Wrong Return Time Thomas Dixon   © Copyright 2023 by Thomas Dixon

Photo by Jenna Stensland on Unsplash

The sun blazed behind the thick woodland lining the sides of route 29. The blazing only broke for the odd out-of-business store building and gas stations. My truck hummed against the road. Traffic in the rural south is famously sparse, and today was no different. I was making good time and I would be home in about an hour.

I usually worked close to town as a reporter in Pittsylvania county, but today a story took me to central Virginia. I had worked most of the day talking to people in the heat and going to various spots to expand the details of my story. After getting everything I needed to write an in-depth investigative story, I was excited at the thought of heading back home and doing absolutely nothing for the few hours of freedom I had before bed heading to bed.

The drive home helped me decompress. Being a small-town journalist can be tough. Everyone wants to tell you their own perspective and they get upset when the story doesn’t come out in the way they wanted, with their perspective being dominant. This story was no different, but a little John Prine helped me get back to myself and not worry about the impending critique of my soon to be article.

My phone buzzed. I looked down and saw that Annie, my girlfriend, was calling me. Annie lived down the road from me with her folks, but she came over to my place often to watch movies and make meals together.

I picked up the phone. “Hey cutie pie,” I said.

“Hey, baby,” she said. “Are you on your way back?”

“Yeah, I’m heading back now.”

“What time are you gonna be back? Can we watch a movie tonight?”

I paused before answering her question. I was looking forward to being by myself and enjoying some me time. It’s not that I didn’t want to see Annie, I just wanted to be by myself more. There was no way I could tell her I’d rather not send the evening with her upfront, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. “Uh, I’ll be home in about three hours,” I finally blurted out, breaking the pause.

“Okay, sounds good!” Annie sounded happy. “Have you eaten?”

“Not yet,” I said.

“I’ll make you a charcuterie board and we can eat that.”

“Now that sounds delicious.”

“Okie dokie, I’ll make you that for tonight. See you soon. I love you.”

“I love you too,” I said and we ended the call. I tried to kill two birds with one stone; giving myself some me time and spending time with Annie. While the saying goes, ‘you can please some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time. You can’t please all the people all of the time.’ I was determined to please everyone all the time. I knew what I was telling Annie was a bit of a lie, it wasn’t a big one. As long as she doesn’t find out then no one would be hurt. I stepped on the gas so I could get home sooner. My me time window was closing fast.

I soon got back home to the little town of Chatham. I immediately, got out of my work clothes and took a good hot shower to melt the stress away. Now squeaky clean, I plopped on my couch in front of my television, turned on my Xbox and loaded up The Witcher. I fell completely into the fictional world showed on my television screen. I triumphed over monsters, ghouls, and fantastical beasts. Nearly defeating a werewolf, Annie walked in the front door with grocery bags using the spare key I gave her a few weeks ago.

We looked at each other. We both knew she caught me in my little white lie. It had been only about forty-five five minutes since I made it back home, so she was early by over an hour.

“Hey baby, you’re back soon than I thought you’d be,” she said. She walked past me to put the groceries in the kitchen. My hair was still a bit wet from my shower.

“Yeah,” I said. “I haven’t really been checking the time. I thought I’d play some Witcher while I waited.” The tone in my voice lacked the confidence needed to be any sort of cover up or explanation. She didn’t respond to what I said and continued in the kitchen with the charcuterie board.

After a ten or so minutes, Annie brought out our cheesy dinner, complete with four different kind of cheese, crackers, cuts of meat, olives, savory jam, sweet jams, and the rest. Annie pulled out all the stops. I noticed she had on a pair of my pajamas.

“I wanted to have all this set up before you got back,” she said.

“It’s okay, this spread looks amazing.”

“How long have you been back?”

“Not too long, but I’m not really sure,” I said. Annie softly squinted her eyes, glancing at my hair. “What do you want to watch?” I asked.

“I’m in the mood for something foreign,” Annie said looking at the television screen.

“I think I know just the movie.” My stomach turned while I pulled up the movie ‘Amélie.’ We began the movie. I couldn’t enjoy it. My mind raced at the thought I was caught in a lie. I knew that she knew that I was lying to her about when I’d be home. I wasn’t sure why she didn’t confront me on it. Maybe she halfway expected me to be a liar. Maybe I disappointed her so deeply she wanted to run from the feeling too. The frequency of my downward spiraling thoughts pumped my heart faster and faster, until it nearly burst out of my chest.

I reached for the remote and paused the movie. I turned to Annie and said, “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said back.

“Before we continue the movie, I wanna say I’m sorry for lying to you. I feel rotten for about it.”

“You know you didn’t have to do it, right?”

“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

“Baby, it’s not going to hurt my feelings if you want some time to yourself. What hurts is the fact that you felt the need to lie to get that time. Do you feel like I’ve been too clingy?”

I never felt like she was too clingy. “No, you’re not clingy,” I tried to assure her. I didn’t want to tell her I was afraid of setting boundaries.

“Okay, then next time, just say that you want some time to yourself,” she said.

“I will,” I said.

Annie leaned over and kissed me. “good,” she said with a smile.

I leaned over and kissed her back. My heart slowed down and my anxiety subsided. We continued with the movie and held each other while we watched a young French woman stumble through a love life of her own.