Notes on a Windshield

         The weather was surprisingly mild for a mid-October Saturday afternoon. Arabella was thinking that she should be outside enjoying the fresh air, taking a walk in the park, or bike riding around the neighborhood, but instead she was doing her grocery shopping at the local Target. She had just finished checking out and was heading to her car in the parking lot.

           “Shit! Who parks like this? What an inconsiderate human being,” she said aloud to herself, in the middle of the parking lot. Someone had parked so close to her driver’s side that she couldn’t fit in between the cars. She went to the other side of her car and started putting her grocery bags in the back seat of the passenger side. But how was she going to get into the driver’s seat? She was dressed in a short casual skirt and a hoodie. Not exactly the proper attire to be climbing from the passenger seat, over the gear selector to get into the driver’s seat.

           While she was trying to figure how she was going to do that without exposing her butt to the world, she started rummaging around in her purse and the glove box looking for a piece of paper and a pen to write a nasty message to the jackass who put her in this position. After her frantic search, she was finally able to find a blank envelope and a black sharpie. While her cold food was getting warm in the back seat, she sat down in the passenger seat and started thinking about what she wanted to write in her message.     

           He or she had picked the wrong day to piss her off. When she woke up that morning and looked at her phone, her calendar app popped up with a reminder of the six-month anniversary of her relationship with John. She didn’t need a reminder of that relationship. When it ended two months ago after she found out about his cheating, she forgot to delete the date on her calendar. That unnecessary reminder had already put her in a bad mood, and now this!

           She wrote her message using a few choice words, to make her point. She didn’t like to use foul language, but she thought the current situation warranted it. At least in her mind.  She finished writing and got out of the car and walked to the front end of the offending vehicle. She was about to put the envelope underneath the windshield wipers when she heard someone from behind say ‘hello’. She immediately pulled back with the envelope in her hand and turned around to express her words vocally to the owner.

           “Can I help you with something? Is there a reason you are lurking around my vehicle?”

           She stood there speechless. She was about to curse out the owner of the SUV, but now looking at him, she changed her mind. He looked to be around thirty, about her age, with striking shoulder-length blonde hair and, from what she could tell, piercing blue eyes. His tight-fitting jeans and snug T-shirt highlighted a lean, muscular physique. For some reason, he didn’t quite match the image in her mind of the jackass who inconvenienced her.

“I was looking at your SUV because it looks like the vehicle of a friend of mine. I was looking inside to see if I recognized anything personal that would verify that it was her vehicle.” What a lame excuse, she thought. She could not think of a better explanation because she was hypnotized by his presence.

           “Okay… Speaking of friends; have we met before?” he asked.

           “I don’t think so.” She was sure she would remember someone as striking as him. “What is your name,” she asked.

           “Colin. What is yours?”

           “Arabella, but my friends call me Belle.”

           “That's an unusual name. I've only known one other person with it, and she was a close friend of one of my ex-girlfriends.” 

           “Was her name Jenny?” This couldn’t be the Colin that an old friend of hers had dated years ago. He looked so different. Back then, the Colin she knew was scrawny, with glasses, and short blondish hair.

           “That would be her. And you would be that Arabella!”

           “Wow, that was at least five years ago. I haven’t talked to Jenny in three years.”

           “She hits me up on Facebook every now and then. She is married and has a one-year-old son,” he said.

           “You keep in touch with your exes?”  She was wondering how many exes he had, because she didn’t see a ring on his finger. She wouldn’t mind being his current, but he needed to learn how to be more considerate when parking.

           “Not all of them. What about you?” he asked.

           “Keep in touch with my exes? No! They are usually an ex for a reason.”

           “Actually, I was asking about your current status. Are you dating, married, and do you have kids?”

           “Oh. No to all of that. I just recently broke up with my boyfriend of four whole months, a couple of months ago. I wish I could get those four months back.” She always hated it when she invested time in someone, and they did nothing but break her heart. Such was life!

           “Yeah, I had a recent breakup, too. You would think that at our age, we could find someone with a little bit of maturity. I am going to take it slow with the next one. I would like to develop a friendship first, and then see where it goes from there.”

           “I agree,” she said.

There was an awkward silence for a minute when she said, “I should be going; I have cold items in my car. The problem is you parked so close to me; I can’t get in on the driver’s side.”

           “I am sorry, why didn’t you say something. I was in a big hurry when I pulled in, but that is no excuse for my sloppy parking. I am having a little get together at my place tonight and there were some last-minute things I needed to pick up. But Arabella, Belle, as an old friend and a new one, why don’t you join us tonight. We can talk about old times with Jenny, while getting to know each other better.”

           “I might be able to attend. Is there anything I can bring? And where do you live?”

           “You don’t need to bring a thing. Let me have that envelope in your hands, and I can write down my address,” he said, as he started to reach for the envelope.

           “NO. Why don’t I give you my number and you can text me your address.” She did not want him to get his hands on the nasty note she wrote.

           “My address is lengthy. I live in a large condominium community. Why don’t I write it down for you and then get your number,” he said, as he grabbed the envelope from her hand.

           Oh my god, she thought. She had to stop him from reading what was on that envelope. She could feel her skin flushing from embarrassment. “You can write on the back; I already wrote something on the front.”

           He looked at the envelope and started reading the words.

           “Was this message meant for me?”

           “I am sorry, Colin. I know it is no excuse, but I had a bad morning. I got a calendar alert on my phone this morning, reminding me of the six-month anniversary of my relationship with John, because I forgot to delete it when we broke up, and then I couldn’t get in my car after shopping,” she rambled. He was so nice to invite her to his party and she was so nasty in her message. She knew she really messed up what could be a new friendship.  

           “Wow. You must have had a really bad morning. I am sorry my bad parking skills made it worse.”

           “I am normally not like the person who wrote those words,” she said, looking down at the ground. She was afraid of what he was going to say next.

           “Well, the only way I will know if that is true or not, is if we get to know each other better. Look, you had a bad morning, and I was in a mad rush. Those two things do not have to cancel out a chance at a new friendship. So will you still come to the party tonight?”

           “Yes, absolutely. Can I have my envelope back?”

           “No way. I want to hold on to this. When we have our six-month relationship anniversary, we can look back at this and laugh.”

           Arabella could feel herself smiling from the inside out. Who would have thought that when she woke up this morning, haunted by the memory of a failed relationship, that she would meet someone from her past who might become her future?