Chapter 1.3 - Missed Opportunities

The day Ophelia got her first promotion, she got up the nerve to do something she'd wanted to do for a while.

"Hey, Jon."

"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Mick's with me tonight."

"Great! See you there!"

He wasn't there yet when she arrived, which didn't worry her too much. She just set herself up at the pool table, hoping he showed up before anyone else realized she was playing pool with herself. But when an hour passed, and then another, she began to realize what probably should've been obvious from the start: he wasn't showing up. She was frustrated, but determined not to let it get her down. He'd probably gotten hung up at work and forgotten to text her.

To distract herself, Ophelia looked around the karaoke bar. Most of its occupants were over 60 (maybe it was Seniors' Night), but there was one woman by the window having a hushed phone conversation. Wannabe detective that she was, naturally Ophelia eavesdropped.

"You said you were free tonight!"

"Yes, I know your job is important..."

"Alright, but I expect you to spend the whole weekend with me."

Once she hung up, Ophelia walked over to her. If she couldn't spend the evening with Jon, she could at least make a new friend.

"Do you want to play Monsters vs. Aliens?"

The woman, who told Ophelia her name was Heather, agreed. They spent a good amount of time playing the arcade game and complaining about the men in their lives.

After a while, Ophelia even managed to convince Heather to do a round of karaoke.

After they were done, the elderly woman who'd been their only audience shook her head. "Don't quit your day jobs."

Still, Ophelia left Mick's feeling alright. Maybe she hadn't spent the evening quite the way she'd wanted to, but she'd made a friend.

That didn't mean she was giving up on Jon, though.

"Jon, hey."

"I want to go to the pool, and I'd really appreciate it if you didn't stand me up this time."

"Yeah, I know, but it wasn't fun."

"I'd better actually see you there."

She could tell he'd come straight from work (not that he didn't dress like that all the time, but he only wore the eyeliner on stage), but she was just glad he really had shown up.

"Jon! Great to see you!"

He smiled and said, "Same to you, Ophelia," but there was something different about the way he said it. Something a little bit... closed off, maybe. She couldn't quite tell, but she was determined to find out.

"Anyway, I asked you out to celebrate my promotion! You're looking at the Riverview Police Department's newest official Desk Jockey!"

"Congratulations, that's great!" He sounded sincere, but still a little off. She decided to push on anyway.

"Anyway, Jon, I was wondering... if we could maybe make this a real date?"

He looked... uncomfortable. That wasn't good. "Um, Ophelia... I have a girlfriend."

She stopped, shocked. "Really? Since when?" She'd thought he'd been giving out signals, but...

"It's a recent development, but it's pretty serious."

"Oh. That's... that's great, Jon! I'm... I'm really happy for you."

Then she made a beeline for the pool before she embarrassed herself further.

As she jumped in, she berated herself. This was why she didn't do stuff like this! She'd always been insecure about guys and dating and all of that, she could admit that, and she'd needed time before she felt confident enough in Jon's feelings to admit her own. It just figured that in that time, he'd give up waiting on her... if he ever liked her in the first place. She'd thought he had, but maybe she'd just been misreading the signals because she liked him so much. Or maybe he'd liked her, but just to the same extent that he liked everyone. She knew some guys would flirt with anyone, she just hadn't thought Jon was one of them. And she'd really thought he'd been jealous of Luke McDermott... but maybe he'd just been concerned. She didn't know, and right now she couldn't get into a detailed analysis. She had to make sure she wasn't crying more than the water of the pool would disguise. She'd really liked him... but she supposed she'd have to get over that now.

If she could no longer be with him, she at least wanted to try to be friends. After all, they'd been friends up until this point, and she refused to be the kind of person who made things awkward with a friend because they didn't want to be more than that. So when he got into the pool, she splashed him. Maybe it was a little harder than was absolutely necessary, but she couldn't help that. Then he splashed back, and they had a nice splash fight (which she won).

After she won the breath-holding contest too, the tension was almost gone from the outing. Ophelia managed to keep her feelings contained until she got home.

When she was home, after a long analysis session (with some tears thrown in), she made a phone call.

"Heather, please tell me why men are like this?"

She told her friend the whole story, minus names, but she was sure Heather probably knew the people involved but would pretend she was entirely oblivious. After all, that's what friends did.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'll keep my distance and try to get over the leftover feelings. Thanks for the talk."

But despite her promise to Heather, Ophelia soon found herself in possession of a poster for Jon's band. She had plenty of excuses for why she had it: she'd wanted to support her local theater, they were on sale, she liked the music. But she knew the true reason she found herself detouring to the spare room more and more often lately. The leftover feelings still lingered, no matter how much she tried to shove them to the back of her mind.

Author's Note: Heavy handed symbolism? In my blog? Never! Actually Ophelia rolled My Precious and I wanted the theme to be something I could easily feature in storytelling. Therefore there will be a good deal of heavy-handed symbolism from here on out. I have pictures for about two more chapters, so hopefully they will be out soon. I've promised myself I won't play again until I write the chapters I already have, so that should motivate me. Next time: Ophelia gets another potential love interest, because I can't stop myself I suppose.