750 Words – Kelly Loves Jason (And Jason Loves Kelly)
“I just want to kiss him, and marry him and have his kids and grow old together.” Kelly thought for the first time in 13 years. “Is that so much to ask?”
Kelly sighed, her eye refocusing on her monitor. She hadn’t thought about Jason in months, not since she last ran into him at the local co op, where he was bagging her groceries.
÷
“Oh, hey Kelly.” He barely glanced in her direction as he dropped a loaf of 9-grain bread into her cloth bag. “I haven’t seen you since high school. Did you move back into town or something?” Kelly was pushed right up into Jason’s space by a little old Russian lady eager to get through the line.
She watched him drop her environmentally friendly dishwasher detergent into the same cloth bag, where it enjoyed a soft landing. She chuckled. “Oh, no, I’ve been living on the east side since I got my MBA. I just moved back to the Dalles when I switched jobs.” Kelly barely noticed when Jason slid the carton of eggs into the bag vertically, then layed her organic orange juice on its side on top of the box of detergent.
Jason looked away, distracted. “Oh, good.”
Kelly swiped her card, hastily poked in her PIN, and, since she had her purse open, snatched one of her new business cards from Wayward & Sons. When Jason handed her her cloth bag, Kelly grasped his hand as she took the bag from his hands, and placed her card in it.
“Call me sometime, let’s catch up!” She thought she sounded too perky, and a hint of her valley girl roots poked through. Kelly slowed her voice and lowered it, “My cell number is on the bottom.”
Too sultry. Kelly’s cheeks flared and she turned away too quickly in an effort to save face.
“Sure.” Jason mumbled, already crushing the Babushka’s loaf of bread.
÷
Kelly never got a call from Jason, but he did find her back on Facebook. She pored over his meager profile, trying to identify past lovers, current girlfriends (Jason left his relationship status blank), and looking at his past.
He’d been in several bands, moved to Florida for a few years, then Philadelphia for 6 months before moving home. Jason brewed his own beer and kava, and as far as she could tell, had never been married.
He didn’t seem to have a lot in common with her, but Kelly felt a juvenile rush whenever she thought about him. She went back to the co op a few times after she ran into Jason, but he was never working at the same time, and the last time, she found out from another bagger that he’d left. The girl sneered at her when she asked, and Kelly figured she was a former girlfriend. young, pretty, and sporting a freshly tattooed sleeve, she seemed like too much for Kelly.
Kelley sighed again, returning to her work; she had to sign in to Salesforce again, because she had been staring blankly at the screen for too long. Kelly loved Jason.
Jason freaked out when he realized whose bread he was bagging. He dropped the detergent right onto the bread, and hoped Kelly wouldn’t notice. She didn’t seem to notice, but she did recognize him. All thoughts of bagging flew out of his head, as he tried to remember the last time he saw her.
He realized Kelly was looking at him, waiting impatiently for him to say something, or maybe just to finish bagging her groceries. He hastily grabbed something and put it in her cloth bag, fumbling and crushing her bread. He looked away, and said something stupid.
She laughed, and said something about her new job. Jason was suddenly ashamed of his job, even though he’d specifically chosen a simple, no-hassle job to focus on his music. Kelly had clearly kept pushing herself forward, and was driving towards a goal; she no doubt saw him as another loser who hadn’t grown out of high school.
Jason wished he’d kept in touch with Kelly. Wished he’d asked her out when they were in the same league, or at least close enough. He looked away, and realized he was staring at his little cousin, whom he’d helped get a job at the co op. Rose caught his eye and stuck her tongue out, obviously reading the situation better than he probably was.
Kelly was talking to him again. He missed most of it, but caught the part about ‘catching up.’ He looked down at her card, some lawyer’s office or something, and wondered if he looked like the kind of guy who needed a lawyer, or could afford one. At this, he felt pangs of rejection, then a pinch of resentment at this person who had silently, unknowingly rejected his chaotic lifestyle for the straight and narrow.
She must have seen it too, and turned awkwardly as she said goodbye. Jason was struck dumb, and gasped out a “Good Bye!” too quiet for her to hear. He looked at her business card, surreptitiously smelled it, then shoved it in his pocket, and tried to forget her.
That day at the end of his shift, Jason’s manager told him that the old lady behind Kelly had complained about this packing job; his manager knew this was not a big deal, and in fact told Jason he was to be moved to a night shift and become night manager to prep him for taking a managerial position at the new co op opening on the eastside.
Jason, after seeing Kelly’s success, decided to take the opportunity.
÷
That night, Jason told Rose about Kelly, then immediately regretted it. he only wanted to forget this girl he’d never stopped thinking about, but Rose insisted that if he wouldn’t call Kelly, then he should at least friend her on Facebook.
He did, and she accepted. She had hundreds of pictures with friends, colleagues, ex-boyfriends, and family. Jason never cared about Facebook until that night. As the night went on, he felt weird peeking at Kelly’s life so nakedly, but at least it drove one point home. She had moved on, left him and guys like him behind, and Jason had two choices. Either give up altogether, or push himself to be better, until he could be someone Kelly could like. Or love.
Because Jason loved Kelly.
