A Bridge of Her Own

by Heywood, Carey

  In the beginning, their place was pretty sparse but even the largest space can fill up over time. Lacey was working for the theater troop she had previously worked with. Their next production was a children’s show, so she would be looking for another gig shortly. Their rent was reasonable, and their main joint expenses, other than that, were cable, heat, water, and groceries. Plus, they each had a cell phone.

  Ronald was the king of the castle. Over time they had acquired a type of scratching post or playhouse in every room. Not that he ever used any of them. More often than not, he would only glance at the one in the living room before curling up in his favorite spot, a perch on the back of the couch. It was close enough to the front window that he could watch the comings and goings of their neighbors.

  Lacey eventually ended up working for the same temp agency Jane had worked for before their road trip. She had not found anything long term yet, but when her shifts were early and not on the weekends, she and sometimes Jane would still help out on whatever show the theater was currently running. At least twice a month, they would go have dinner at the Martins’ house. They would go more often, but they didn’t want to annoy Jane’s parents, and Jane’s mom was such a good cook so they kept it at twice a month.

  Jane began sketching again with time. It began unexpectedly. She would be writing a list and think Ronald looked so cute peering out their front window. Then, with her pen, and using the same paper she had, she drew a cute doodle of him. The next time, she saw the evening light coming in from the window in her room, throwing shadows of a faux birdcage she had on her dresser onto the opposite wall. She took her sketch pad from out of a box on her closet and with a pencil caught the image. It was a wash of the vertical lines of the birdcage framed by the grid pattern of the window.

  She branched back into the world of pastels and paint in baby steps. She found a cool old picture frame at a flea market and painted it hot pink to give to Lacey. She otherwise was a homebody. Lacey dated quite a bit and had been mainly unsuccessful in getting Jane to go on any double dates.

  Flipping through a gossip magazine one day, Jane saw a familiar face. It was an engagement announcement of a Blythe Carlisle to an English footballer. It had been over two years since she had seen Wyatt in Chicago. Jane couldn’t help but wonder what he was up to at that moment. She wondered how long he had been split up with Blythe. She also couldn’t help but wonder how pissed he probably was that she was getting press, and it had nothing to do with him.

  She showed Lacey the magazine clipping when she got home from work.

  “This was the girl in Chicago?” she asked.

  Jane nodded, chewing on her lip.

  “You are so much prettier than her. Ha! This article said her father friggin’ owns a broadcasting company. No wonder Wyatt was dating her." Seeing that Jane was looking contemplative, Lacey said, “Hey let’s get out of here."

  “Ahhh,” was all Jane could come up with.

  “Come on. It’s wicked hot out there,” she said in her best Boston accent. “Grab your suit. Let’s go to the pool" Jane couldn’t really argue with that, so in no time, they were sunbathing. She had a new book. She started reading and zoned out while Lacey flirted with some guys sitting near them. Lacey seemed to be blessed that way, in always finding someone to flirt with. Turns out they were going to be using the pool’s barbeque to cook up some burgers and invited them to join them.

  Not the type to turn down free food from cute boys, Lacey readily accepted. Jane, being polite, put her book away and went to stand with Lacey as she socialized. After standing there in the hot sun for a couple of minutes, Jane felt really uncomfortable and went to take a dip. Following her lead, the group moved to the pool, leaving one grumpy fella over a hot grill.

  Burgers did not take long to cook, though, and once they were ready, Lacey helped gather all of the fixings and some sides and bring them to a picnic table. As Jane was preparing her burger, she got into a conversation on art stuff with someone named Jim. He went on and on about upcoming shows at their local Fine Art Museum, and how cool the exhibit of Picasso had been. If fact, they were the only museum on the East coast that exhibit had come to.

  What a coup, Jane thought. It was very cool that her hometown was becoming so hip on the art scene. It made her also think that she had become very complacent in her current situation. After speaking a bit more and finishing her food, she did a web search on her phone for local museums and galleries.

  When she had first graduated, there were two main art museums in Richmond, and that had not changed, but there were maybe double the galleries she had originally been aware of. She had no interest in quitting her current job because she had to admit it was a sweet gig. She had very flexible hours, as long as there wasn’t a client meeting scheduled, and they were only crazy busy twice a year. She did, however, have pretty open weekends.

  Why hadn’t she even considered being a tour guide at one of the museums in town? Poolside, she navigated to the career page of each website. Nothing currently listed, but they each had weekend hours so tomorrow she would go and check it out. When Lacey came back to her seat, Jane filled her in on her plans for the next day. Lacey could not remember the last time she had seen Jane this excited about something.

  Lacey exchanged numbers with one of the boys from the pool, and then they returned to their apartment. Jane and Lacey each took a quick shower to rinse the chlorine from their hair. All of that sun really wiped Jane out. she tried to stay awake to watch a movie with Lacey but gave up, and scooping Ronald into her arms on the way, went to bed.

  The next morning, she woke up really hopeful to see what she would learn on her trip downtown. She had some cereal and coffee for breakfast and dressed in a smart black jersey wrap dress with the turquoise necklace and earrings she had bought when they were in Santa Fe. Lacey was just waking up as she was walking out the door. As Jane pulled on some strappy sandals, Lacey wished her luck.

  Unfortunately, she had assumed the Sunday hours were the same as the Saturday hours and had to wait around for an hour before either place was open. One museum was also a part of her university. Hoping her alum status might help grease any wheels, she went there first. She was able to find a very helpful tour guide who detailed the various positions that were employed there and what their responsibilities were. She also mentioned that there were various additional people working on site on grant projects.

  Grant projects! Jane could have slapped her own forehead. Why hadn’t she even thought about submitting a grant proposal? She could easily keep her current job to pay the bills and maybe do research on the side. Plus, it would be her grant. As long as she remained within the parameters of the agreement, she would basically be her own boss. This was something she would absolutely need to research further.

  She thanked the woman profusely, and then went on to the other museum. This was the one that hosted the Picasso exhibit. She spoke to someone at the information desk, who was clearly interested in anything other than talking to her. Rude, Jane thought to herself. She could probably do this job better herself. That being said, she was able to discern that they may have a lot of openings prior to new exhibits. It even seemed as though there would be flexible night and/or weekend hours. She thanked the woman for her help and then went to a nearby gallery.

  She had never really checked out a gallery before. This one was very posh. She felt a bit under dressed just walking in. A clerk greeted her and explained the current showing they had. He also gave her a brochure that detailed future shows. Walk-ins during the day were free of charge. There was, however. a nominal fee to attend the first two evening showings of an artist. Not unlike a cover charge to a club.

  Unfortunately, a gallery did not require an extensive staff since the number of items available for purchase was normally on the smaller side. Most galleries were either of a sole ownership or partnership type. The clerk had gotten his job because the owner was his mother’s godfather. He did, however, seem very interested in
seeing some of her work. “We are always on the lookout for local artists,” he explained.

  Always ready to self-deprecate, Jane replied, “Oh, I’m really not any good."

  “Might be interesting either way,” he said, giving her his card. She let him know she would think about it and then left.

  Lacey was chopping up vegetables in the kitchen when she returned.

  “What’s going on here?” she asked, looking around. Neither of them were great cooks.

  “I got sucked into the cooking channel,” Lacey explained. “They made this one pot dish that made me so hungry I had to run to the store, get all the ingredients, and try it."

  Jane confessed she was starved and ate a string cheese while Lacey prepared her masterpiece.

  “I was hoping I would have it in the oven before you got home, but it turns out chopping potatoes takes forever."

  Jane told her all about her day, and Lacey jumped all over the opportunity for someone to look at her work.

  “Jane, your work is amazing, especially all of your drawings of Ron."

  At the sound of his name, Ronald gently padded into the kitchen and wove himself through Lacey’s legs a couple of times before she had to shoo him away because it tickled. Looking offended, he visited his water dish.

  “Jane, you know people go ape shit over cat stuff,” Lacey went on.

  “Even if anyone would be interested in buying any of my work, I think I would go crazy not having them. Like, as if I was selling my babies,” Jane grimaced.

  “That is crazy, Jane. Go make money and become rich and famous. Then hire me to be your personal assistant,” she added with a wink.

  All of her chopping done, she put water then a can of cream of mushroom soup on a large pot and stirred it. She added potatoes, carrots, and celery and again stirred. After placing a large beef roast on top and covering with foil, she placed the pot in the oven.

  “Holy crap, Lacey. That thing will feed us all week,” Jane exclaimed.

  “It was the smallest one I could find,” Lacey said shrugging, then set the timer for four hours on the oven.

  The roast turned out amazing, and the girls did enjoy it two more times that week. The last serving tasted a bit chewy.

  Chapter 20

  Jane was leaving work. 'Ugh', she thought. It was a sticky hot August afternoon. She slid into her four door sedan. Her sunglasses fogged up as she cracked the windows and cranked her air conditioning. She twisted her shoulder length brown hair into a bun. At least the day was over. She shared a townhouse style two story apartment with a girlfriend. The apartment only came with one reserved parking spot, so part of Jane’s daily routine was trying to beat her neighbors to one of the open spots in the lot.

  She was home in no time and called out to her roommate "Honey I'm home" as she kicked off her shoes and dropped her keys in a table by the door.

  Her roommate Lacey was perched on their sofa her feet up on the coffee table hunched over painting her toenails. She was using a bright glittery purple and was adding neon green polka dots. Tame for Lacey. Jane’s orange tabby was curled in a ball at the other end of the sofa. He would lift his head and look at Lacey whenever she made the sofa cushions move.

  “Simmer down Ronald” she fussed at him.

  They had a love hate relationship. It had been a long week. Probably the busiest since tax season had ended, or maybe she was just tired now that summer was over. All Jane wanted to do was curl on the sofa and catch up on her dvr queue. Lacey however had other ideas and promised to do dishes for the next two weeks if Jane would go out.

  Lacey wanted to check out a new bar, she heard was owned by a former boy band star. Jane just hoped a rum and coke there would not cost more than a DVD. Lacey got all dressed up. She wore a fun multi colored dress and some heels her poor toes may never forgive her for. But she was on the shorter side and heels were a daily must wear in her mind.

  Jane opted for a khaki shirt dress and brown sandals. She pulled her hair back in a low pony. Lacey wore her blonde bob styled with the ends curling up versus under. Jane went neutral with her makeup and Lacey bold with green eye shadow. She scratched Ronald behind the ears, making him purr a guttural sound from his throat.

  “Be a good watch kitty” Jane said with a kiss on his nose before she left.

  The bar was pretty packed for how early it was. The girls found a table and ordered a couple of drinks and fries to munch on in lieu of dinner. Then proceeded to people watch. The music was on the loud side so they had to shout their conversation. There was a group of guys in suits next to them. Jane guessed they had come for happy hour and were still here. They looked very relaxed with their loosened ties.

  A couple of them were trying to catch Lacey and Jane’s attention. One brave soul had even asked Lacey if she would like to dance. While she would normally be all for it, this bar did not have a dance floor and she had not drunk enough to be okay with that yet. She turned him down with a smile. Jane observed one guy chuckling to himself at his friend striking out with Lacey. He looked up and caught her watching him. She blushed and looked away.

  Lacey witnessed this exchange and boldly introduced herself to this guy and dragged him over to meet Jane, then took off to the bathroom, or so she claimed.

  “Traitor” Jane muttered to herself.

  She was not very good at talking to strangers, let alone cute strangers of the opposite sex. His name was Gabe. He was tall and had a lanky build. In the dim light of the bar his hair looked either dark blonde or light brown. Jane wasn’t sure and she was guessing his eyes were brown. It was around the time she was deciding that she thought he had a cute smile when she also realized she had not said a word to him yet.

  “Ahhhh” oh Lord what to say “umm…so are you having fun?” was all she could come up with.

  “Sure” he shouted “this place is cool, it’s the first time I’ve ever been here.”

  “Me too!” Jane replied happy to have not only broken the ice but having something in common as well.

  It turned out one of Gabe’s friends bar tended there. Jane explained how Lacey wanted to come to possibly run into a celebrity and she was along for moral support.

  “Oh yeah I guess some famous guy owns the place."

  Wondering where Lacey was, Jane looked around and finally spied her over by the bar waving and giving Jane a double thumbs up. Lacey was lucky Gabe was so cute; otherwise Jane could have killed her for deserting her. Gabe sat in Lacey’s empty stool after Jane confessed she could barely hear him. As he sat down they bumped knees. They both started to apologize and laughed as they tried to speak at the same time. They both fell silent as they each waited for the other.

  “Alright, I’ll go first. So tell me about yourself.” Gabe said.

  Jane was suddenly tongue tied again. “Uhhhh, I just got out of school a couple years ago…err college, not high school…” Why did she say that! Of course he would know she meant college. She cringed. “I work for an accountant and share a place with Lacey who you met earlier. You?” Whew.

  Jane was actually holding a conversation with a stranger and had not said anything too silly.

  “My name is Gabe, as you already know because I told you that before…” Was he nervous too? Jane wondered “I am a history teacher and am spending a lot of time right now renovating a total fixer upper. No roommate other than my dog but I’m not sure anyone would want the live with me, given the state my house is in.”

  “Bummed summer is over?” Jane asked.

  “It’s a toss up” Gabe smiled “it gives me an excuse not to work on the house.” A waitress came up and Gabe asked Jane if she would like another drink.

  “Sure, a rum and coke please” Jane replied.

  Lacey returned at that point and whispered on Jane’s ear "You good?”

  Jane grinned and Lacey went to go talk to Gabe’s friends. Their drinks arrived and Jane daintily sipped hers after thanking Gabe. Lacey returned and informed them that once they were done w
ith their drinks, the whole group was heading over to a dance club down the street. Lacey beamed while Jane panicked. Jane was a terrible dancer so, as far as she was concerned there goes anything with Gabe. They downed their drinks and the group all headed towards the club.

  Jane and Gabe hung to the back of the group and chatted along the way. One of Gabe’s friends, Matt, joined them and began to tell Jane, somewhat intoxicatedly, what a great guy Gabe was. Jane actually felt a rush when she noticed him blush at the compliments and quickly change the subject to ask Matt how his folks were.

  Matt, not easily deterred, went on to tell Jane how even his parents loved Gabe and thought he was a great guy. Jane brought her hand up to cover her mouth and suppress a giggle.

  “Thanks dude” Gabe grumbled.

  “So” Matt asked “have you told her about your Baby?”

  Oh God Jane thought he has a baby! Just my luck I meet a nice guy and I didn’t even consider he may be married or have a girlfriend.

  “I already told Jane I have a dog, I have not told her that my dog's name is Baby.” A dog!!! Jane loved dogs. “I got her from a neighbor who was moving and could not take her and had an unhealthy Dirty Dancing fixation.”

  “I have a cat” Jane grinned “his name is Ronald and he is very spoiled."

  “Ronald, that’s a different name for a cat” Gabe said.

  “He’s orange” Jane said as though that would clearly make sense.

  “Harry Potter?” Gabe asked getting it.

  She nodded enthusiastically. With that they were at the club. Lacey headed straight for the dance floor and started tearing it up. Gabe and Jane found a table and ordered some drinks. Then came the question Jane was dreading