One Day at a Time

I was rushing out of the bathroom after hearing Jenn’s continuous banging on the door.

“Can you stop that?” I stood face to face with her in my towel. “My neighbors don’t like me as it is; so try not to make them hate me even more.”

“Hey, don’t blame me,” She said as she followed me into my room with her big Nike bag. “He’ll be here at 7 and you take forever to get ready.”

She dropped the huge bag on top of my bed and breathed in deeply. I looked over at the clock, which read 6:17, and then back at her.

“That bag is so heavy,” She breathed. “But, anyway, let’s get you dressed up and looking pretty.”

“You don’t think I look pretty already?” I asked, giving her my best sad puppy impression.

“Of course, honey,” She grabbed hold of my arm lightly and sat me on the bed. “But not pretty enough for a hot date. You need to look just as hot.”

I groaned as I watched her dig through the big bag, again, and pull out everything she had shown me before. Shoes, dresses, hair products, makeup; so much stuff. The first thing she set aside to do first was my hair and makeup.

“Nothing too dramatic, okay?” I told her.

“Why not?” She placed her hands on her hips and glared at me.

“You know I hate makeup. So please, be nice,” I begged.

After staring me down like she wanted to kill me, she finally nodded her head and proceeded to unwrap my hair from the soggy towel and do my hair.

It felt as if it took forever to get ready; but by the time Jenn was finished ‘beautifying’ me, it was only a quarter to 7.

“Oh, wow,” She took a step back to admire her work. “I am amazing.” She closed my bedroom door to look into the tall mirror that was hooked on the back of it.

I looked at myself, taking into careful consideration that I would need to maintain this exact look the whole night; which seemed like a very big challenge to me. My long, medium brown hair was parted on the right side and in big curls, light blush, nude colored lips, bronzy eye shadow, and a dress that gave a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘little black dress’. It was similar to what those women wear on that game show ‘Deal or No Deal’. It had 2 inch straps, snug to my body down to my knees, and just enough cleavage to not look too trashy.

“I still can’t believe I’m letting you do this,” I walked closer to the mirror, trying not to trip over the 4 inch black pumps she made me wear; or as I liked to call them, corner killers. “I must be crazy or something.”

“Oh, please,” She waved off my comment. “You look smoking hot!”

Just as she said that, there was a knock at my front door. All of a sudden, butterflies flooded my stomach. I looked over to Jenn, who had a huge smile on her face, and me like a deer caught in head lights. Her smiled slowly turned into a straight line. I couldn’t move.

“Um, are you gonna get the door? He’s here,” She pointed towards the living room and opened my bedroom door.

“Can you get it?” I asked and took a few steps backwards to sit down on my bed.

Her head shook in disappointment and walked over to me to grab my wrist and drag me out into the living room. There was another knock at the door and I took a deep breath. I just needed to relax. This shouldn’t be so difficult. I straightened myself out and slowly walked over to the door, trying not to kill myself, and opened the door.

Right in front of me stood a guy in a black button down and black slacks who was what every girl would want; tall, dark, and handsome as hell. I guess him and Jenn were thinking the same thing when they decided on clothing. He had an athletic build to his body and kept his black hair short and pushed up in the front; with what seemed to have no gel in it, which is always a plus. His crystal blue eyes stared deep into mine and he smiled a pearly white smile as he handed me a single gardenia in full bloom; which was ironic because you usually see those flowers used in wedding bouquets, but I thought they were gorgeous.

“I got it from the flower shop that my sister works at,” was the first thing he said. “It’s her favorite and said that it meant joy. So I hope you like it.”

“They’re my favorite, too, actually,” I stepped to the side of the door. “You can come in. I don’t want to keep you out in the hallway all night.”

He smiled his pearly white smile again and entered into my apartment. I shut the door and walked into the kitchen to place the flower in a small bowl of water. I came back into the living room and Jenn handed me the small purse I would be carrying that night. I rolled my eyes, thinking about how much I hated carrying small purses.

“You look absolutely breathtaking, by the way,” He said nervously.

“Thanks,” I smiled. Jenn pulled me in real close and said something into my ear.

“Just so you know, his name is Erik,” She whispered. I nodded my head and hugged her goodbye. Before leaving, I turned around to remind her of something.

“Remember what I said; no wild parties or anything like that while I’m gone. And please leave,” I pointed to her in all seriousness and humor. She laughed lightly.

“Okay, goodbye,” She waved to me.

My eyes narrowed and I smiled to her. I closed the door behind me and followed next to Erik out to his car.

“I hope I dressed okay for where we’re going,” I pulled a little but at my dress, trying to make it seem longer than it really was.

“Oh, no. You look great,” He opened the car door for me and I slid into the front seat.

He ran around the front of the car and got into the driver’s seat.

“So, where are we going?” I asked. He started the car and began driving.

“Well, I hope you like Italian,” He hinted.

I smiled. Italian was probably my favorite type of food. We hit it off right away and I was surprised. I’m not usually the talkative type, but we were able to keep a conversation going the whole night. I liked him; a lot. There were a lot of things that I look for in a guy that he had; a good sense of humor, caring, sweet. He was such a nervous wreck, which didn’t make me feel so bad about being nervous too since I actually agreed to let Jenn do this to me.

On the bright side of things, the night had gone by really smoothly; meaning I’m still without fifty dollars and Jenn has the pleasure of knowing that my current relationship status was considered ‘taken’ because of her hooking Erik and I up. As much as I like him, I still kind of hoped that I would’ve won the bet.