Sunrise at Sunset by Jaz Primo Page B

realizing his next question might ruin everything, and asked, “What is it about me that compels you to say that? Because I don’t know that I would if it were I in your place.”
    Katrina regarded him for a moment, and she heard his heartbeat increase rapidly. He’s terrified that honesty is going to doom him , she mused, along with what I’ll say . But she had a small surprise of sorts in store for him in her response. “Well, you’re just going to have to un-complicate things a little and find out,” she offered with a smirk.
    At first he seemed stunned, and then surprise gave way to hopefulness. He dared to smile. “I’ll call you,” he promised.
    “Good enough,” she responded resolutely. “Good night, Caleb.”
    “Good night, Katrina,” he replied with a hint of appreciation.
    He watched her drive halfway across the parking lot before stopping the little black sports car, the taillights shining brightly as the brake was applied. He frowned at her delay and unlocked his car door.
    Get into your car, Caleb , Katrina thought as she watched him in the rear view mirror. Parking lots aren’t very safe for you, it would seem , she added with a twinkle in her eyes.
    As Caleb closed his car door he saw her pull away into the night. Was she waiting on me, or did she change her mind about me ? he wondered. Then another, somewhat odd notion made its way to the forefront of his mind. Watching over me, maybe ? The idea filled him with a strong sense of satisfaction. Once his father had left, Caleb’s mother changed into a very protective figure in his life, and somehow Katrina’s behavior reminded him of those same feelings of safety. Certainly, it wasn’t as if Caleb viewed Katrina as some sort of maternal figure. Far from it, in fact. Merely that the perceived sense of protectiveness Katrina showed to him felt similar.
    He chuckled at the outlandishness of the idea and began his journey home. I’m imagining the whole thing , he resolved.
    As he drove home, a sense of dread and foreboding began to grow, and his mind went immediately to what he would say to Melanie about his conflicted feelings. He was never one for confrontation, but firsthand experience already taught him Melanie was.
    The weekend turned into a last-minute dash to update his lecture notes along with changes that had occurred to him during the previous semester. Melanie didn’t call at all on Saturday, and he dreaded the upcoming conversation that he needed to have with her. It was obviously better that he waited until she returned from Jacksonville so they could speak in person.
    Great, then Melanie can have the added benefit of yelling and cursing at me in person , he considered darkly. It should be very cathartic for her .
    Caleb had learned that Melanie never lacked animation when it came to her temper. Fortunately, he was the peaceful type who only argued back verbally. On one occasion, Melanie actually threw something at him in the middle of an argument, but he managed to dodge a paperweight effectively. The experiences of dodging errant pitches in baseball came in handy at such times. Caleb’s mother had preached to him since he was a child that violence was no solution to interpersonal conflict. Additionally, he still had bad childhood memories of when his father was physically abusive with him and his mother, and those experiences added to his personal abhorrence of physical violence.
    Saturday evening, he tried calling to check on Melanie, but his calls went to voicemail on all three occasions. Finally, he fell asleep on his apartment couch watching movies on cable and skimming through the pages of the latest biography on Harry Truman. He fell asleep sometime after 1 am, completely unaware of a lone figure peering in at him through the sheer curtains of his living room from the fire escape.
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    Katrina couldn’t help herself on Saturday night. She was restless, and her mind kept wandering through a series of thoughts, all of