The following weekend I had decided it was time to get serious about being a writer. I wanted to turn my back bedroom into an office. Make it a space that I was comfortable in and could plan out my career and get myself together. I had worked out with Dimples that we would spend Friday night and Saturday night pulling up carpet, hanging pictures and bringing up furniture from the garage in order to create the perfect space for creativity. He had offered to bring me a speaker to add to the ambience of the room and I was so happy he was willing to help me create this space.
As the weekend drew closer, his plans changed a bit and he wasn’t able to help me on Friday, no worries, we would do it on Saturday and by the end of the weekend, it would be all set. I was so excited I could barely contain myself. You know the saying from When Harry Met Sally?
“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible”
Well that’s how I felt. I felt like if this space was created I would be on my way to becoming an actual writer. I’m not sure how in my head I equated an office to good work, but I did. I figured it would be mine. All mine.
Towards the end of the week Dimples asked if I wanted to go out to dinner Saturday night with his parents. I thought ok, but I was worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to do what we had planned for the office so I asked “Think we’ll have enough time?” He said “Of course, we’ll knock it out then get ready for dinner.” Ok I thought, but I still thought it was a bigger job then he was making it out to be, but we’d get it done. Saturday came and I was up early. Went to the hardware store to get whatever tools you need to pull up a rug and a billion staples throughout a hardwood floor. By the time I got all my essentials, I was eager to get started. I couldn’t wait until 4:30 when Dimples would be over and my determination to “get it done” took over and I started ripping and cutting and pulling crap up all over the place.
My girlfriend called and asked if I needed help and of course I was happy to have the extra set of hands and she came over and we pulled maybe enough nails to line the empire state building out of this floor. My back was KILLING me by the time we finished. But we did it. Then we moved on to hanging pictures, arranging furniture, placing things just right and making it look awesome. The only thing left to do was brig the futon up from the garage and add the speaker and voila! I was putting the final details on the room and was pretty pleased with myself when Dimples walked in. It was just around 4:20 and he said hi, I said hi and he walked straight into the office. Walked around, walked out, looked at me and said nothing.
An instant rush of heat swept through me. He says nothing? Not nice job or looks good or anything? All that hard work from 8am in the morning and you have nothing to say to me about it? I have to say at that moment I was crushed. I guess I had expected him to be as excited about it as I was and when he said nothing I was sad. So you know that face girls sometimes get? The one that says how annoyed they are by your behavior without saying a word? Well I got that face and I became quite prickly towards him. He had only been there 4 minutes and in those 4 minutes my balloon got deflated. Then he says “Oh, I forgot the speaker, but I don’t think it works anyway.” YOU HAD ONE JOB was all I could think of. Really? No speaker? I don’t know why I was so annoyed; maybe I needed the pat on the back, maybe I wanted him to be as excited about this as I was, maybe I felt like he didn’t take me seriously about being a writer. Whatever my underlying issue was I was annoyed and when he came to put his arms around me I cringed and that seemed to send things off to the races.
