Brett Battles - The Pull of Gravity

More laughter as they all raised glasses, then, almost as one, said “Asshole!”

And before I knew it, the music was blaring again and people were laughing and girls were dancing and everyone seemed-for that moment, anyway-happy to be where they were. Even Manfred, who in less than forty-eight hours would be boarding a plane to Europe, probably never to return.

Isabel told me the thing she remembered most about that night was that Mariella said she was going to show up, but never did. Isabel had been disappointed, but not enough to let it ruin her evening. Mariella, after all, seldom lived up to the promises she made to her cousin. If Isabel had known that Mariella and Manfred had had a brief affair that had not ended well, she probably would have had a horrible evening, wondering if her cousin would really show up. But Isabel never knew, and later, I didn’t feel it was necessary to tell her.

We didn’t get the bar closed until almost sunup that night. In the end, it was just Cathy and Manfred and me standing on the sidewalk facing each other. I gave him a big bear hug and told him he was always welcome back. Cathy kissed him tenderly on the cheek and said she would miss him.

After he climbed into the trike that was waiting for him at the curb, he leaned out, waved and said one last goodbye. I knew it was the last time I would hear from him, because of what he said when we were sitting around the pool-that Angeles wasn’t the real world. And now that he was leaving and returning to that real world, he had to forget us to get us out of his system.

Cold turkey. No step down. No hair of the dog.

• • •

The city was beginning to come alive as Manny drove Cathy and me home that morning. The sky had started to turn blue, the black night fleeing to the west. I wasn’t as drunk as I could have been, and to say I was just tired and sad at the loss of my friend would have been only a partial truth. Manfred’s departure had stirred up questions I didn’t want to deal with, questions that had been buried deep in my mind but were suddenly inching closer and closer to the surface.

I was fighting hard to suppress them again when Cathy said, “What road are you taking?”

At first I thought she was talking to Manny, so I glanced up, but we seemed to be traveling on our normal route. When I realized she’d been talking to me, I said, “What do you mean?”

“When you made the toast for Manfred,” she said. “You said we all have our own roads to travel. I want to know what road you are on.”

“I’m not sure what kind of answer you’re looking for.”

She looked out at the buildings that lined the side of the street, then said, “How long will our roads run together?”

“Cathy-”

“Will you suddenly go off in your own direction someday, like Manfred?” she asked, cutting me off.

“No. That’s not part of my plan,” I said, realizing a split-second later it was the wrong thing to say.

She turned to look at me. “Then what is your plan?”

“To go home and go to sleep.” I smiled as broadly as I could, but her expression didn’t change. So I became serious again and said, “To work hard. To enjoy life. To love you.”

“In that order?”

I sighed, but said nothing. Silence wasn’t always the best answer, but sometimes it was the best I could come up with.

Isabel and Larry had their first fight less than three weeks later. She remembered the date exactly-September 4 th. It came during an unusually long gap between visits, but Larry was finally due the following week. Whenever I saw her, all Isabel could do was talk about how excited she was.

On the surface, the trouble began when he told her he would have to delay his trip for another week. It shouldn’t have been a big deal. What’s a week? In Angeles, a week could go by without you even noticing. And though she was disappointed, Isabel didn’t make a big deal out of it.

Until after she told Mariella.

“Oh, baby. I’m sorry. What happened?” Mariella said, acting the part of the concerned older sister.

“Nothing happened,” Isabel said. “He just couldn’t get away from work yet.”

“I see.” Mariella smiled, and sat next to her cousin on the couch, putting her arm over Isabel’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything is okay.”

“I know everything’s okay. I was just looking forward to seeing him next weekend.”

“Of course you were. Of course you were,” Mariella said. “He should have thought of that.”

“It’s not his fault,” Isabel said.

“Shhh. Of course it is. He knows you have been waiting for him. Why couldn’t he have planned his business better?”

A few tears appeared in Isabel’s eyes. “I don’t know,” she said, then leaned into her cousin, no longer able to hide the full extent of her disappointment.

“Did you ask him?”

Isabel could only manage to shake her head.

“It’s okay,” Mariella said. “Don’t worry. Like you said, maybe it wasn’t his fault.” She ran her hand over Isabel’s hair, smoothing it down. “Still, he’s not being very fair to you.”

An hour later, after Isabel spent most of the time crying in her cousin’s arms and listening to Mariella’s “supportive” words, Larry called again to give Isabel his updated flight information.

“Did you write it down?” he asked once he was done.

“Of course I wrote it down.” Her voice was flat and unfriendly.

“Great. I can’t wait to see you,” he said.

“Okay.”

There was a pause. “Is everything all right?” he asked.

“Fine.”

“You don’t sound fine.”

“I’m fine. I’ll see you when you get here.”

“Wait,” he said. “What’s going on?” He paused, then added, “Are you mad at me?”

She said nothing.

“What is it?” he asked.

“What do you think?”

“The only thing I can think of is that you’re mad I had to change my trip. But I explained that to you.”

She was silent again.

“Is that it?”

No response.

“Isabel, the last thing I wanted to do was wait any longer. But it can’t be helped.”

“Why couldn’t you have planned your business schedule better?” she blurted out.

“What?”

“Why couldn’t you have planned better? You’re the boss, you can do whatever you want,” she said.

“Look,” he said, his voice serious. “I’ve got a chance to expand my business big time. But if I miss these meetings next week, that chance goes away.”

“It’s not fair,” Isabel said.

“No,” he said. “It’s not fair. And I am really sorry about that. But it is what it is, and I’m still coming to see you.”

“Do you have a new girlfriend there?” she asked, her chin beginning to tremble. It was a question Mariella had asked her. The idea of it had seemed ridiculous when her cousin had proposed it, and it seemed even stupider now that she had thrown it out there. But it had just flown out of her mouth.

“Absolutely not,” Larry said. “Isabel, I love you. I’m not looking for anyone else, I’m not thinking of anyone else. I don’t want anyone else. Understand?”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean it.”

“What’s really wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“That’s not true,” he said.

She took a deep breath, steadying her emotions. “I just want you to be here.”

“That’s what I want, too.” Isabel could almost hear a smile in his voice, and it was enough to break what was left of the tension she had been feeling. “I’ve got to go. I love you and I’ll see you in a couple weeks.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

For a moment she thought he’d already hung up, but then Larry told her in a voice that said he cared about her, forgave her and loved her, “I know.”