He climbed into his hammock and stared into the gradient sky. He folded his arms behind his head and thought to himself, It's good to be home. His cell phone went off in his pocket. He took it out and looked at the number. He didn't recognize it, so he turned the ringer off. Then he thought that maybe it was the girl from the cafe, so he hurried to pick it back up and answer.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hi, Dakota,” she covered her brow with her hand as if he were right in front of her. “It's Jasey.”
“Hey,” she could hear him smile. “I didn't expect to hear from you so soon. When did you get off work?”
“I just got in,” she told him.
“Ah,” he said. “So you were there kind of late. Did you have to close?”
“No,” she sighed. “But my boss just got married, so I'm pretty much running the place until they settle down. They live above the place, so they close every night.”
“That kind of sucks.”
“I'd throw a fit if I didn't like it so much,” she fell into her couch. “Plus they're paying me time and a half for each late night.”
“That balances out, I guess,” he smiled. “You know, I almost didn't answer. I don't normally pick up calls from numbers I don't recognize.”
“Oh, this is my cell. I don't give it out to that many people,” she explained. “But, my voicemail won't let me dial while it plays.”
“I see,” he said. “Well, this is my one and only phone number, so if you get a call from one you don't recognize, you can pretty well rule me out.”
“Noted,” she smiled. “So, Dakota, where all have you been in the past ten years?”
He stretched his legs out and thought about this for a minute, then told her, “Most of France, most of the UK, most of Italy, most of Greece, parts of Russia, Cairo, most of Australia, parts of India, and parts of South America.”
“Wow,” she said reverently. “I thought I'd travelled quite a bit, but you've got me completely beat.”
“Well, when you've got literally nothing but money and time, traveling is kind of the only thing that makes much sense,” he said.
“So, tell me your story,” she said. “I'm curious about this man who packed up and left Texas for the world.”
“It's a really long story,” he said apprehensively. “Are you sure you want to hear it?”
“Well, just tell me the important things that led up to now,” she said. “I'll tell you all you want to know if you tell me part of your story tonight. I guarantee you it won't be a fair trade.”
“Okay,” he said. “I'll start at the beginning, I guess. January sixth, nineteen-eighty. That's the day I was born. My dad was an oil man. He'd established himself and my mother in Odessa, TX with the oil boom a few years before that. My mom was an artist and a housewife. She was super involved – PTA, and all that. My dad taught me how to catch a baseball, how to ride a bike, how to drive a car. They're still together, which is rare nowadays. Listen, I have to tell you, I've been married before.”
He expected, and even hoped in a strange way, that this revelation would turn her away and make her disinterested, maybe even hurtful.
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a penny for your thoughts?