I started making plans to try my hand at a half marathon in the summer. Aspen was a great outdoor recreation location during the spring and summer, and a local running group had a pretty popular race that happened in June. With the race on my mind, I put together a training program and stuck with it.
Eating healthy, exercising every day, and working at my parents’ ski resort filled the remained of the winter months and well into spring.
I hadn’t forgotten about Erik. I still thought about him often and even picked up the phone to call him every now and then. But I couldn’t do it. The farther away his days at Paradise Peak got, the more I started to convince myself that I just wanted to be the type of girl a man like him wanted.
Then one evening my parents and I were sitting around the television and turned on the entertainment news shows. They were talking about a new movie studio that was growing quickly, and my ears instantly perked up. Erik was attending a movie premiere to bolster his new studio. They had partnered with a veteran studio and it was all over the news.
I leaned forward and watched their coverage in hopes of seeing Erik somewhere. I just wanted to see if he was doing well. To see how he was handling things once he got home. If I could see him on the television, it would relieve a lot of worry I had running through my head.
“There he is!” my father pointed to the screen.
“Wow, he looks really handsome all dressed up,” my mother added.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. Erik was walking the red carpet with a man who I had to assume was his friend Spencer. Both men were dressed in tuxedos with clean-shaven faces and lips pressed widely into a smile. He looked so damn happy I felt like I was going to explode.
Even if nothing ever came of us, I was happy for him. I wanted all the best for him and he really looked like life was going so great. I didn’t need to call and bother him. I didn’t need to know anything else. I felt better and even had a little closure to our situation.
“Have you talked to him lately?” my father asked me.
His question surprised me. He hadn’t been all that happy with me when he heard what I had done. I really didn’t think he liked Erik, but by the way he was watching the television, maybe I had been wrong.
“No, I haven’t talked to him.”
“Why not? Didn’t he give you his number?”
“Yes, Dad.” I laughed. “But it’s not that simple. I’m not just going to call him and be some silly girl. He also has my number, and he never called me.”
“Well, look at him, he’s really busy. You should just call him,” my father urged.
I laughed at how eager he was for me to connect with Erik. I certainly hadn’t expected that.
“It’s been months, Dad. I can’t just call him up now.”
“Why not?” my mother added.
“Because it’s been months. Don’t you think it would be a little weird if I suddenly called him out of the blue now?”
My parents were old – they didn’t understand the rules of dating now and how weird it would be if I called him after months of not calling him.
It would have been different if I had called right away after he left. Even if I had called a month la
ter. But now we were going on six months since he had left Aspen. He hadn’t called me and I hadn’t called him. There was no way I could be the person to break down and call the guy now.
“I still think it would be nice of you to call and congratulate him on his success. You two are friends now, right?” my mother said.
“Sure, we are friends. But I wouldn’t know what to say. I can’t call.”
“Where’s his number? I’ll call,” my father offered.
“Dad! You can’t call him; that would be even weirder than me calling.”
My father seemed to think it was funny how I was so worried about him calling. He jumped up from the couch and went to my room. He quickly found the number I had pinned on the bulletin board and started to dial it.
“I’m just going to give him a quick call and tell him he’s invited over for the Fourth of July picnic,” my dad teased me.
“Dad, he’s not going to come help with your ski resort summer picnic. Put the phone down.”
I knew he was bluffing. Ever since I had first started to date in high school, my father had always made sure to try and embarrass me as much as humanly possible with the boys I dated. He did it out of love, and I knew it. I was lucky to have a father who cared so much about me and took an interest in the boys I had in my life. But he certainly wasn’t going to call Erik and invite him to our resort Fourth of July event. That would be totally crazy.