“That’s what I was calling about,” Jana says. “She said she’ll be here in like half an hour.”
“Half an hour?!” I blurt. “You couldn’t give me a little more notice than half an hour?”
“Whatevs,” Jana says. “Just chill, okay? Will you?”
She’s doing her “don’t be a turd in the punch bowl” routine, but I don’t want to hear it.
“When we decided to be roommates,” I start, “we agreed that if your mother was going to stay with us, you’d give me time to make other plans.”
“What’s your thing with my mom, anyway?” Jana asks. “She’s never been anything but nice to you.”
“I never said she wasn’t,” I answer. “You just,” I stammer, “I mean, we’re supposed to communicate about this stuff, you know? Now I have half an hour before your mom gets here? Not cool, Jana.”
“I promise, if you’ll just spend a little time with her while she’s here, you two are going to finally get past whatever problem you have with each other and everything’s gonna be totally—” Jana stops.
My phone’s ringing.
“Hold on,” I tell her, “I’ve got to take this.”
I make a quick retreat to my room, and I don’t even bother checking to see who’s calling before I answer.
“I’ll give you fifty bucks if you can get me out of here,” I tell whoever’s on the other end of the line.
“Everything okay?” a man’s voice comes back.
“Who is this?” I ask, pulling my phone back a bit to find I don’t recognize the number.
“It’s Mason,” the man says.
“Mason?” I ask. “Mason who?”
“Is this Ash, short for Ashely, the chick who bandaged me up the other night?” the man asks and it finally clicks.
“Oh, Mason,” I say.
“Yeah,” he says. “You gave me your number, so I thought I’d call and see if you want to get together sometime.”
“Now’s good,” I tell him.
“Now?” he asks.
“I’m not ready just now. Can you give me a little bit?”
“How long do you need?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” he says, “maybe half an hour or so?”
Half an hour?
“No,” I tell him. “It’s got to be sooner. I don’t have time to get into it right now, but I would really love an excuse that would get out of here right now.”
“All right,” he says. “Let’s meet up at Sherry’s on Eighth. You might have to wait a little bit for me to get there, but at least you’ll be away from wherever you are.”
“Sounds great,” I tell him. “See you soon.”
I hang up.
I’d given Mason my phone number to mess with Jana, telling her I was thinking about hooking up with her ex, but right now, I could just about kiss him.