S&S3

He got off at the station and a cold gust of wind struck him sharply across the face - and passed by quickly. As he got closer to the construction site, he could see more clearly through the wire fence that surrounded the perimeter that Sasha - the new girl from accounting - was already waiting for him on the porch of her trailer. She would always find a reason to talk to him when they crossed paths at work, during breaks. She probably came out to smoke, otherwise he couldn’t explain to himself why she would be outside in that cold wind, at that hour.

In such weather, she rarely even left the metal shack, where she spent the day scribbling time - sheets and pay - stubs, and all sorts of paperwork that David couldn’t understand. He hoped she wouldn’t notice him, right now … He was already late, and had no time for idle chit - chat. He wasn’t feeling well at all, either - last night’s Brandy was still trying to make its way out of him, and Sasha had a bad habit of keeping him talking longer than he could have endured at that moment. He definitely needed some space.

However, as soon as she saw David approaching the site, almost frozen from the cold, she immediately threw away her cigarette and ran inside the shack - from where she came out immediately with a huge white thermos that she was already hurrying to open, before David even walked through the gate.

She probably brought coffee for her colleagues, the young man thought, and seeing from a distance how frozen and trembling he was, she immediately called him over to give him some too.

He couldn’t understand her overwhelming gestures of tenderness towards him … After all, they had only seen each other a few times, after work - and since then, David had been actively trying to avoid any commitment towards her. She always invited him to movies, or concerts, or even to her place - and he always refused, as politely as he could - either blaming his schedule and fatigue, or he made up another pre-established engagement, from which it would have been impossible for him to deviate. And Sasha never dared to doubt, even for a moment, the young man’s sincerity. The more she attached to him, the faster David tended to distance himself. She seemed to be irrevocably convinced of the future of their relationship, while David no longer knew how to tell her that he wasn’t interested in something more serious at all. He always felt embarrassed around her when they were at work together … He was always more preoccupied with the reactions of his colleagues than Sasha’s big, confident gaze, and he would rather listen to the whispers and jokes made about them, than her always enthusiastic stories about things he was not even interested in.

Somehow, he felt sorry that he rejected her. Sasha had been very nice and when they were alone together - just the two of them - he actually enjoyed her company. But in public, surrounded by friends, or work colleagues, something changed. Small things, like her noisy laugh, the vocabulary - he thought - inappropriate for a girl her age, and, especially, that left premolar -which she had recently extracted - had become details which exponentially grew in importance, every time he was around her. Because, no matter how much she tried to cover that gap with her embarrassed hand when she laughed heartily. David viscerally felt the absence of her tooth- and he thought that everyone was noticing it and laughing at him, secretly, because he got involved with a chintzy, old, toothless girl.

He felt extremely sorry that he had treated her so superficially, but it was an aspect that he simply couldn’t overlook, no matter how much he wanted to. And now, more than ever, he felt terribly embarrassed…..

Looking at her there, shivering with cold on the doorstep of the trailer, waiting impatiently for him with her jacket on her back and the thermos in her arms, he severely chastised himself for the lack of respect and maturity he had shown her so far.

Sasha smiled warmly, even happily, as she carefully poured his coffee into a white plastic cup. The warm steam rose from the cup and the smell of the coffee reminded David, in a very strange way, of his olden school days. Of those chilly autumn mornings, on the verge of winter, when he would be the first to arrive in the stuffy classroom. And it was still dark outside, and he was waiting there alone, beneath the pale orange light…. Until the rest of his classmates arrived, one by one.

‘I hope you like it,’ she said, smiling at him with her big eyes full of dreams and hope. ‘I made it without sugar, just the way you like it. I’m gonna catch hell for that from the girls… they like it sweet,’ she said laughing, blowing out that awful red Dunhill cigarette smoke - and involuntarily revealing the gap left by the missing tooth.

This time, however, David immediately felt a void in his stomach, then a sudden, overwhelming warmth, coming from somewhere inside him - that didn’t seem to have anything to do with the hot coffee. He smiled back at her, sincerely, and quickly kissed her on the lips, in front of the entire crowd of workers that surrounded them.

Frightened almost, Sasha accepted the kiss, but wondered at the same time, what on Earth was up with him? I David was not the type of guy to show his affections like that in public. For a moment, he himself didn’t even know what was happening. The whistles and shouts of his colleagues, mockingly applauding his unexpected gesture of tenderness, brought him quickly back to reality. But this time he completely ignored them. He smiled at Sasha again, convinced that she deserved more than the half measures he had offered her up to that point. He was ready to make a change - and was sure of it now!

David’s moment of romantic revelation was abruptly cut short by the sudden appearance of the site foreman who seemed to have completely lost his mind - and was now yelling at him desperately as he approached them.

‘You!’ he screamed, ‘You’ve got no business being here anymore, and do you understand? There’s nothing left for you here - so get the fuck out!’

His wild gesticulations and the harsh dismissal created a surreal scene, and all the noises of the workers and machines gradually came to a halt. All eyes had turned to the bewildered young man and the massive foreman angrily yelling at him.

David, taken aback by the foreman’s fury, removed his beanie, looking up at his tall, portly figure and his sharp, black moustache - but his curiosity was met with even more hostility.

‘Are you deaf?’ he screamed again, ‘Get the hell out of here, now! After all you’ve done, you should be ashamed to even show your face around here!’

The foreman yelled again, red with rage, and pushing David further, trying to physically urge him towards the exit.

‘But Sir, I ….. I don’t understand. What have I done? If I’ve upset anyone or said anything, I …I apologize!’ David stammered, caught off guard by the man’s unexpected rage.

‘Don’t play innocent with me, you little shit!’ the man spat, as the workers around them grinned, relishing the unexpected drama unfolding before them. Even Sasha watched from a distance, more puzzled than ever.

‘You seriously don’t know, huh?’ The foreman asked rhetorically, pointing towards a lanky man that was standing near the concrete mixer. As if on cue, the man pushed back his helmet, and revealed a busted jaw, and a black eye - closed and swollen - plainly visible, even from that distance.

At the sight of the man and his injuries a dreadful wave of guilt and anger ran throughout his body, and David instantly felt his blood run cold.

‘But Mr Harris, sir ... I had no idea he was your nephew ….. I swear. I wouldn’t have hit him if I’d known! We were at the bar, see, and he just came at me, out of nowhere, for no fucken reason - what was I supposed to do? He even knocked the beer out of my hand…’ David tried to explain, but the foreman cut him off.

‘So you roughed him up like this over a pint of beer? Just look at him - he’s disfigured!’

David flushed with frustration. He could have told him his side of the story - how the nephew attacked him first, how he only defended himself - that the nephew threw the first punch, and he ducked, and out of mere reflex he instinctively threw back a hook, that the nephew lost his footing and, on his way down, he simply took a big, generous bite out of the marble counter of the bar… So, technically, the nephew had done most of that damage to himself.

But he knew the foreman wasn’t interested in all those details. He fell silent, accepting the shameful dressing - down of the events in hopes that the situation would eventually resolve itself - and he could get himself back to work.

‘Everyone warned me not to hire you,’ Harris continued, his moustache twitching with irritation. ‘They all told me you’re no good. But I wanted to help you out - for your mother’s sake, at least, God Bless her soul - because we all came up together, in that crummy neighbourhood of ours, and this is how you fucken repay me?’ Get the fuck off my site! I don’t ever want to see your ugly mug around here again!’

David dropped his gaze, too defeated to even ask about his pay cheque for that week. He glanced back at the construction, site catching Sasha’s confused and troubled gaze. But he couldn’t muster up the courage to speak to her. He turned around and made his way towards the exit, all his hopes for the day, for the money or his little sister’s shoes, crumbling to bitter bits around him.

He stepped through the gate of the construction site. He looked around at the grey sky above and the empty streets around him. He wondered, where should he go now? What should he do?

He could still hear the jokes and cusses coming from the site behind him, their echoing malicious laughter. But he somehow managed to ignore them.

A black car was just turning left at the intersection. A foreign car, David realized, as he listened to the sound of its roaring engine. As it approached him, the young man finally recognized the driver inside, too.

He took out a cigarette, lit it. The car gradually slowed down, then finally stopped beside him.

The window slowly opened, with the specific buzzing noise of an electric window - a rarity in the city’s cars at that time. The music from the car’s radio got louder and louder as the window went down. Then it suddenly came to a stop.

David approached the car and leaned on the open window: Billy was looking at him, grinning calmly from the driver’s seat. David blew the smoke aside, then stuck his head in through the window and said, with an ironic air,

‘You could have told me that guy last night was Harris’s nephew…’

Billy shrugged, trying to hold back his laughter. David took another long drag of his cigarette, looking aside at the construction site he left behind. Sasha had meanwhile come out to the street and was waiting, shivering, by the gate, with her arms still crossed over her chest - hoping perhaps for an explanation, or at least some kind of GoodBye…

David had no reaction though. He was too absorbed by his own thoughts and fears. He looked at her long, for a few moments, then turned to Billy and asked him, smiling defiantly;

‘Is that offer still available?’

Billy laughed, satisfied, as if this was the moment he’s been waiting for, the whole time.

‘Get in!’ he shouted enthusiastically, as giddy and impatiently as a little child, before opening a long awaited present.