Heather McCondichie

Dr. Mitchell

ENGL 3200

4 September 2008

No shirt, no shoes . . .  no interview

            Andy and Carrie had always been happy, or at least that was what Andy thought. When he took Carrie as his wife 1 year and 3 months ago, he never could have imagined them in this position. As Andy pulled into his driveway he noticed a huge pile of charred remains in the nice manicured lawn of their suburban home.

            Damn it, he thought to himself, I didn’t think Carrie had it in her.

            He knew that he had pissed her off, but he did not think that she would be this angry. He thought for sure that she would understand. It wasn’t like he had slept with Deanna, all he had done was seen her for lunch. Hell, lunch wasn’t even a date, lunch was just something you did with friends.

            As Andy climbed the staircase to the master bedroom, his laughter and surprise turned to anger.

            “Wow. Is she psycho? She burnt all of my clothes, not just half my closet, she burnt the whole damn thing!” Andy cursed out loud to himself.

            Today was the meeting that would make or break Andy’s career. He had a job, and was doing pretty well, but today he had an interview with a company that would pay him twice what he was making now.

            She had to have remembered that today was the interview; there is no way she could have forgotten. After all, they had plans to go out to dinner that night.

            What a bitch, Andy thought. She is not just hurting me, this hurt her as well. Where the hell am I going to get clothes and get to the interview on time?

            Andy tried three different stores, but his credit card was declined at all of them, even his debit card would not work. It seemed as though Carrie had taken out just enough money to prevent him from getting something to go to work in, because he was able to get a cup of coffee at the Starbucks, across the street from the Joseph A. Banks.

            What could have driven her to this place? And what the hell was he going to do about this interview Andy thought as he settled down into a chair at a table on the patio. The events of last night re-played them self in his head.

            “I hate you! I absolutely hate you!” Carrie screamed at the top of her lungs.

            “Oh my gosh, you can’t be serious. Carrie it was a lunch date, a lunch and nothing more. It’s not like I kissed her. Damn it. We just had lunch.”

            “It means more than you could ever know,” Carrie screamed back through the tears.

            The ring of his cell-phone snapped Andy back into reality. As he looked down to see who it was he found himself hoping it was Carrie. He had missed her pretty face this morning, and her “Good morning sweetheart” as he rolled over to kiss her. But the reality of the call could not have been farther from that perfect little image in his head.

            It was Ms. Weston, the secretary for Steve Holden, the man he was interviewing with today.

            “Mr. Holden has been detained in a meeting early this morning, and he wanted to make you aware that he will not be available to do the interview until 1:00pm this afternoon rather than 12:30.”

            “Okay, thank-you Ms. Weston.”

            It would not matter if he put off the interview until tonight, Carrie still wouldn’t talk to him. Wow, I actually haven’t tried to call her yet, thought Andy.

            He picked the phone back up and dialed the familiar numbers of Carrie’s cell phone.

            “Hey y’all it’s Carrie. I am not available to take your call right now, please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

            Andy didn’t even bother. He just hung up the phone and settled back into his chair. The lunch with Deanna came flooding back to his mind. He tried to recall why it was such a big deal. Sure he and Deanna had dated back in high school, and maybe he thought that he was going to marry her; but none of that mattered now. He was happily married to Carrie and they were trying to have children. Besides, Deanna had broken his heart the day that she moved away. For months, he tried to make a long distance relationship work, but Deanna wanted no part of it. She had moved on with her life, and she was married with a step-child long before Andy and Carrie had even thought about getting married.

            Deanna had been in town on business and was flying back that night. It’s not like she had called him to tell him the moment that she got there. In fact, she had been in town for two days before she even called him.

            The lunch had been so innocent; all that Andy had done was rave and rave about his life with Carrie and how they were trying for children. If he had known that Carrie was going to make such a big deal out of it, he never would have told her.

            Maybe she was really angry about the fact that he had been a half hour late for dinner. Maybe that was what was really bothering her. No it couldn’t have been. In fact, they were working on a big account at work and Andy had been late for the past two weeks, and Carrie had just changed the time of dinner rather than complaining.

            Maybe one of her patients had pissed her off, and she took it out on Andy. Who knows, but the fact is that there was no way that she could have been that angry about a little lunch.

            He had always cared for Carrie, she was the love of his life. Surely she had to know that. There was no way that she couldn’t. Andy had always done everything in his power to make sure that Carrie knew that. Especially when they were dating, he always wrote her little notes in the morning and put them on her car, or he would call just to tell her that he loved her. Once or twice he brought home a dozen roses just because.

            The more Andy thought about the situation, a revelation came to him. Perhaps that pile of burnt clothing in the yard had not been his biggest problem.

            Andy quickly pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the number of Mr. Holden’s office.

            Ms. Weston answered the phone, “Steve Holden’s office, how may I help you?”

            “Yes, Ms. Weston, this is Andy Fuller, I have a 1:00pm appointment with Mr. Holden. I have had a small family emergency come up and I will not be able to make it. Will you please let him know that I will call him and reschedule sometime next week.”

            Next Andy picked up the phone and dialed the number of the hospital, he spoke with Carrie’s boss and their good friend Melissa.

            “Hey Mel, its Andy. Listen, I am going to need you to do me a big favor.”

            “It better have to do with making all of this up to Carrie”

            “It does, I promise. I need you to rearrange the schedule and get her a 4 day weekend. Do you think you can manage that?”

            “Yeah, I have some other nurses who were looking to pick up extras shifts.”

            “Oh and I know this last request is going to be a hard one, but please do not tell her!”

            “Okay Andy, I promise I won’t.”

            “Thanks, Mel,” Andy said as he hung up the phone.

            The next thing that Andy did was call up to a little resort in the mountains and arrange for a weekend getaway for the two of them.

            Everything was finally perfect, and it was time to try and call Carrie again.

            “What?” Carrie answered the phone.

            “Listen baby, I am so sorry. I know I hurt you, and I just, well never mind there is no excuses. I am sorry.”

            “For what?” Carrie asked, trying to make sure Andy understood what exactly it was that made her angry.

            “For having lunch with Deanna, and not asking you first.”

            “Damn it Andy, that is not what I am angry about. Don’t you get it?”

            Andy was silent, he thought he knew where Carrie was going with this, but he was not sure.

            “I’m not pissed that you had lunch with Deanna, that is not the problem. You and Deanna are friends, I am not trying to take that away from you. I got over my insecurity about her a long time ago. You are my husband and I love you, but damn it you do not act like it anymore. Hell, you haven’t been home for dinner in weeks, you work late at the office every night, and now you want to get a new more time consuming job. Damn it Andy, don’t you realize that I need you? I am your wife, and I want you to love me again. I want to know that you love me again.”

            Andy smiled to himself. He had not lost touch with Carrie as much as she thought, in fact he had nailed this one right on the head.

            “Well how does a weekend getaway to the mountains sound to you? I am on my way to get you now. We will go home, pack up the bags and leave.”

            “Andy! What about your interview?” Carrie asked in shock.

            “Well I called and told them that I had a ‘family emergency’ and that I would have to re-schedule the interview, but you and I will talk about that while we are away and decide if me taking that job is the best thing for us.”

            “Oh Andy, are you serious? I am so surprised that you realized all of this. It was not the lunch with Deanna. It was the fact that you found time to have lunch with her, when you do not even have time to write me a note in the morning anymore.”

            “Like I said, I love you Carrie and I am going to do anything I have to prove that to you.”

            “You aren’t mad about your clothes?”

            “Well I didn’t think you had it in you, but no I am not mad. We will just have to replace them I guess.”

            “Can I confess something?”

            “Yes . . .” Andy replied, a little scared of what she was going to say.

            “Your clothes are in the back seat of my car. Melissa let me borrow Frank’s old clothes and I reported the credit cards stolen in order to prove a point. Oh and I have already put all of our money back into the account.”

            “Very clever, I am impressed.” Andy chuckled to himself as he pulled into the hospital parking lot.