Saturday I went to the literacy festival and Matt was there. We talked most of the time I was there. I mean, he freaked me out last week, but I was really looking forward to seeing him then. I knew he was going because of the Boss talking to him on the phone. Nothing major happened, and he had to go home (which was right before it poured rain and everyone's car started getting stuck in the muddy field). But I knew I'd see him briefly on Tuesday at least since he had to come in to download his photos.
Production day was a bitch, though I had fun, I'll admit. Only because I was assigned to teach Matt quark and do the Lennoxville pages. Luckily, Boss missed that Matt and I were spending most of our headline writing time laughing at all the bad headlines we were writing. The proofer (one should never listen to the proofer) told Matt some shit about pop songs for titles and got us all screwed up. So Matt and I spent most of the afternoon laughing at the words "Flaming firefighters." Especially hilarious in the context of the photo of the fireman with no pants. Matt and I couldn't write a decent headline to save our lives.
And then Boss came to look at our pages. The proofer had busted my ass until I put the headline on top of the photo. Then Boss was like, "What the hell is this?" And the proofer was like, "Yeah, that's the style."
Needless to say, I was glad Matt was there to laugh knowingly at all the bad prooferisms yesterday.
I had spent the morning writing a story about the youth centre claiming it wanted half the beer tent profits from an event earlier this summer. So I started the story then with just the kid who wrote the letter, the coordinator, who had encouraged the kid who wrote the letter, and the treasurer of the event committee. I was locked in the accountants office writing when the president finally called back. So that was fine, and that went on the front page along with an amazing photo I took of a kid playing trombone. After all the proofer crap, Matt and I driving each other to distraction with pun headlines, and the usual production stress (including a new one - I burned myself with the wax gun we use to paste up ads and such to the proofs), the president of the youth group called back. At 6:15. We go out at 6:30. I got off the phone at 6:30 and had to completely rewrite my story again.
And the wax was cold and the driver called me sweetheart (the man's name is Butch, he's 6' and 300 pounds. And he's incoherent). So I was not having fun. The boss had locked himself in his office to completely rewrite his editorial and it was just stress, stress, stress...
I left the office at 7:30. It was hard to believe.
Oh, and the paper starts going out on Thursdays next week. Which is a shock. And the people in charge of the money that pays for me to be here are coming around to interview Ross and I for their report. So Boss and I have to look like "le patron" and "Lois Lane". Yeesh. I've never seen Boss wear anything but jeans and shorts with raggedy t-shirts.
I'm having fun. I think that was thankfully due to Matt keeping me sane yesterday by being a witness to the Malcolm madness. And he was calm by any stretch of the imagination yesterday, compared to what things are normally like in this office.
Matt and I are together. That's an important story, I guess. Tuesday night after I escaped with the paper done, Matt came back and stopped to talk - he had been at dinner at his aunt's or something, and he came back to check to see if things got out okay - and we stood there for a long time talking - until my back hurt from leaning into his window and he had a crook in his neck from turning his head. So we walked halfway across town and he showed me the creepy abandoned house that used to be his mother's family's. Then we decided I really should eat since I hadn't eaten since lunch. By the time we got back by way of the bike trail (which was so pretty at sunset) everything was closed. So we kept walking, and ended up sitting in the park on the swings talking until we were both damp and cold. So then we sat in his car until 4 a.m. He confessed, in the course of our conversations about everything, that he took the job mostly because he wanted a reason to see me again. I mean, it is a temporary thing, right? But still... that was pretty impressive.
So he wrote down his number for me, and I promised to call. He called yesterday morning and asked if I wanted to go hang out at the radio station with him since he was filling in for his roommate's show.
I ended up on air, talking about many random topics with Matt and Alex, the station manager who was really filling in. Matt just needed to be there to fill some time for things.
After we left the radio station, which was a completely bizarre experience, though Alex did play Al Tuck for me, Matt and I went to get something to drink and then we went down to the head of the lake. I was immediately cold (I can blame the three bouts of hypothermia I had in six months at 15 for me lack of temperature control) so I was wearing his jacket. We sat down on this gazebo that looks out over the lake and talked, but then these gabby old ladies came along so we moved to a quieter bench and looked at the stars. We talked about the constellations, and then Matt made his second confession - which didn't make a heck of a lot of sense. He told me there was something about my eyes. Yeah, it was sweet, and very romantic considering the setting. So we looked at each other for a long time and he, after muttering about indecision, kissed me. Sparing everyone the sappy details, I felt slightly odd about making out with someone on a bench in the centre of a well-lit town. But it didn't matter because kissing Matt was pretty distracting in a very good way.
Eventually, my hypothermia kicked in full swing and I was shivering so we went back to Matt's car, and made out more. He said all sorts of wonderful things about me, including that it was the purple nailpolish that did it for him in the beginning.
He and I have discussed that this whole relationship feels fated - us meeting, the job being available, running into each other when we have. And I'm glad because last night was wonderful and if those times keep up, the rest of this summer is going to be great.
I'm glad gas is cheap so it's not going to cost Matt a fortune to get here from his house all the time.
No, this is really the last add on this week. I ended up seeing Matt last night, which was completely unexpected. I had to cover a meeting, and then I met him afterwards, on the bench where we'd been sitting the night before. It was amazing. Until the cops knocked on the door. Luckily I'm very good at getting caught and not being caught.
It was very funny afterwards. I'm glad we can laugh about those things.
I told him last night I knew he was divorced. That was... not as hard as I thought it would be, though he didn't think I knew (despite that my aunt and Annie both told me). We talked about it, and he said so many things that make me think he really is happier to be divorced - and he claims I'm a big part of that, which is pretty flattering. Last night was pretty amazing. We were out pretty late, definitely later than the night before, because we had so much to talk about once I made my confession. He's surprised that the divorce didn't scare me off. I think it would have if he'd told me after this point. I knew and I reconciled how I felt about it before, despite not really knowing what happened. I know that she left him, and took a lot of things with her. Plus, she abandoned her best friend in the process. It's just not a very nice situation.
I'm glad I'm not involved with that part of it. I'm happy that I feel the way I do when I'm with Matt and that it's enough for right now, despite not knowing what's going to happen come September.
© lily keller 2001
back current next