didn't have any desire to explain why he was riding the bus and didn't have a car. He glanced at his watch. There was more than enough time to catch a bus and get home.
“Are you sure?” Tory frowned.
“Yeah. I'll be fine. Don't worry or frown like that.” He put his hand on her cheek. “That frowning does not become you.”
Tory smiled. She went to reach for her purse. “It's no problem. I can hang out with these chicks anytime.”
“No, no. I'll be fine. I'll send you a text when I get home to let you know I am okay,” Travis said, then left the rink and headed home.
As soon as Travis got home he headed for the medicine cabinet. He pulled out a bottle of 600-mg ibuprofen and took one. He then took a long, hot shower. After drying off and putting the towel around his midsection and bottom, he headed toward his bedroom. He put on some underwear and a T-shirt.
Upon looking at the clothing that he had flung on his bed earlier, he dreaded having to move it. So he decided to sleep on the recliner in the bonus room. But when he passed Brent's bedroom and looked at the inviting king-sized bed, he figured it wouldn't hurt anything to sleep in there for the night; after all, this was his home for now.