With a full tank of gas and his bags in the trunk, Lenny enjoyed the ocean breeze whip across his face at 60 mph. McDonalds’s wrappers lined the passenger seat. Lenny felt a little guilty about eating such bad food, but he was hungry. His first trip to McDonalds he ordered a super-sized double quarter pounder with cheese meal. While the burger was delicious, its juicy fat tasting sweet on his lips, it was not filling. He pulled up the sweater and looked down at his stomach. If anything, it had sunk in a little more after the meal. He definitely needed a second stop.

Lenny pulled up to the drive through for McDonalds. Three cars were in front of him, and he waited, tapping his steering wheel to the music. He popped the cassette from the radio and began unwinding the tape. He pulled up slowly as the cars in front of him inched forward, stopping at the first window to pay and then pulling up to the second window to collect their lunches. The car in front of him left the ordering speaker, and Lenny drove up next to it. He leaned out the window and studied the selection.

“May I take your order,” the speaker said.

“A number 1 super-sized,” Lenny screamed into the speaker box. The Big Mac meal appeared on the TV screen along with its price.

“What would you like to drink with that,” the speaker said.

“Sprite,” Lenny said.

“That’ll be five fifty three, please drive up to the first window,” the speaker said. Lenny grinned at the thought of the burger and fries. He had eaten his first super-sized fries too quickly. He was going to savor this serving.

Lenny decided to eat the meal in his car. He pulled into a vacant spot and started munching away, stuffing ten fries into his mouth at a time. The Big Mac disappeared in a few bites, and the fries quickly followed. As he was sipping his Sprite, the phone rang. He wiped his hands on his jeans and reached into his pocket, arching his back and pushing his leg up to position himself to have access to his pocket, and removed his phone.

“Hello?” Lenny said.

“How are you doing,” Samantha said. Lenny looked at the phone in surprise. He wiped his lips with his hand and did not say anything for a few minutes.

“Are you still there? I guess you must be kind of surprised to hear from me,” Samantha said.

“That’s putting it lightly. I thought you were done with me. Didn’t you say something about never wanting to see my emaciated face again—or something about not know how to love someone who is healthy, I forget exactly what you said, but I know it wasn’t pretty,” Lenny said.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about our last conversation, Lenny. And I wanted to apologize to you. I know you’ve been under pressure from your family, your aunt’s sickness, and now work. I spoke with Jake and he told me what happened. He’s a real bastard if you ask me. I can’t believe he would do that to you. Especially after everything you started to accomplish there over the last couple of weeks,” Samantha said.

“I think that was part of the problem. I started working again, but I didn’t have the same talents that I used to have. I worried more about pleasing the clients than creating good work. I was coasting for too long. I should have kept relying on the junior drafters to get the work done, but I started thinking I could work again. You know how that goes with me. I’m either all there or all nowhere. I guess I should have stayed nowhere for a longer while,” Lenny said, taking a long sip from his Sprite, sucking all the soda from the cup through the large mouthed straw.

“I think you did the right thing. Jake had to make a business decision. I hate him for doing it, but it was his choice. You have been slacking off quite a bit for a long time. I’m surprised he let it go on as long as he did. It’s just his timing was awful. He should have waited at least until you were back on your feet,” Samantha said.

“I was never really off of my feet,” Lenny said.

“You haven’t been yourself lately, Lenny. I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you’ve been focused on some strange things. Like the sweater. Why do you keep wearing that same sweater? If you’re going to wear something for weeks at a time, at least wash it. I understand when five year olds do that, but I can’t understand how you, a supposedly grown man, could do that,” Samantha said.

“I never claimed to be fully grown, and I take offense at even that suggestion,” Lenny said, and he felt Samantha smile.

“No, I would never have thought of you as fully grown either, Lenny. That’s one of the things I liked about you. You were like a young boy, always fascinated by new and interesting things. But lately, those new and interesting things have become stale. And I won’t even get into your selfishness,” Samantha said.

“In a stressful time, I forget our anniversary and I turn into the worst man in the world. Don’t you know why sitcoms always have episodes where the man forgets his anniversary? It’s because that’s what we do. We’re simple creatures and there are certain things that are important to us, and other things that are not important to us. It doesn’t mean that we don’t care about you. It’s just that dates do not have as much meaning for us. Why is that day so important for you,” Lenny said.

“Because it’s the date when first went out. As of now, it’s the only day we have during the whole year during which we can celebrate our love. Isn’t that reason enough to celebrate it?” Samantha said.

“I celebrated our love every day. I don’t know what you were doing during those days, but I cherished every moment with you,” Lenny said.

“Sweet talking will not get you very far, Lenny. I never put demands on you. I just asked for a few simple things: compliments from time to time, like, boy, that dress sure looks fine, or, wow, did you get a haircut? You look really great. Flowers, but you were always good at getting me flowers and stuffed animals, so I can’t complain that much there. The only other thing I wanted from you was for you to remember two dates: my birthday and our anniversary. You could forget every other day in the calendar year, but during those two days, I wanted you to celebrate with me. And you missed one, and not for the first time. This is just the time where I drew the line,” Samantha said.

“So you called to berate and belittle me again? To rub in how much of an asshole I am? I’ve been doing that to myself for the last few days and I don’t need your help,” Lenny said.

“Really, I would have thought you wouldn’t have thought about me for the last few days. I bet if we went back and read all your thoughts, there would be almost no mention of me. It’s like, maybe, I just disappeared. Poof. There would be no record of me, and you would go on with your life. Is that what happened, Lenny? Did you forget that I existed and write me off? Were you more worried about your lost job than your lost love?” Samantha said.

“Who ever said I had a love to lose?” Lenny said.

There was silence.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. My mouth just goes off on its own sometimes. You know, it’s a defensive reaction. I did—I do love you, Samantha. You must know that,” Lenny said.

“Then you have a really funny way of showing it,” Samantha said. He heard the tears in her voice and his heart went out to her. He hated to make her sad. He hated seeing her upset. He just wanted to hold her and pretend like none of this had ever happened.

“Samantha, it’s been a very strange few weeks. I have so much I wanted to tell you about what has been happening to me. It’s been so amazing lately, so many things I’ve known and seen, but I was afraid to share it with you. I was afraid to share it with anyone,” Lenny said.

“What are you talking about, Lenny? Does this have something to do with work?” Samantha said.

“No, it has nothing to do with work. It has to do with my aunt,” Lenny said.

“Again with your aunt! I don’t understand your relationship with her. You idolize that woman. What is it about her that you find so fascinating? Wait. I’m not sure I want to hear about this,” Samantha said.

“It’s nothing like that, Samantha. It’s definitely nothing like that. I respected my aunt. She’s a wonderfully smart lady who taught me a great many things, but it’s not what she taught me before she got sick that I’m talking about. It’s what she gave me,” Lenny said.

“So it’s the sweater? Is that what this is all about? You’ve finally found a piece of clothing that you can say you really, really enjoy, and now you want to wear it all the time? If you just told me that you had a fetish for sweaters, I would have bought you a whole closet full of them, and nicer ones at that,” Samantha said.

“It’s not just any sweater, it’s this sweater. It’s a very special sweater,” Lenny said.

“Okay, now I’m sure I don’t want to hear about this. It’s about the sweater being pink, isn’t it? I’ve always wondered about you. You were too sensitive of a guy, you enjoyed all the wrong types of movies, and you were an artist. Jesus, I should have seen this coming months ago. Is it another guy? Do I know him? It isn’t Jake, I hope! You must have better taste than him,” Samantha said.

“No, no. It’s not that either. I’m still very much the man I was three weeks ago. I don’t want to talk about this over the phone. Can we meet somewhere? I’d love to take you out to dinner—somewhere neutral, and if, after you hear my story, you don’t understand what I’ve been going through, or, more likely, you think I’m crazy, then we can go our separate ways and you won’t feel guilty. At least you would have tried. What do you say? I’m hungry and I’d love to see you,” Lenny said. The McDonald’s smells in the car should have turned him off to just the idea of food, but he could not wait to eat again. He was thinking about a large steak as he waited for Samantha’s answer.

“Well, I haven’t eaten yet, but it is a bit early for dinner. What do you say we meet at 7pm? Since this is your I’m an asshole dinner, I will choose. Let’s go to Oysters. They have some deliciously expensive oysters that I will be ordering by the truckload. You did say you were paying, right?” Samantha said.

“Of course, and Oysters will be great. I’ll make a reservation and I’ll see you there tonight. You’re going to understand a lot more after tonight. I promise you that,” Lenny said.

“At this time, I don’t care what I understand. I’m just looking forward to the oysters,” Samantha said.

“Asshole tax?” Lenny said.

“You read my mind,” Samantha said.

“We watched Fight Club too many times,” Lenny said.

“We did that because you loved that movie, hun. We did a lot of things because you loved it,” Samantha said.

“I will make it up to you, Samantha. You’ll see. I’ll see you later,” Lenny said and hung up the phone. There was no reason to hide anything from Samantha anymore. In another day, he would be leaving California, and he was either going to do that alone or with her at his side. If she believes him and wants to help or not, either way he choice has been made.

Word count: 2,071

Words left: 12,209

Caffeination: None

Feeling: Who cares? I just pounded out 2k words, I moved the plot forward by an inch, and I only have at this pace another 6 days of writing left after which I will never, ever, ever have to think about a stupid sweater and how I can ruin a poorly thought-out and planned story about said sweater. What could be better?