Sometime in Between                                                         

                                                                                                  

            Marni shifted uncomfortably on the stool in the corner of Ray’s Tavern.  She had dressed too warmly for this early October day in her black turtleneck and wool trousers. Ray’s was downtown in the business district on a street populated mostly with jewelry stores.  At all times of the day you could see couples emerging from one store and going into another.  Men with looks of distress on their faces and sweat at their hairlines and smiling women hanging tightly onto their arm .  The left corner of Marni’s mouth lifted into a smile as she thought of the time a few years ago that she and jack made up that dichotomy.

             Marni lit a cigarette, dragged on it, then let it rest in the ash tray.  She pulled at the neck of her sweater and looked around the bar to find the time.  It had been a while since her and Jack had time to meet for lunch. Marni checked the clock on the wall, but the glare from the sun coming through the large front window had blurred the numbers into a solid blue block. 

            “Excuse me, do you have the time?”

            “3:20.  Waiting for someone?” The middle-aged bartender smiled at her.

            “Yes. I’m a little early.”  Marni watched the bartender as he dunked and swished a glass in the sink below the bar, then turned her attention to the window facing the street.   Just then, Jack came through the doors. Still tall and blond, still wearing that blue dress shirt she had bought him three years ago.  He scanned the bar and made his way toward her.

“Hey.”  Jack pulled out the stool next to hers and readjusted it several times before he sat down.

             After all these years, Marni thought, still fidgeting with every little thing. “Do you want to get a table?”

            “No, here’s good.”

            The bartender made his way toward them. “What’ll it be?”

            “Johnny walker black, rocks, water back.” Jack ordered his ususal and pulled two tens from a brown leather wallet.  It was new.  Marni knew because his old wallet was black and falling apart.  She had been trying to convince him for years to retire it to no avail.

            The bartender pulled a glass from the hanging rack, poured Jack’s drink,  slid it toward him, and took a ten from the bills Jack had laid on the bar.  Jack took a swig from his drink and smacked his lips.

             Marni let out a small laugh.“I was just thinking of the last time we were here, picking out my engagement ring.”  She looked down at the ring finger of her left hand and wiggled it up and down, letting it catch the light and prism.  Jack took another sip.  Let out another smack.

            “Yeah. That salesman looked really tired at the end of that day.  We must have been in and out of that place ten times before you decided.” Jack swished the ice around in his glass.

            “Yeah. You looked really tired to.” Marni laughed sarcastically and pulled at the neck of her sweater again.  She was really uncomfortably warm now and the sweater felt prickly against her clammy skin.

            “You hot in that sweater? The sun’s really brutal today.”  Jack said swinging around toward Marni on his stool.

             She lit another cigarette, noticing she had let the last one burn down to a stub in the ashtray.  “Hey, remember that trip we took to Niagra about... what was it? six months ago?”

            “Yeah.  Can I have one of these?”  Jack picked a cigarette from her pack and lit it.  He had quit smoking years ago, but always liked one with a drink.  Marni wondered whose cigarettes he had been bumming lately.

            “Well, I found this role of film in our junk drawer and I thought I’d develop it to see what it was from.  It was from that trip.  The pictures came out good, all the falls and the gardens and stuff.”  She dragged on her cigarette, ashed it, and exhaled slowly, watching the smoke gather in front of her. The photos were tucked in the bottom of her bag.  She decided last minute to bring them.

            “What time do we have to meet old Rick at?”  Jack asked as he swirled the melting ice in his drink again. 

            “4:30. We probably should get going.”  The photos would stay tucked away.

            They both picked up their glasses and took big swigs to empty them.  Marni pushed her glass across the bar and threw a few more dollars down for the bartender.  They pulled out their stools and gathered up their bags.

            “God, it’s hot!”  Marni pulled at the neck of her sweater hard as her and Jack walked toward the Greek Revival building on the corner of third and Wilmington.  As they walked she concentrated on the sound of her feet hitting the pavement.  She had begun to question everything lately and at this moment gravity was no exception. When they reached the building they made their way through the cherry-red doors, into the elevator, up to the second floor. They stepped out of the elevator, made a left, and started down the long stretch of echoing, marble hallway.

            “This is it here.”  Marni  read the plaque next to the door as if confirming it to herself, “ Rick Lativus, Attorney.”

            “We have an appointment with Mr. Lativus, Marni and jack Meyers.” She told the thin brunette behind the desk.  The secretary paged Mr. Lativus and a door buzzed behind her.

            “Come on in.”  Mr. Lativus, a heavy set man in his late forties wearing a deep navy blue suit emerged and led Marni and Jack into his office.  Mr. and Mrs. Myers sat next to each other in leather chairs, separated from Mr. Lativus by his large mahogany desk.

            “Now,” Mr. Lativus began. “I think everything is in order, I just need the two of you to read over these final documents, and sign a few things.”  Mr. Lativus shuffled some papers attached to carbon copies and edged them across the desk toward Jack.

            “Just make sure you understand all of this and then sign above your typed signature, where I placed the X’s.”  Mr. Lativus said as he slapped a thick, well manicured finger on the marked line.  Jack scanned, flipped, and signed, then slid the papers back to Mr. Lativus.

            “Now Marni, you do the same above your name, next to Jack’s” Mr. Lativus slid the papers across the desk toward her. 

            Marni picked up the papers and tried her hardest to look like she was reading them over, but a wet glaze had covered her eyes, blurring all the words.  There was a sour burn at the back of her throat and tension in her jaw.  She signed quickly, noticing her wedding ring  in the irony of its current task and wondered why she hadn’t taken it off yet.  Before she could stop it her mind flashed through all the other times they had stacked their signatures on top of one another’s: first apartment lease, second apartment lease, marriage license, car loan, and now this.  She slid the papers back across the desk.  Mr. Lativus gathered up the forms, checked for the proper placement of the signatures, ripped off two carbon copies, and handed one each to Marni and Jack.  Marni froze, realizing the truth: This was the easy part.

            “Do either of you have any questions?”  Mr. Lativus broke the silence.  Marni thought of a million questions right now, but none that he could answer for her.

            “No”

              Mr. Lativus ushered Marni and Jack out of his office as quickly as he had shown them in.  Back down the elevator, out of the large double doors and into the bright hot sun.   After all these years she thought she knew Jack like the back of her hand.  Now she realized it was more like the palm.  No matter how many times you looked at it, somehow there was always something hiding there that you didn’t see before.  Jack noticed Marni ripping at the neck of her sweater again, only this time it was because she felt like she was choking.

            “You gotta lose that sweater, you’ll melt.” He said, shifting his bag on his shoulder.  Marni thought for a moment about asking him if he wanted to come back to their old apartment with her, he did say he had the rest of the day off.

            “So listen, I’ve gotta run.”  Jack interrupted her thought and cancelled its sentiment.

            “Yeah, me too.” She joined him in scanning for a cab just as a taxi pulled to a stop  in front of them.

                        “You take this one.” he said pulling the door open for her, ”I’ll get the next.” 

             “Thanks.” She said as she slid into the cab and searched her mind frantically for the right thing to say.

             “Well, I guess I’ll see you around then. Bye, Marni.” Jack shut the door, leaving her unsettled.  Unfinished.