Page 30 of The Girl with No Name
“Okay. Well, look, we’ll head back.” He looks down at his watch. “The way I drive, if we leave now, we’ll make it there byoh-nine-hundred hours. I’ll even get us back on the interstate. Though you know I hate it.”
“Thanks. This isn’t really the time for the scenic route.” I sigh, taking a moment to collect myself. “What did I say at the beach?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Whatever.” While I’m curious about what my blacked-out self might have said, I’m not curious enough to push Dunn for information right now.
We look over at the high school across the street.
“How did we end up bringing the girl?” I ask.
“You don’t remember the four-a.m. call to Wendy?”
“Dude, I don’t remember anything after the third beer-pong game.”
“The girl insisted on asking my wife for permission.”
“Did we ever get her name?”
Dunn laughs. “You kept calling her Luna and pointing to the moon. You spoke exclusively in Spanish last night for almost an hour.”
Luna—I guess that’s what I call her now—comes into focus as she walks out of the gas station and toward us with a big smile. She’s got sunglasses on and is wearing a blue dress. Must have had a change of clothes with her last night.
She holds up a bag. “Hey, guys, I got you some square donuts!” She takes a big bite of one. “Mmm... They’re really tasty. Want one?”
“I’m not a big carb guy,” I tell her.
Dunn takes one. “Don’t be a square, man. Try one.” He shoves the bag at me. “You’ve got two choices man. Eat the square donut, we go to Lexington Kentucky, and your world will never be the same after this weekend with the two of us. Clearly, this is a life changing opportunity. Or, chuck your donut in the garbage. I’ll drive you back to Chicago, let life go on likenormal. We’ll forget we ever got hammered with some random girl whose name we don’t even know and offered to give her our spare ticket to the festival.”
Luna laughs. “I didn’t realize it until Dunn put it like that, this is huge. This is like you’re Neo in the Matrix huge, except with square donuts instead of a red pill. Your life could completely change as a result of this weekend.”
I frown. “Dunn, I can’t. I…have to work. Really.”
He sighs. “All right. Well, I’m gonna grab something in there for the ride back to Chicago.”
Dunn walks into the gas station, leaving me with Luna, and I stare at the donuts I’m now holding. The sun has just peeked up over the trees. Looking at her and her square donut, I think about my work responsibilities.
WhyamI being such a square?
One of my best friends of all time is begging me to go to a festival with him, and here I am making up this story in my head about how important work is.
Hell, my boss isn’t even going to be there today.
What am I gonna regret when I’m sixty? Not taking a trip with my best friend? Or sliding out of work on a Friday?
I mull that over while I take the donut and ape a huge bite. “Damn, these are fresh.”
Luna smiles. “I knew you’d like them. They’re super delicioso.”
“You speak Spanish?” I ask her.
She giggles. “You really don’t remember last night. My dad is Mexican. Mom is…well she’s a bunch of different stuff. But you definitely speak great Spanish. I was impressed.”
Okay, so I know I have a girlfriend, and I’m not supposed to be swayed by the charm of another woman. But something in the girl with no name’s voice in this moment, eating squaredonuts with her, is making me strongly consider this road-trip adventure after all.
As I chew my bite, I look over at the football field across the street and flash back to the best times of high school. I knew how to seize the day back then.
Something comes over me. When I’m old and gray, am I going to regret missing one day in the office or a concert adventure with Dunn and this girl?