Devon Ford - The Fall

Cal did, and he thought this was hilarious not just because she had turned her accent all the way up to eleven to tell him the story, but because she’d said the word toilet again. He stopped laughing as she settled back to lean on the table and tucked her hair behind her ear again. By joint agreement, the atmosphere seemed to change.

“So,” she said, “y’all going to explain why you’re out here all by your lonesome?”

The elephant in the room had been addressed. It was clear to Cal that Louise was one of those free-spirit types who could just set off for somewhere new at a moment’s notice, but it was obvious to anyone that Cal wasn’t alone by choice.

“I’m here on my honeymoon,” Cal announced, raising his glass to her and knocking back the drink. Louise’s face froze, trying to work out if he was serious or not, and hoping that she hadn’t just wasted hours talking to a married man—she couldn’t abide cheating, having seen first-hand the damage it does to people. Cal saw the look on her face and tried to recover.

“But I’m on my own because the wedding never happened,” he told her.

Louise seemed to perk up at this, but still wasn’t sure.

“She walked out on me, five bloody days before the wedding, with my best friend,” he said, the sullen anger returning to his eyes as they watered involuntarily. “They’re probably in my house right now, and you know the best thing?” He paused, making her uncertain whether the question was rhetorical or not. “She wanted to come on the trip and bring him instead!” His anger surged again but he managed to keep it inside as he remembered the text he got asking to buy his ticket from him. He had politely, yet firmly, told her to go fuck herself. His hand twitched toward his pocket, but the part of him that was still sober stopped the movement. Bringing out the little box now would guarantee to scare her off.

“Oh,” Louise said, lost for words for the first time in as long as she could recall. “I just thought you’d argued with your friends or something…”

“Nope,” Cal said, the momentary anger being forced away as he tried to make himself sound jovial again. “Here on my own, seeing the sights, and enjoying all the money I’ve saved up for over a year to put her up in the bloody Waldorf because she had to stay there.”

Louise, despite the high levels of ambient noise, let out a low whistle, which penetrated the din and brought Cal’s smile back.

“ The Waldorf?” she said incredulously, leaning forward. “I can’t even afford to park my car near there.” She paused, thinking. “Heck, I can’t even afford a car!”

They both laughed, but Louise was clearly impressed. It wasn’t like he was one of those rich people that Sebastian knew by name, he was just a fool who had worked hard and saved up to impress a girl, but the girl who was impressed wasn’t the one he originally intended. He was okay with that.

“My hotel is like, thirty bucks a night and I swear to god, I take the stairs every time to the fourth floor because I think that elevator might just fall down much as I even look at it!”

Cal laughed again. Her manner, the way she spoke, the way she entertained him with a story when she could’ve offered a boring but short answer, intoxicated him. The alcohol intoxicated him too, but he just couldn’t get enough of her because she was so unlike any woman he’d ever spoken to. She had literally nothing in common with Angie except her species and gender, and even Cal had begun to doubt Angie’s membership of the human race recently.

“So anyway,” he said, “now that’s out in the open, what about you?”

“Me?” said Louise, hand on her chest as though he had accused her of something. “Well I’m just an open book.”

“No,” Cal said laughing, “you’re not!”

“Well,” Louise replied, “if y’all want to get all deep and meaningful, I’m gonna need some more drinks.”

Louise was aware that she was spending more than she had meant to that day, and each day of her trip had a strict cash allowance that had to be kept to or she would have to go home sooner. She had worked as a waitress for months, spending as little as she could, getting by and waiting for the day she could escape again for somewhere different. She had done this a dozen times; saved up and gone on an adventure before having to come back and beg for her job back. She got it back every time, and the owner of the diner just accepted that it was what Louise did. Her feet just didn’t want to stay still.

Truth was that she did have somewhere to be, but she felt trapped by the open air and the same sidewalks under her shoes every single day. As soon as she was back, as soon as she had lied to everyone about how good it was to be home, she was already thinking about where to head next. She would stick her finger on the map of the United States, and she would go there. Six months ago, she had heard someone in the diner talking about their trip to New York City, and about how much they hated it there with the smog and the tourists and the cops on every corner, but Louise had listened and decided that maybe she needed to see that city for herself.

To hell with it, she thought, buying two more beers and two chasers to go with them. If I have to go home a day early to spend tonight getting an Englishman drunk, then god dammit I will.

“So, what have you seen in this fine city, Cal?” she said as she returned to their table with the four glasses held expertly in both hands.

“Rockefeller building,” Cal said, after sketching a ‘cheers’ and taking a pull of beer. “It looked big and busy so I didn’t go in.”

“Well, ain’t y’all the fearless tourist?” Louise said, laughing at him.

“And I went to Central Park and saw the zoo,” he added.

“Saw it or went inside and saw it?” Louise shot back, drinking her beer but keeping her eyes on him.

“I actually went inside,” he said, sounding proud of himself, “and I went on an uncomfortable boat around some big statue thing with a hangover, saw someone playing saxophone in the subway, had a snake draped around my neck, then went up the Empire State building where I saw a man throw his life away.”

They both laughed, both having the same feelings about the proposal. She called it lame whereas Cal said it was cheesy.

“And met a delightful young redhead who then led you astray into a night of ungodly depravity?” she finished for him.

Picking up the chaser in the smaller glass, he raised it to her and said, “Here’s hoping!”

Throwing back her drink in a movement identical to Cal’s, she smiled at him playfully.

“Always wanted to see the inside of a fancy hotel room.”

The dull gray van nosed sedately through the late evening traffic, pulling into a manned security gate. The uniformed guard put on his hat, picked up the clipboard with the day’s schedule on, and left his small booth to speak to the driver.

“Hey Gerry. Hey Siobhan,” the guard said, greeting the overnight cleaning crew who worked Wednesday through Friday.

“Hey Simon,” replied Gerry, the balding middle-aged driver, “busy night?”

“Ah, you know,” Simon answered casually, “another day…”

“Ain’t that the truth!” called Siobhan from the passenger side.

Simon checked them off the list on his clipboard, as he had done most weeks for a year, and didn’t bother searching the van as he was supposed to. There was no point, he told himself, eager to get back to his seat to carry on with the book he was reading. It was just cleaning products like always. He only searched them when someone else was around anyway, just for show, and the new supervisor never bothered reviewing the overnight camera footage like the last guy did.