Not Enough Mike Stories So Here's One

“I’ll just be a second, kay?” I say to Maddy, who’s currently seated on the sofa in front of the TV with a bowl of grapes in her lap.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m not a baby.” She says popping a grape in her mouth. I walk down the apartment building hall to my neighbor’s door. I knock.

“Yeah?” my neighbor Gail, a twenty-two year old, blond super model looking pediatric nurse in training, says as she opens the door, “Hey Jade-ee.”
“Hey, are you working tonight?” She shakes her head.
“I don’t work nights except Tuesdays.”
“Oh can you watch Maddy tonight?” I ask hopefully.
“Oooh does someone have a date?” she squeals excitedly, “Cause it’s been a while.”
“Oh shut your-“ I’m cut off by the sound of my cell phone.

“Mom!” Maddy calls from our doorway, she’s holding out my phone, “Phone’s ringing.” I walk towards her and grab the phone, “Hi Gail!”
“Guess what kiddo, we’re gonna hang out tonight.” She winks at me and smiles as I answer the call.

“Hello?” I say calmly as not to sound like a panting dog.
“Hey, Jade?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, it’s Mike, from Starbucks.”
“Yeah I remember.” I laugh as I wave goodbye to Gail and follow Maddy back into our apartment.
“So are you free for tonight?”
“Yup.” Maddy is trying to distract me by making kissy faces. I roll my eyes at her.
“Okay, so where do I pick you up?”
“Do you know where the community center is?”
“Yeah.”
“Well it’s just off that street, 990 Agathe Street.” I say carefully and Maddy goes into another fit of kissy faces.
“Yeah, I know where that is.” He sounds like he’s smiling, which makes my heart race unbelievably, Gail was right, I hadn’t had a boyfriend in a long while, “So I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“Great, I’ll see you then.”

“Great I’ll see you then.” Maddy mimics as I hang up my phone.
“Insolent child!” I say in a fake German accent, “I should get my whipping rod out and teach you some manners!” Madison and I always randomly go into role playing.
“Please sir, I won’t do it again.” She says at an attempt of sounding like Oliver Twist.

“I need to shower.” I say establishing that after a day of running errands I’m not as fresh as I could be, “Don’t burn the place down.” She rolls her eyes and goes back to the television.
“I think if he really likes you he won’t mind your B-O!” she calls after me.

Later, after drying my hair and applying a little bit of makeup someone knocks on the bathroom door.
“Mom! Someone’s at the door, might be lover boy!” she teases. I look at my watch which is lying by the bathroom sink and I see it’s still early to be Mike. Considering I’m in only bra and panties I pull on my bathrobe and head to the door.

I peer through the hole in the door to see Gail standing there. I open the door.
“Hey Gail, my date is only at seven.” I say but she shakes his head.
“You need help getting ready, you’ve been out of the loop.” She insists as she forces herself in.
“Slow evening, huh?” I say cocking an eyebrow. She nods meekly.

“So, where’s he taking you?”
“Dinner and movie, nothing to crazy.”
“He sounds like a loser, he should take you to a wild rock concert where the lead singer moons the audience and all that crazy stuff!” Maddy exclaims, she’s well on her way to becoming a punk rocker.
“Hmm.” Gail analyzes, “You should wear your sexy jeans.”
“Sexy jeans?”
“Yeah unno, you must have sexy jeans.” She says making her way to my room and opening my closet.

I humor her and let her look through my closet; honestly my ‘dirty stuff’ is in my bottom drawer.
“Here they are!” she says holding out a pair of dark jeans, “sexy jeans.” I smile as I pull on my favorite pair of jeans. I didn’t consider them ‘sexy jeans’ I just happened to look pretty damn good in them. “You should wear them with high heel flip flops.” she rummages around the floor of my closet as Maddy laughs in amusement.
“Shirt wise, I go topless or black bra?” I ask as she hands me my green and white heeled flip flops.
“Oh right, but it has to match the shoes.” She says as sifting through my shirt collection.
“Isn’t it the other way around?” Maddy laughs.
“How about you let me dress myself?” I say playfully pushing Gail aside and choosing a plain green t-shirt. I pull it on.
“You know I wasn’t going to choose that one, but damn you look good.” Gail says clapping her hands, “Oh sexy mama!”
“Eww don’t call her that.” Maddy pouts, “Besides, he sounds too normal and boring. You should go out with a real rock’n’roll guy!”
“Your dad was a rock’n’roll guy and look how that turned out.” I say as I slip on my shoes.
“Well a better rock’n’roll guy!” she persists.
“At the coffee shop we talked music and he seemed to be into punk rock, is that good?”
“It’s a start.”
“Besides there aren’t any good bands playing that I know of.” I say finally, Gail nods trying not to burst out in laughter.

“Oh! I’ll give you money for pizza or Chinese or what not.” I ramble as I head over to my purse. I don’t even get to my purse when there’s a buzz from the intercom at the door. “Hello.”
“It’s me, Mike.”
“Ohhhh!” Gail and Maddy coo simultaneously.
“Come on up.” I say rolling my eyes as I press the buzzer.

“Mike sounds sexy.” Gail teases.
“Shh.” I say as I unlock the door. I open it carefully to see Mike standing there confidently in a tight black t-shirt, jeans and a leather jacket slung on his left arm.
“Hey.” He says very suavely, “Ready to go?”
“Just a second,” I say ready to test this guy, “Come in.”

“Hi!” Gail and Maddy say cheerfully, they had made there way to the sofa probably to look overly casual.
“Mike, this is my daughter Madison and my neighbor Gail.”
“You have a daughter?” he asks calmly yet intrigued.
“Yeah, is that a problem?” I ask firmly.
“No, why would it be? I have a daughter around the same age, her name’s Estelle.” I nod and look at Maddy who’s smiling.

I nod at Gail to follow me to my room, I don’t close the door I didn’t want to seem secretive.
“You were right he is hot.” She says giddily as I hand her money for dinner, “You want me to bring Maddy to my apartment so you two can-“
“God Gail!” I hiss.
“So that’s a no?”

“How old are you?” I hear Maddy say in the next room. I grab my purse and jacket and head back to wear Mike is standing patiently.
“Maddy, don’t be rude.”
“It’s okay, I asked her how old she was. I’m thirty-four.”
“Oh, that means you’re five years older than my mom.” I glare at my mouthy daughter and she gives me a toothy grin.

“Alright well we’re off.” I announce.
“Hug!” Maddy exclaims, she’s usually not this ‘hugging’ but I accept and go down to her level. “He’s not bad, doesn’t have whacky hair but at least he’s got tattoos.” She whispers in my ear.
“Bye Mike, nice to meet you.” she says shaking his hand.

We head downstairs to where a really nice BMW is parked. He opens the door for me, man how I’ve missed being romanced. Seeing as how nice a car this is I can’t help but ask.
“So Mike what is it that you do for a living?” I ask as the car starts along the way. He laughs uneasily, “You’re not in that mafia are you?”
“Does the East Bay Punk Mafia count?” he asks still laughing, I laugh too, I’m not sure why, “How about you tell me what you do first?”
“I’m a mixer at a radio station.”
“Cool, what sort of music?”
“Hey, hey, tell me what you do.”
“Do you know that band Green Day?” he asks carefully.
“Fucking Christ you’re Mike Dirnt.”
“Wow that was quick.” He laughs, “I usually have to go into a long explanation.”
“The announcers talked about Green Day a couple of years ago, right when the American Idiot video came out.”
“So you work at a rock music station?”
“Yeah but its more old rock so your band gets little air time, we play lots of Zeppelin though.”
“Is it CRAK 77.7?”
“Yeah.”
“I listen to that station all the time.” He says nodding enthusiastically. “I like that station.”

“Oh god, I’m on a date with Mike Dirnt.” I say muffling my face momentarily in my hands.
“Well I’ll be just Mike if you want, and if you need a last name that badly, Mike Pritchard, okay?” he laughs.
“Oh god you’re laughing at me now.” I look at him to see him smiling insanely. “I’m not some sorta crazy fan or stalker or anything.”
“I know.” He smiles and glances away from the road for a second to look at me, “Hey I could be freaking out too. I’m with the mixer of my favorite radio station.”
“But I own like two of your albums!”
“Well your station is number one on my radio memory setting.” He teases.

Half an hour later after the awkwardness on my part had long since passed I take a sip of beer from my glass.
“You know what’s funny,” I start, “My daughter said you weren’t rock’n’roll enough for me.”
“Oh really?” he laughs.
“Yup, she kept rambling on how you should take me to a mosh pit concert and what not.” He laughs again, “then just as we were leaving she told me that she didn’t like that fact your hair isn’t freaky, but she likes your tattoos.”

“She’s a cute kid.” Mike says carefully, “So umm if you don’t mind me asking what happened to her father?”
“Well you see, I had her at nineteen and basically he was really immature and well just plain out irresponsible.” I say trying not to sound like I have a chip on my shoulder, “So he left me.”
“So does she see him or-“
“Well he calls from time to time when it’s convenient for him to see her which is about once a year at Christmas time.”
“Does he live far then?”
“Do you consider Sacramento far?” I ask he shakes his head. “Besides I don’t like the idea of him seeing her because he only started wanting to see her when she was about four.” I pause and realize I might be rambling, “So tell me about your daughter, Estelle.”

He smiles, “She’s the same age as Madison, I was actually married to her mother for a few years but things didn’t work out.” I nod, “I actually think she and Madison would get along really well, both smarty-pants.” I laugh. “You should’ve heard what she said when she heard I was going out with you.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Well more when she found out I met you at Starbucks, there’s an on-going joke that I’m addicted to coffee so she started teasing that we could go to Caffeine-aholics Anonymous together.”
“She’s sounds great.” I pause, it was my turn to ask a questions, “So do you see her often?”
“Yeah my ex, Anastasia and I are on good terms so I see her practically on the weekly basis, unless I’m on tour that is.” I nod.
“So you never remarried.”
“I did actually, she claimed I was spending too much time in studio, but that was code for she was having an affair.” He smirks evilly as he sips his beer. I can’t help but laugh.
“Not with one of your band mates I hope.” I tease.
“Nah, some ex-boyfriend or something, I was too pissed off to give a damn.” He shrugs.

“Hey Bree.” One of the waitresses says to another as we finish up our meal. “Are you going to the concert at the Club Skunk?”
“Yeah, it’s grunge night?”
“No punk.” The first say. Mike and I glance from the waitresses to each other.

“Hey Jade, you want to skip the movie?” he asks smiling.
“Yeah, and I just remembered I haven’t been to the movies in six months as of next week, I don’t want an awkward time lapse.” I laugh. Mike clears his throat and the Bree girl comes to our table.
“Where is this Club Skunk?” he asks her quietly.
“It’s on Metropolis Avenue.” She says quickly, “Tonight’s show starts at eight.”
“Thanks.” Mike says smugly.