Chapter Two: Mysterious Tension

“Great! What a way to start the morning!” I pulled a pan of burnt waffles out of the oven and placed them on a plate and began eating them.

I didn’t have the time to make any more. I was going to call Chuck and see if he wanted to go to the Summer Festival. He had given me his number last night and told me if I ever wanted to hang out, to give him a call.

I cleaned the plate and picked up my cell phone.

“This is Chuck.”

 

 

“Hey Chuck, it’s Amanda. The girl from last night at the Tavern.”

 

 

 

 

“Oh. Hey! What’s up?”

 

“I had some time before work and I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Summer Festival."

 

“Umm, I’m kind of working right now.”

  

 

 

“Oh right! Directing traffic. Sorry, I forgot.”

 

“That’s okay, maybe I’ll catch up with you later.”

 

“Sure. Bye.”

 

I had a couple hours before reporting for my first day at work and decided spend my time unpacking and playing my guitar. When it came time to head to work, I heard the company car honk. I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door. After a short drive, I walked into the building and to the main office area.

 

 

 

 

I soon met two of my coworkers Josy Clover and Honey Darnell. Both were very nice and chatted with me about the town and some of the people. While talking with Honey, I found out that she was the girl Chuck had told me about last night. They apparently started dating a couple of weeks ago. She was happy that Chuck had been so nice to me and promised that the three of us would go out soon. Both Honey and Josy were insistent about setting me up with guy friends of theirs. While they were talking, Johnny walked into the room.

 

“Morning ladies!”

 

“Morning Johnny. How are you this morning?” Josy asked.

 

 

 

 

“I’m doing well. Hey, Amanda, I was wondering if I could talk to you a second.”

 

What!? Why!? Did I do something wrong already!?

 

Johnny led me to another area of the office. “I was wondering if you’d be available to stay late tonight. We have a deadline to meet for a recording and need someone to stay late to help with odds and ends kind of things.”

 

Is he serious? I certainly want the experience but would I be able to be around him and not act like a dork.

 

“Sure! I can stay to help.” What? Why did I just agree to help? I seem to have almost no control when I'm around him.

 

“Good. We’ll start around 8:30 and go until we’re done recording. See you then.”

 

I stood there stunned for a moment and then rejoined Josy and Honey.

 

 

 

“What was that all about?” Honey asked.

 

“Something about finishing a recording tonight and asking if I was available to help.”

 

“Oh yeah. He asked both Josy and me if we were available but I have a date and Josy has plans too.”

 

That made me feel a little better. As long as he didn’t return my feelings, then maybe we could interact with each other without many awkward moments.

 

Work continued on and soon Josy and Honey were getting ready to leave.

 

I was sitting at the front desk when I heard a familiar voice. “Hey city girl. Watcha doin?”

 

 

 

It was Chuck and his blue eyes. I didn’t even mind that he called me a city girl.

 

“Hey, what brings you here?”

 

“I’m just here to pick up Honey. We’re going on a date tonight.”

 

“Oh that’s right! She told me about that earlier.”

 

 

 

 

“You taking an interest in me?” Is he flirting again? I can’t quite tell. Maybe he's just trying to keep the conversation going.

 

 

 

“No, she just happened to mention that she had a date tonight with the traffic cop. Wasn’t hard to connect the dots.”

 

“Must be that city education.”

 

“Ha ha! Poke fun of the city girl. Real nice there Marlboro Man.”

 

“Marlboro Man, eh?”

 

 

 

We were having so much fun giving each other a hard time that we didn’t notice that Johnny had walked in the room.

 

 

 

“Hey Chuck, don’t you think it’s about time for you to be taking Honey on that date?”

 

Why does Johnny look upset? And why does he care whether or not Chuck is taking Honey on a date? I turned to look at Chuck and he had a confused look on his face. I watched Chuck walk over to Johnny and they talked for a minute. At one point, Johnny pointed towards me and Chuck turned and looked at me.

 

 

 

 

Right then, Honey walked out to the lobby.

 

“Hey Chucky! Ready to take me out.”

 

“Uh, Yeah…yeah. Let’s get going. See you later Johnny.”

 

 

 

 

He walked right past me and didn’t even look at me. What in the world just happened? Something weird is going on.

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey, you ready to help on that recording now?” Johnny interrupted my thoughts.

 

“Yeah, be right there.”

 

“Cool, see you there in a minute.” He turned and walked towards the recording studio.

 

 

 

 

 I sat down in one of the lobby chairs. I wasn’t sure what just happened between Chuck and Johnny but something was definitely going on.