The note that the day started on should have been a good indication of where it would lead., but things kept popping up that made me optimistic that it might get better at any moment.
By evening I'd exchanged a dozen or so messages with my ex wife, but for a change, it was going well. We were being kind to one another and despite the fact that doesn't always last, I was optimistic that maybe this time it would.
I left the house in the evening to meet Johnny Law for a drink. I was on my way to One Eyed Jacks, when I looked up and saw Scarlett sitting in the window of Boondock Saint, with her new boyfriend. I heard she'd come back to town to visit and had brought him with her, but we hadn't crossed paths. She was already looking at me when I realized she was there and when our eyes met, she blushed and looked away for a moment. I smiled and waved at her and she met my eyes with a smile and a wave in return.
Scarlett was the first girl that I'd dated after Sara and she and I had parted paths in a completely unsatisfying way. There was a time when I wished we would cross paths again, even if only for a moment, but that time has long since passed and when I finally did see her, I kept walking with nothing more than a smile and a wave (and that was enough).
I went into One Eyed Jacks and had a glass of Redbreast with Johnny Law, while we both talked about exes, about life, about plans for Thanksgiving dinner. We talked about what we both needed to do to improve our lives and weather we were moving toward that or holding a circling pattern instead. We left and headed over to Flanagans, continuing the conversation about life, love and the pursuit of happiness while we took our time moving along Royal Street. John pointed out where he lived, where his ex had lived and the places they'd had good times, bad time, crazy times along the way.
We sat in Flanagans talking for a few hours, while I waited to hear from Charlotte Sometimes. She and I had been spending a lot of time together, but were both reluctant to say "dating" or "seeing each other" because of the complications of her situation as well as mine. We'd had discussions that suggested we should end the situation before we got more involved with one another, but each of those conversations, despite what we'd agreed on, had brought us closer together.
I'd wanted to call it an early night, but I'd stayed out because there was a good chance I'd see her. When she texted me asking to me to meet her at another bar, i paid my tab and headed over there (John had already left). I arrived to find her sitting with her ex boyfriend, who she'd just had a public argument with a few days before that had left her embarrassed and she and i in an awkward situation. Seeing the two of them together made me immediately apprehensive, but I was determined to not let it get too ugly or awkward.
Friends of mine had walked with me from Flanagans down to lower Decatur street and they'd been at the bar next door. They'd been plotting to come and extricate me from the situation and when L and her ex boyfriend stepped outside to have a chat, they came in and told me I should leave with them then, not say goodbye, walk away from the situation before it got any uglier for me. I was very close, but I'm not the sort to just vanish (I sometimes wish I were). They left without me, looks of disappointment on their faces.
I went back inside and asked Charlotte what she thought she should do and she couldn't give me an immediate answer. Her ex left, but that was his choice more than hers. Things being that unclear for her made them immediately clearer to me, so i told her she should go home. We talked for a little while and I told her we could continue the conversation later, but that I needed some time because I wasn't happy with the turn things were taking. She got in her car and headed home and I got in a cab to head into the Marigny, but ended up having them drop me off a few blocks away because everyone had changed locations.
I went inside the R bar after talking my friends into one more round with me. We went inside and I was lectured a little more not to tread lightly with affairs of the heart, things like that. I heard from Charlotte who said she was almost home. She was supposed to call me when she got there and the fact that she hung up on me when I told her to call me back when she made it home safely made my friends advice sound more and more reasonable. I texted her and got so answer. I called her back twice and she didn't pick up. She sent me a message this morning saying that she'd gone home and fallen asleep, but I couldn't imagine a circumstance where I would have thought it was ok to behave that way if I really wanted to continue the conversation we'd been having about where we would go from here. She wasn't so intoxicated that she was having trouble driving, talking, walking, but apparently she'd had enough to forget that we were walking a line.
I laid in bed and thought to myself. I'd had feelings for Scarlett once and passed her in the night with a nod and a smile. Sara and I had been sending each other messages which had stopped abruptly earlier in the day, but then she sent me three at the end of the night, just as I closed my eyes. Charlotte didn't answer my calls after things didn't go her way. This trinity of (potential) heartbreakers were on my mind and I wanted to forget about all of them for long enough to fall asleep.
I opened my eyes and looked at my phone and the last message I had received was from a friend that said "just want you to be happy. Come to mimis", and that was enough. I closed them again and drifted off to sleep.
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