Chapter 5: Chloe's Running Late

Chloe finally made it to the Auto Dealer, where she met up with Jonathan at the tail end of a business meeting with his father where he went over numbers that his father paid no attention to.

"Hey Candy, what's up? Bring my lunch?" Jonathan liked to call her weird pet names. For some reason, he thought it was cute, and she thought it was tacky, but he'd been doing it for fifteen years, and it didn't look like he'd be growing out of it soon. She had known him most of her life but started dating him when 14, Jon was 16. He'd always been a bit thin due to his wrestling and stayed that way through adulthood.

He was a relatively decent-looking guy with short-cropped thick brown hair, small squinty blue eyes, a narrow nose, thin lips, and a mediocre square jawline. He was 5 feet, eleven inches tall, and about 180 pounds even though he rarely worked out unless watching Mixed Martial Arts competitions counts.

"Yeah, I'm on my way to Fantastic Fabrics, so I figured I'd bring your lunch by," Chloe said and did a little finger wave past him to his father, an older grayer version of Jonathan with a slight heft in the gut area. He nodded in return.

"Oh, thanks, Sweetcheeks," Jonathan said, another of his ridiculous names for her. He headed quickly around the corner past a couple of cubicles and a few display cars and into his office. He pulled open his middle desk drawer and handed her a ticket across the desk as she passed him a bag from the Deli.

Chloe looked at the ticket and sighed. Great! Dry cleaning, just another thing to squeeze into my already hectic day, she thought.

"Are you going to your crafting club thing tonight?" He asked her coming around to lean against the front of the desk next to her.

"No. It's a birthday party for a club member tonight, so you'll have to pick up dinner unless you want to order in. The girls might want to do something after. I'll let you know if I'm going to be late."

"No problem. I can order a pie and watch a game or two. Take your time. I got an early gig tomorrow, so I'm gonna hit the sack before you get home."

"Okay. I will. I'll have fun with the girls then. See ya, Champ." She said as she leaned in, he met her for a peck, and she headed out to get milk, a birthday gift, stuff for a cheesecake, and now Jon's dry cleaning. He had never been a champ of anything, but when he was a senior in high school, he had made it to the semi-finals, and she called him that as a sort of good luck thing. It didn't quite work, but just like he kept the Candy and Sweetcheeks, she had kept the Champ.

Chloe was really looking forward to her party tonight, and she might just get everything done in time. She was excited about the Craft Club each time they did something. She felt like she was a little girl again, creating something her dad could be proud of. Even though the crafts were pretty cheesy, it was fun to get out of the house.

She'd found the crafts club through a bulletin at the YMCA, where she swam. She thought it to be sort of interesting, mostly the people who came were interesting. She wasn't very good at any of the crafts. Actually, she sucked at everything thus far, and she'd been going once a week for a year now. She never had been good at creative things. She enjoyed it either way.

Chloe finally got the gift. When she got home, she took it into the spare bedroom where she kept her crafting tools to wrap it. She checked the time when she finished with the bow. She was actually going to make it; she just needed to get dressed. She had a cute purple dress Kendra, her best friend, had sent her. She never had a chance to wear it, mainly because Jon prefers pink.

Chloe cut her shower time to fifteen minutes to give time for her hair, which it was going to need. Once her hair was done, she finished her makeup and looked at the clock again. The party started in forty-five minutes. It would take her thirty minutes to get to the restaurant. They had a room set up with a mini buffet. She smiled to herself, thinking of all the little appetizers, as she slipped into her shoes.

Chloe grabbed her matching purse from the back of the closet and quickly emptied her essential items from her everyday purse. Ok lipstick, eyeliner, travel Kleenex, mini mouthwash, floss, can opener, lighter just in case someone asks, ink pen, sticky notes one can never have too many sticky notes, brow brush, two mascaras waterproof and lengthening, brass knuckles that her grandma insisted she carries at all times, black flats that roll up to fit in your purse in case your feet get blisters, wallet, keys and she paused on whether to transfer the extra spoon. She finally decided it may be necessary since they had appetizers.

Maybe they didn't set out spoons, she thought, doing one last time-check that she looked okay. Ok, good to go. I should make it with two minutes to spare. Jon always hated when they were late to an event of any kind.

Chloe climbed into her car and told the GPS where she was going, checked her makeup in the mirror one more time, then off she went. Chloe had forgotten Saturday traffic was a bit heavier, but she should still be ok with time. She had found the perfect gift, a knitting machine that knits for you. She looked over with a proud smile where she had put it in the passenger seat. Her heart sank. It wasn't there.

Chloe had left the gift in the spare bedroom after wrapping it up. Well, she can't go without it. She put on her blinker to turn down a side street so she could turn around, then called Cheryl, who had set up the party.

"Hey, Cheryl, I'm running late. I totally forgot the gift at home. I've got to go back and get it." Chloe told her.

"Oh, it's no biggie. Most girls are running behind schedule, and the food won't be set out for another hour anyway. We aren't doing gifts until after we eat. You have plenty of time." Cheryl told her not to worry about it at all. Chloe was told that Jesmina wasn't arriving until an hour after the party started, and Hannah would be at least forty-five minutes late.

So Chloe was headed back for the gift. She should have known the girls wouldn't show up on time. They never did, she thought. Damn, my day is not going well, she thought as she turned off her blinker and made a U-Turn, then sped through the street back the way she came. She was getting impatient with all the traffic and drivers not letting her turn when she needed to.