Steve Denyes: Music

Havasu City Love

(Steve Denyes)

(excerpt from "Waiting on Arleen" monologue)

Filling the decaf thermos with regular coffee was just the first of a series of dumb things I did at work while thinking about Arleen. Will got tired of it pretty quick. He gave me what he called a mandatory afternoon off. He told me to go home and get my head straight and come back in the morning.

I started to go home, but I came down here instead. I thought I’d have a seat here on our old bench. So I could sit and think about Arleen some more.

The crazy thing was, from about thirty yards up the trail, I could tell it was her. It was Arleen sitting right here on our old bench like she was waiting for me. My mind fast-forwarded to every happy ending of every old black and white movie I’d ever seen and suddenly I was going to be the good guy that got the girl in the final scene. All there was left to do was sweep her up off her feet and watch the credits roll.

As it turned out, I should have stayed put because from about ten feet away I saw the diamond engagement ring on Arleen’s left hand. . .and I was pretty sure I wasn’t the one that had given it to her.

I must have gasped out loud because at that very moment, Arleen turned around. She jumped up and gave me a great big hug and we sat down and talked for almost an hour. She told me that she was engaged to Tom. The San Diego State guy that she left me for.

She told me that Tom was a concessions manager at the San Diego Marriott. Their plan was to get married in here Havasu City and then after the wedding Tom would transfer to the London Bridge Marriott and then they’d find a place here in town and live happily ever after.

In a desperate attempt to change the subject, I told Arleen that I had recently been made manager at the Bean Counter and we both did our best to seem enthusiastic that. It was a lie of course--no such position exists—but it worked and we got on to talking about other things.

I decided that I’d better make a graceful exit while I still had that option. But Arleen stopped me before I could go. She told me that it would mean the world to her if I would come to her wedding. And to this day, I’m not really sure why but I told her that I would go to her wedding if she would come visit me at the bean counter.

We both promised and my life hasn’t been the same since.