From inside the car, Blakey watched Jeanette close up the yellow-bright mattress store. He lost sight of her for a few minutes, then the store lights vanished. The night was purple. “This can’t end well,” he said aloud. Jeanette will have an ex-boyfriend (or unmentioned ex-husband) that’ll come back into the picture, (“suddenly showed up again, can you believe it?”) or she’ll simply discover whatever qualities Lizzie discovered that made her leave him. Or if not that, then things will deteriorate simply because he (and probably Jeanette, too) are on their best behavior. They’ve known each other, what, two weeks? They’re as nice as possible, accommodating, as interesting and interested as they can stand to be. And though it’s genuine now, sure, he knows it can’t be forever. He couldn’t possibly be genuinely interested in someone else for the rest of his life, could he?
So, for the moment, sitting in his car, watching Jeanette lock the store and adjust her scarf and head toward him within a clear circle surrounded by fogged window, all bundled up and now turning her brisk walk into a jog as she came toward the car—though whether to get out of the cold or see him, he couldn’t be sure—right in this moment, he took the happiness he felt and swallowed. He leaned over, unlocked the passenger door, and pushed it open towards her. The air that rushed in was frigid, face slapping. He felt the past rush out.
Jeanette is impossible to read until, halfway to him, he detects an extra skip in her stride. Even given half of this moment, say if Jeanette were only to come within ten feet of his car and no closer, he’d feel happier than he thought he would again—and happier than he’s been in at least a couple years. Jeanette is halfway to him, then halfway again, then suddenly she is inside the car, inside his car, Blakey’s car, Blakey’s hunk of junk, and her lips, freshly minted, are on his lips, his chapped lips, and her breath-cold tongue goes past meeting and takes only seconds before it, too, is warm like everything else.
“Let’s go,” she says, then makes a shivering brrrrr sound. “C’mon. I could cut glass with my tits.”
And he starts driving without knowing where to.
FACT: Blakey is in love.
FACT: Blakey is in love.
FACT: Blakey is in love.
Facts About Blakey first appeared in The Southern Review.
To read the other stories in this collection, please purchase Facts About Blakey on Amazon.
Table of Contents
Cover
Also by Franz Neumann
The Path Of All That Falls
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Book Information
Author Information
Dear Reader
Bonus Content
Promises of the Head to the Heart
Facts About Blakey
Table of Contents
Cover
Also by Franz Neumann
The Path Of All That Falls
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Book Information
Author Information
Dear Reader
Bonus Content
About
Promises Of The Head To The Heart
Facts About Blakey
The Path Of All That Falls Page 36
