About a man, the drifting kind

 "Why are you talking to my sister?" Tristan took the phone from Dale. For a second, he wanted to hit something, but he turned off her phone instead.

"I didn't call her, she called me," Dale looked at him blankly. She was calm as if was nothing, really. 

"What did she say?" He practically snapped. 

He was extremely tired. The heat and the humidity was getting to him, and then that other worry with Magz and the baby. He would never live in Florida. No way could he leave his hometown.

Of course, they'd marveled a night at the Sushi train. He guessed that was on Valentine's Day. Really, he couldn't keep his days straight anymore. This was the most laborious task he'd taken since corn detassling in eighth grade. 

Yes, he did have a migraine. It all felt to be falling in to pieces and now his sister was calling his girlfriend. How could she?

"Tristan, what's wrong?" It was a simple question. They were alone in their hotel room. She had taken off early to go back after a phone call from the local TV station back home. They'd liked her demo.

"What demo?" He'd yelped as she found her own way back from the outing in the grasslands.

"It's about a job," he could barely hear her then. Now she didn't look as excited.

"What do you mean?" He said now and tossed her phone to the bed. It almost bounced off the bed.

"I know something is wrong," Dale looked him in the eye. 

Tristan was beat. He finally plopped down on the bed and Dale set next to him as if to show him she wasn't scared at all. She took his hand.

"I don't know," it would be trouble if he told her. She'd have to think the worst. "If..if.."

"If what?"

He winced hard. He knew he couldn't keep it from her. "If only Magz wasn't here."

"What about Magz?" She held on to his hand as if she'd squeeze the truth out of him if she had to. Of course, just being next to her was making his headache subside.

He sighed. "I went out with her."

Dale nodded.

"Not that recently. It was-" Time felt so yesterday, but it wasn't last Christmas. The Christmas before. Somehow, it hadn't felt so long ago, when he saw her when she was first pregnant. Still, it was like the calculator wasn't correct in his head. He squinted. "I dunno, I know nothing happened...but it's that thought..what if it did and ..and..and I didn't even know."

"You really know how to overthink this," she told him. "Is that all it is?"

"I don't know, I felt so bad that..that I went out with Magz just to find out she was still with my old friend Holden." It gave him a cold chill now.

"I bet she hasn't thought about you at all," she told him. "She looks pretty happy with that guy she's with. And they have a baby."

Tristan nodded. 

"It's gonna be OK," Dale reached for him then. "You are doing all the right things. Quit trying to bring yourself down. I love you, you know." She told him she wanted him to keep learning. "Some day it's gonna pay off." She smiled. It was then she told him she'd gotten on at the local news station. "I was an intern there. It was a while ago. I didn't think I had a chance. It was the pandemic, and they said I didn't look old enough to be there. But I made a new demo. I did some interviews at the zoo."

"What? You didn't tell me?" He tilted his head with a smile.

"I didn't think it would work out," she shrugged. "I mean, I'll just be doing those reports about neighborhood watches and that kind of thing for a while. Maybe I'll get to be on the weekend news team if I can handle it."

"You really want to do this?" He kept smiling. She smiled back

"God, I know I shouldn't have brought you here," he was almost in tears. "But sometimes, I just want you to be with me, all the time."

Tristan felt he'd been a jerk, but somehow Dale knew a way to make everything better. "We haven't gone to the pool yet."

Yes, this might be their chance to spend some quality time, after all.