The Last Time I Saw Marie Daniels

I was surprised when I saw the name. Marie Daniels. The last time I saw Marie Daniels was at a barbecue in July, 2010. Before that it had been September, 2008, and when I saw her that September it had been the first time since we broke up in August, 2006. I was surprised when I saw she'd emailed me because it wasn't summer, and it had been more than two years since we'd talked.

Marie's email wasn't long. It said, "Are you still alive? Best wishes, Marie."

In September 2008, I was working at a bar in Albany. I was making a lot of money, and I liked the work. Me and Ellen had just broken up, and I was pretty depressed about it, but being a bartender was a pretty good way to meet interesting women, as those things go. In general, I met a lot of interesting people, and the hours moved by pretty quickly.

I got a text from Marie one night. We had a pretty good talk.

Marie: "Hey, haven't seen you in a while. How are you?"

Me: "I'm okay. Work is pretty slow tonight. How are you?"

Marie: "I'm okay too. Was just thinking about how it's been two whole years since we've hung out. Seems crazy. I kinda miss you.

Me: "Yeah, I miss you too. Haha, 'kinda'. What are you doing with your life?"

Marie: "I teach little kids under 5, so I'm pretty happy with that part of my life. I've been traveling, but I want to travel more."

Me: "I get that. Yeah. I guess I haven't been to a lot of places. Where've you been going?"

Marie: "In the last year Baltimore, Boston, Raleigh, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Costa Rica"

Me: "Shit. That's a lot. Damn, that seems good."

Marie: "Anyway, listen, I'm having some people over tomorrow night, you should come. It'd be nice to catch up. It's just going to be casual, just some friends drinking."

Me: "Okay, sure. That sounds good."

Marie: "I'm excited to see you :)"

So the next night I drove over to her house. Marie always made sure that her house looked nice, so I wasn't surprised to see that the place was freshly painted. I had a bottle of gin with me, even though Marie said I didn't need to bring anything.

Marie answered the door. She had long brown hair and small brown eyes. She was wearing a blue dress with white flowers, and her breasts looked very round. She gave me a hug and a light kiss on the cheek. I held up the bottle of gin and grinned. Marie grinned too.

When me and Marie were dating she had hardwood floors, but I noticed right away that she had switched to carpeting.

"You have carpeting now," I said.

Marie laughed. We walked straight through the house, into the backyard. Marie introduced me around to the four or five other people who were there. We sat down at the picnic table with them.

"I don't think I've got any tonic water," Marie was saying, "But I've got limes if you don't mind cutting them up."

"Sure," I said. I liked cutting limes.

Cutting limes is easy. You cut them in half first. Then you take the halves and you put them face down, peel up. Cut each halve into thirds, cutting lengthwise. You can do quarters if you like, but I like thirds. They look nicer, I think, and I like a lot of lime in my drink. I cut about thirty slivers of lime in this manner, and then I lit a cigarette.

Marie poured the gin into blue plastic cups, full to the top with ice, and I dropped slivers of limes into each cup. It was funny that we were drinking out of plastic cups, but I guess Marie was worried that we'd break her nice glasses. I took the rest of the limes and put them in the middle of the table. Marie made a face and put the limes in a bowl.

Marie and the two other women there were talking about something that had happened in their dorm in college. The two men asked if I liked football, which I like okay but don't know a lot about. I was a lot more interested in hearing about what happened in Marie's dorm and I said so. Everyone laughed, me included, even though I was serious.

Marie passed around the gin and I passed around the limes and after that happened a couple times I started noticing how warm Marie's leg felt, pressed against mine. Her legs were a little slick with sweat, and I bet mine were too. It was hot, after all. You can't blame someone for being a little sweaty when it's hot like that.

I heard Marie say, "Oh, we used to love that movie. We used to watch that movie all the time," she said. I nodded even though I hadn't been listening.

It was right around then that Marie took my hand, which had been sitting on my knee, and put it on her thigh. Then she took her hand, which had been sitting on her knee, and put it on my cock. I lit a cigarette and tried not to look surprised. I smoked with my right hand and put my left hand up her dress. We continued like that for a little while.

Eventually I was having a hard time keeping my face neutral. I told everyone that I was going to go to the bathroom. I figured either Marie would follow me or she wouldn't, but either way I needed a minute away from the others. I'm not sure what I would've done if Marie hadn't followed me, but she did.

I heard Marie say from behind me, "Did you just come here to have sex with me?"

I turned around. I looked at her face but I wasn't sober enough to figure out what she meant. She was smiling, at least.

"Did you ask me here to have sex with me?" I asked.

My mother used to say that it was rude to answer a question with a question, but I thought it would be alright in this case.

"I'm not really sure," she answered.

We stared at each other like that for a long time. In that manner it was settled. We were staring at each other the same way in the bedroom later. I could hear other people getting drunker on my gin in the backyard, mostly because of how quiet it was in the bedroom.

"I don't get it," Marie said.

I shook my head. "I don't know what to say."

"Do you want me to try putting it in my mouth again?"

"I don't know if it would do any good," I said.

Marie sighed. She took a cigarette out of my pack, but I didn't mind her not asking. I figured she was entitled to one of my cigarettes. I smoked one too.

"What now?" she asked.

"I'll probably go after this cigarette," I answered.

I didn't bother saying goodbye to the people outside. I figured Marie could explain it well enough, and I didn’t remember their names anyway. I went home and got a pretty rude text message from Marie a couple of hours later, but I didn't mind too much. She seemed entitled to that, too.

That was that. But like I said, I had seen her once since then at a barbecue in July, 2010, and we had a perfectly good time.