Two Lives, One Friendship, No Regrets - viii.

Sunday evening he heard the front door creak open. He had been sitting at the dining table which he turned into a makeshift drawing board. He had been reviewing the latest sketches when he heard a car pull up and the door open.
Lifting his head, he saw his little sister enter the room.

"Hey Nix, guess who I just saw!"
"Who?"
"Well, I'm not sure if it was her, but I could have sworn I saw Georgia walking up and down Lundy's Lane. She wasn't--"
"I wonder what she was doing there," he thought aloud.
"She looked pretty down," she described the way Georgia was walking aloof. Like she was walking around Niagara trying to occupy herself but she wasn't really altogether there.

"I wanted to walk over to her and say hi, but when I crossed the street she sat on a bench and was crying!"
"What'd you do then?"
"I turned around hoping she didn't see me. I was with a bunch of friends who walked into te arcade anyway. I didn't want her to see that I saw her crying. Knowing Georgia she'd be embarrassed."
"Oh," Phoenix didn't know what to make of this.
When his sister left him to get ready for bed, he reached for the house phone and called Georgia.
No answer. Maybe she stayed overnight.

He wished he wasn't so piled up with work, he could have made a surprise visit. He needed some down time. This project would be over soon, and for that he was anxious. Phoenix had to take it one day at a time.

A week had passed and while he was sketching on a notepad, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration. Why wasn't Georgia picking up his phone calls. She hadn't even returned one of his voice messages, and she was so good at that. So much so that he always teased her about it.

Looking down at his sketch pad, he saw two sad eyes belonging to the object of his frustration. He couldn't get the image of her sad eyes out of his head. He hated to see her sad and wanted nothing but to make her happy any way he could. But how could he do that if she was shutting him out? That was what she was doing wasn't it? If that made her happy then -- No, he told himself. She couldn't simply just cut him out. Could she? She had done if a few times before, but in every instance, he had a girlfriend; was she even aware she did this?

It was Friday already and he had a short meeting or two to attend and a few drafts to rectify.
Aside from those meetings, his day ended rather earlier than the usual 5PM.
He told himself to try her work line to see if she was in. He had a good 20 minutes before his first meeting was to start.

The phone rang two times.
"Good afternoon. Georgia speaking, how may I help you?"
"Finally!" He let out a sigh.
"Hello?" she asked slightly confused.
"Georgia, what's going on?" he gently questioned her.
"Phoenix? Why are you calling me here?" she sounded a bit edgy he noted.
"If I called you on your house line would you have picked up? Or cell phone.. would you have answered if I called your cell phone?" He didn't really want to know the answer. He knew it already.
He continued, "I just wanted to know if you were free to come out tonight."
She hesitated and answered, "Sorry, I've got plans already."
"Oh, that's fine. Maybe some other time then," he replied trying to hide his disappointment.
"Ok, some other time then," she sounded a bit relieved. He heard muffled voices in the background.
"Phoenix, I really have-"
"It's ok, Gi. Bye," he cut her off.

Shoving his cell phone back in his pocket he wondered if all of this was because of Ryan. She never liked talking about things like that with him. A part of him was relieved that he didn't have to go through that much drama with Georgia, that is until now. But sad thing was, he felt her slowly slipping out of his life. Whoa, who is being dramatic now?! he thought. But it was true. She could talk on forever and he wouldn't mind, so why wouldn't she tell him what was going on? Perhaps she was just too busy at work.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, he reminded himself that she did say she had plans. Maybe she found a replacement already, for Ryan that is; not me he thought - not knowing why he needed to point that distinction out ro himself.

Without thinking twice he ripped the paper out from his notepad, folded it up and tucked it in the breast pocket of his polo shirt.

Shrugging away the questions forming in his head, he walked to his car, and made plans to see Fresca. He had something important to tell her and it would be something that may ruin their budding friendship. He had to take the chance. He didn't want her to assume things were headed into the relationship phase.

He didn't think he would be ready for such commitment.