Time remaining: 7 hours
The day had come. It was August 25th and Rashaell's last day of work before heading off to college. It was my last chance to find the deal breaker before she left. I had been struggling to find something, anything that would set me free of my feelings for her, but with no luck. I had to find something before she left or I might not ever be able to get over it. The usual deal breakers didn't seem to work. I hate Country music and that is most of what she listened to, but for some reason that didn't effect anything. I am a cat lover and she hates cats, but that also didn't seem to make a difference. Those two things were almost always deal breakers for me before, but no such luck now. But what she did next made the search even harder than it was before.
At Country Mart, the employee working at the service desk would make up a daily schedule with everyone's names on it that were working that day. It would have the first name of the employee, the position they were working, the time they were supposed to be there, and the time they were supposed to leave. For the fun of it, I had started writing "is awesome" behind my name every shift that I worked, so every day it said, "Nash is awesome." However, on that final day when I went over to write it on the schedule, I found that Rashaell had already written it behind my name. It felt like the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me. I did , however, realize that this would make it nearly impossible to find a deal breaker now. If I could find one, it would have to be pretty major. My pin still in hand, I wrote, "is pretty friggin' awesome, too" behind her name.
Time remaining: 3 hours
Later that day, I asked Rash, "So, why did you choose Architecture as a college major?"
"I always liked the introductory class I took in high school. Also, I always wanted to design my own house."
"Well," I replied, "make sure to make it large enough for the ten kids you will have."
"Another Catholic joke, I presume." She said.
" You got that right. I had to throw at least one more in there before you leave."
"Well, I'm not ever going to get married," she said, "so I won't have to worry about the kid aspect." There it was, the deal breaker I had been looking for. I have to admit, it did make me quite sad, but it was something I would never be able to get past. She never wanted to get married and finding someone to settle down with was all I ever wanted. There it was, the deal breaker.
Just out of curiosity, I felt compelled to ask, "What makes you say that?"
"Everyone in my church and in my family expect you to start shooting out babies the second you get married and end up having ten million kids."
"The stereotype I just joked about."
"Yes," she replied, "but I hate kids. So, to avoid scrutiny that is sure to come, I have just decided never to get married."
"Does your boyfriend know this?"
"We haven't really discussed it."
"Well, this is going to be very hard for me to say, given that I hate his guts and he is, besides Ashlee, my worst enemy. But if I were in his place, I would want to know something like that. He may want to get married some day. It isn't fair to him for you to waste his time like that. You need to talk about this, otherwise someday he will propose to you, you will say no, and there will be nothing left between you two but bitterness."
"And you know this, how?"
"Partially because I'm psychic. Also, stuff like that happens on TV on a weekly basis."
Time remaining: 5 minutes
T-minus 5 minutes. 5 minutes before my shift ended and I would be forced to say goodbye to Rash. I began walking to the time clock, thinking maybe I would slip away and not even say goodbye. However, as much as I hate goodbyes, I couldn't do it. I walked back to her register.
"Hey," I said, but then paused. I was trying to figure out something to say. I didn't want to just say "goodbye," I wanted to say something that would stick, something profound. I wanted to give her a goodbye like you could only find in the movies. And just like that, I had the perfect goodbye. "You shouldn't let your family or church's idea of child baring dictate whether you get married or not. Someday you are going to meet someone who changes your whole idea of what marriage is. You will want nothing more than to be with that person forever. It wasn't that long ago that I too never wanted to get married, but now it's all I want."
"So, I'm guessing you've already met that someone?"
I looked at her for a second, then said, "Yeah, I think I have."
Then, with a start, I realized I had been daydreaming. "Hey, what?" Rashaell asked.
"What?" I returned.
"You walked up here and said, 'Hey' and then proceeded to stand there looking like an idiot."
I thought for a second, contemplating what I should say. "F*ck it," I said, "see ya."
End of part III
To be continued in part IV
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