People Change

Sydney sat on her couch flipping aimlessly through the channels on her television. There wasn’t anything on the television, and she really wasn’t in the mood for a movie. All she was doing was sitting in her pajamas, all alone, being bored and feeling like ripping her hair out because of it. Sydney decided she would just get herself dressed and head down to the bakery to help out Lanie and Janice. It was better than just sitting around doing nothing.

Behind her, the door slid slowly open. Sydney looked around to see Brian closing the door behind him, holding a bouquet of tulips in the crook of his elbow and grinning like an idiot. She rolled her eyes at the sight of the flowers—he was constantly buying them for her. Sydney didn’t mind, though. It was the sweetest thing a boyfriend had ever done for her.

“I thought maybe the ones from last week would be dying,” Brian explained when Sydney stood up and took the tulips gently from him, inhaling their scent as she walked towards the kitchen.

“A little,” Sydney answered, gently unwrapping the paper and plastic from around the flowers. She pulled the tulips from the previous week—a bunch of white and violet ones—out of the vase on the counter. She replaced them with the fresh tulips—eight or so red and yellow ones. “You really should stop spoiling me like that, though.”

“You deserve them,” Brian said with a nonchalant shrug, like buying her flowers all the time was nothing. Sydney smiled and pulled Brian into a kiss. They kissed passionately for several moments before Sydney pulled away to ask Brian his true reason for being there.

“I was bored,” Brian began. “So, I decided to come over and see if you wanted to play a round of putt-putt golf with me.”

“Putt-putt golf?” Sydney enquired curiously, raising one arching eyebrow. Brian smiled sheepishly into her sky blue eyes.

“It’s the only golf I don’t entirely suck at,” Brian said. Sydney smiled and kissed Brian again.

“Let me get dressed real quick.”

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“Damn,” Sydney swore softly as the windmill, once again, foiled her plans of moving on. She felt like pulling a Happy Gilmore and starting to mutilate the windmill with her golf club. Brian, on the other hand, had swiftly beaten the windmill his first try with a smooth swing. He now stood waiting with his golf ball in hand, throwing it up into the air over and over again, smiling patiently as he waited for his girlfriend to get her ass in gear and beat the windmill already.

“Just be patient and concentrate,” Brian said helpfully. “Timing is key.”

Sydney grumbled underneath her breath as she positioned her ball again. She straightened up, swaying her hips back and forth a few times for Brian’s sake. Then, she swung the club, praying for mercy from the god of mini-golf windmills. Miraculously, the golf ball slid up the ramp, right between the lattice arms of the windmill, and down the opposite ramp. Sydney yelped in happiness, hurrying around to see her golf ball slide smoothly into the hole.

“I did it! I did it! I did it!” Sydney cheered, jumping up and down before going and retrieving her ball. A family of four at an adjacent hole gave her a strange look and a wide berth as she continued to jump up and down excitedly on the green felt. Brian smiled as he walked over to her and gave her a congratulatory kiss. Sydney stopped cheering instantly as his lips pressed against hers, and she threw her arms eagerly around his neck as their kiss deepened.

“Come on, kids,” Sydney heard the parents at the adjacent hole say, ushering their kids away from the crazy couple at the windmill hole. “Let’s move on, shall we?”

“What a bunch of stiffs,” Brian grumbled, having heard the family move away. Sydney giggled and pulled away, picking up her abandoned club and ball to lead the way to the next hole.

“So, Jimmy been giving you any trouble?” Sydney asked curiously as she set up her ball at the next hole: you had to hit your ball hard enough to go up a ramp and over a small puddle of water. The path then zigzagged before it ended with the hole.

“Not really,” Brian answered, leaning on his golf club as he watched Sydney hopefully hit her ball. It slid halfway up the ramp before sliding back down to her. She deflated and set herself up to hit it again. “I don’t think he trusts me, though. He’s accepted what we have, but he doesn’t trust it much. He probably assumes I’ll screw up.”

“Will you?” Sydney asked seriously, looking up before she swung her club.

“Of course not,” Brian answered hastily, mentally slapping himself for putting that thought into Sydney’s head. “I just don’t have a good record with faithfulness, you know?”

“Yeah,” Sydney said, swinging her club. This time, the ball made it over the puddle. “And if it’s any consolation, I don’t think you’ll cheat on me. I trust you, at least.”

“It is,” Brian told Sydney, watching as she tried her hand at the zigzag part. “It is consoling.” And it really was, knowing that Sydney trusted him. He needed her trust more than anything.