Breaking The Routine

The desert’s oppressive heat bombarded Seth when he opened the door for Trina. Crossing the barrier between the hotel and the outside world always felt like breaking through some kind of energy forcefield from a sci-fi novel. Even the doors resisted against it. Heavy and thick, they required more effort than one expected if one lived somewhere else. He was used to it though, and held in the grunt that most made when hit with the confusion of the building’s deception.

“Thanks.” Trina grinned at him and walked out into the sunlight. Squinting against the brightness she finished fumbling for her sunglasses and donned them with a sigh of relief. “Where’d you park?”

Seth nodded at the parking deck. “With the lowly commoners, I’m afraid. There weren’t any spaces here by the lobby. Do you mind the walk?”

“Well I won’t mind getting back into the shade,” Trina laughed. Her arm reached out to him and bound them together in a release of joviality. “I am so glad I could make it.”

“Me too. It’s been a while.” Seth gestured at the crosswalk and she nodded, letting him guide the way. They fell easily into stride together, moving as one being. It was as if no time had passed between them at all and they were back in high school, making their way against the flow of traffic to their next class. The street turned into a hallway in his mind, inverting the buildings so that their outside became an inside, walls holding up a ceiling that was too far away in the past to even exist any more.

As if reading his mind, Trina turned to him with a grin. “Can you believe they tore down our high school? I feel so old! Most of that place was new when we went there.”

“So were all of the trailers parked on the campus to house the hundreds of students who wouldn’t fit anywhere else,” Seth reminded her. “It was a shame to see it go, though. Mashing the new wing and the old one together might have made it look like some kindergartner’s drawing, but at least it kept the old part alive. My parents went to school there. Their parents went to school there. Now every brick they saw is just gone.”

“Says a man who lives in a city where they demolish hotels for being six months old.” Trina nudged him and laughed.

Seth pouted and pointed a finger in the general direction of one of the buildings that would prove her wrong. It was so old that it couldn’t be seen from where they were. Squat and spread out, it was dwarfed by the newer skyscrapers that surrounded them. “Some of them are almost thirty years old, thank you!”

“Don’t know what you see in them,” Trina remarked, shaking her head. She released his arm and started to step away, making Seth frown.

“Where you headed? Forget something?”

Trina frowned and looked down the row of cars, tossing a thumb over her shoulder. “Isn’t that one yours?”

About five spots down was a silver SUV. The same make and model as his old one. “I had to get a new one after that wreck last year, remember?”

Shock washed over Trina’s face and she snapped her fingers, then stomped down on the pavement in frustration. “How the hell did I forget that? I was one of the witnesses!”

“You’ve been working like a mad thing for the last twelve hours, that’s how. Easily done when you find yourself tired and lost down memory lane.” Seth lifted a hand in the other direction to indicate where he was actually parked. “I’m this way.”

“Is it the white one or the cream?” Her head tipped as she tagged along beside him, studying the possibilities. It was a joke between them that she always had dark cars and he always had light, a necessity of their regular habitats. Often when they drove together he would sing the praises of the cooling properties of lighter colors and she would insist that darker was better. It helped that she lived up north, where eighty five degree days caused heat warnings and frenzied dashes to the local pools for relief.

“Cream this time,” Seth said. “Remember when I had to rent that white one for the drive back here the last time I visited you? I couldn’t keep the darn thing clean. All that did was confirm that I never wanted to own one myself.”

Trina rolled her eyes as he pulled his keys from his pocket and unlocked the doors for her. “I remember that, you called me every seventeen miles to lament the loss of your beautiful beauty. As if I didn’t feel bad enough already.”

Climbing into the car, Seth’s laughter went with him, transitioning from an echo that encompassed the entire deck to something deadened by the vehicle’s soft interior. “Not your fault that tree fell during that storm.”

“It’s my fault that I told you to park under it,” she huffed back.

“Water under the bridge.” Seth started the engine, then turned to her. “Lunch first?”

“Yes, please,” Trina begged. “I’m starving.”

He drove them away from all the hustle and bustle of the big city and back toward his own neighborhood. It wasn’t a fancy place but it held all the mom and pop stores that tourists ignored and locals loved. Shopping local meant a whole different thing in a big city like this, it was all about ignoring the traps, finding what you loved and sticking with it. Why buy an expensive slice of pizza in the hotel when you could go fifteen minutes away and get a whole, massive pie for half as much?

When they pulled up in the nearly empty parking lot, Trina looked over at him. “You’re spoiling me, you know that? I’m going to regret agreeing to let you bring me here.”

Seth shrugged. “Have a salad if you don’t want the pizza. More for me.”

They laughed together as they got out of the car and entered the restaurant. With the place so empty they got their choice of tables and decided to head for a booth in the corner. Menus in hand, they did more chatting than actually reading, catching up on what life had given each of them while their eyes glazed over words that held little meaning in comparison. Their boisterous stories filled the space around them until the sound of a car alarm broke them from their reminiscing and turned both of their heads to the window.

“Sir, is that your car?” One of the waiters came dashing over, phone in hand, finger pointing to the complete stranger who had decided to help himself to one of the only vehicles on the lot.

“Oh no!” Trina’s hands flew to her chest. “Seth, your car!”

“Don’t worry, we’ve already called the police. We have security cameras and we’ll do everything we can to help get your car back to you.” The man fled again, called back by someone who was probably the restaurant manager.

Seth could only shake his head, then point a finger at Trina. “I’m never going out with you again.”