Meet Me At The Bus Shelter

Traffic

Jennifer sat at her kitchen bench, a half full coffee cup sat by her, it’s delicious scent wafted upwards, engulfing the whole room in an enticing aroma. The phone in her hand glowed, the name on the screen read “Danny” and underneath it read “Calling”. Jen waited in an awkward silence, the shrill rings of the phone all to break the tension crackling in the air. She sighed and hovered her finger over the ‘cancel call’ button but was surprised, as the line crackled and a voice spoke.

“Hello you have reached Daniel’s phone, this is his slave, and how may I help you?” The smooth voice huffed from the end of the line. The rhythmic buzz of a car engine was easily audible in the background as she thought about her reply.

“Uh… I assume this isn’t Danny but…”

“Do you want to talk to him then?” The voice suddenly snapped. Jen cringed and let a small smile play at her lips.

“That would be lovely thankyou.” She cooed in the fakest voice she could muster.

Jen waited silently as the line crackled, the humming of the car had stopped, and was now replaced by silence.

“Hello this is Daniel speaking.”

Jen suddenly began to tense up, how was she supposed to reply? He probably never expected her to contact him again, what if he didn’t remember her?

“Danny?” She questioned stupidly. Mentally slapping herself, she put the phone on loudspeaker and placed it on the bench, resting her head in her hands.

There is no way he will remember me she thought to herself.

“Jennifer?”

The reply changed it all, he did remember her. A feeling of awe took over Jennifer as she struggled to remember why she had called in the first place. The other line began to crackle, grunting, hissing and thumping noises could easily be heard and suddenly, a sarcastic voice broke the speechlessness.

“Sir Daniel happens to be hard pressed for time on this particular occasion.” The voice that answered the phone chimed.

“You will be required to call back in the subsequent hours of this exquisite rotation of the earth. Kind regards now, bye!”

Jen’s mouth gaped open as the beeping of the cancelled call resounded through the room. Turning off her phone, she sat and stared at the scarcely filled kitchen shelves that occupied the wall on the opposite side of the room.  Having just been partially blown off via the phone and having nothing better to do, grocery shopping seemed an appropriate time passer. Grabbing her handbag and glancing at her quickly thrown together outfit in the mirror, grey skinny jeans with lace up black ankle boots, a tight, light blue three quarter sleeve shirt and her favourite white scarf, she grabbed her key and walked out of the door.

By the time a confused, fresh air craving Jennifer walked from the high rise building into the crisp, chilling breeze of the Sydney street she immediately wished she was back in her air-conditioned apartment, still sipping from her medium warmth coffee, curled up on the lounge and watching some crappy garbage on television about some chick who cheated on some guy who is actually a girl. By the time she had started up her car and actually arrived at the shopping complex forty minutes had already passed, and with the notorious habit of in-the-moment shopping, getting the groceries seemed to take a lifetime. After taking a whole hour just to buy a couple of things Jen was over the public scene. Striding grumpily out of the overly crowded grocery store and heading towards her car she noted all the little annoyances around her. Like tantrum throwing children, screaming and crying to their poor mothers horror, teenage girls with shorts right up their arses, flaunting what should really be kept private, and traffic.