La Vie En Rose

December was the best time of year in Arizona. The weather brought us crisp mornings, windy afternoons and chilly nights, the stores were putting up their decorations and the classic Christmas jingles could be heard everywhere. It was putting everyone in the best of moods. The past couple of days, while Lola and Cole were at school, my mother and I have gone shopping for Christmas decorations. Spending time with my mother alone is close to rewarding. While we were in Target, skimming the tree ornaments and light decorations, I confided in her about my current boy situation. I confessed about how bothered I was by John’s actions at Tim’s party.

“It sounds to me like you were jealous, Gi.” My mom looked at me while she held a box of 25 LED colored lights set.

“Well...yeah I was!” I admitted, “He’s really nice, mom. John’s that kind of guy who holds the door open for you, buys you drinks and doesn’t take everything so seriously. There’s not many guys like that back in Manhattan.”

“Well, what about this other boy, though? The waiter who gave you his number?”

“Oh, Richie...” I drifted. I finally had the guts to text him. After a full text conversation, I learned that Richie was a junior at ASU, Family Guy was his favorite tv show and the only kind of music he’ll listen to is Manchester Orchestra and Animal Collective. He seemed charming and friendly enough so when he asked me out for dinner the following Friday night, I didn’t say no, “Yeah he’s nice. I think I’m going out on a date with him this Friday.”

“How about you give him a chance then? He might be just as great as John.” My mom offered, “See how you feel about things after Friday. You never know, you might get along better with Richie.”

“I doubt it.” I sighed, picking up a glass ornament that was shaped like an angel, “I’ll find out soon enough anyways.”

My mom smiled, “Cheer up, honey. Also, make sure you let Lola know she’s babysitting Cole that night. Tim and I are going to be gone to Tucson for Tim’s annual Christmas dinner. It’s work-related.”

I nodded, making a mental note.

By the time we got home from Target, it was late in the afternoon and Lola and Cole were home from school. Since Lola had to study for a huge midterm exam that she was having next week and Cole was too busy eating a PB&J sandwich while watching Johnny Bravo, I decided to make myself a cup of hot tea, grab my reading spectacles and book and situate myself on the lovely swingy chair on our front porch. It was, after all, the best part of the day. The temperature was perfect.

I was outside for at least an hour. My head was now resting against an arm-rest, while one foot was hanging off the other side. As I happily read the latest book by Nicholas Sparks, I was absent-mindedly pushing the swing chair gently with my other foot. Nicholas Sparks was remarkable. I was always up for a good tear-jerker, heart breaking romance. What can I say? They tug at my heart strings like no other. All I can say is, who ever his wife is, is a very lucky women.

“Well aren’t you a sight for sore-eyes?” I heard a familiar voice announce.

I almost jumped out of my own damn skin when I saw John O’Callaghan standing at the bottom of the steps to my porch, Sally obediently by his side. How did I not hear him walk up to my house?

“John!” I exclaimed, still surprised. I realized I was sitting in a very...riveting position, so I quickly sat up and closed my book, “What are you doing here?”

“I was taking Sally for a walk and saw you.” He climbed up the steps and leaned against the white banister, “So I thought I’d stop by.”

I reached over to Sally and patted her head, trying to avoid John’s eyes. God, this was torture. He was making it really hard for me to ignore my feelings for him, especially when he was wearing that grey beanie and that black, long-sleeved shirt with the little white buttons below the collar line.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.” He stated, “The last time I saw you was at-”

“Tim’s party.” I finished the sentence quickly, “Yep.”

God, now I was being short with him. This was getting awkward.

“Yeah, about that...” He paused, looked down and kicked imaginary dirt, “I wanted to apologize. That was really embarrassing on my part. I guess I had a little too much to drink.”

“That’s ok.” I lied, “Everyone’s allowed to get drunk and have fun sometimes.”

“Fun.” He gave a short laugh and shook his head, “That night may or may not have been the worst night of my life.”

Good, I thought, that makes me feel so much better.

I wish I could say this out loud but instead I asked, “Uh oh, what happened?”

Just as he opened his mouth to explain, the front door squeaked open, revealing a very tired-looking Lola. Her hair was up in a very high pony-tail and she was still wearing her cheerleading outfit from practice earlier.

She saw John first and smiled, “Oh hey John! Didn’t know you were over.”

John smiled at her, “Just stopped by to say hi.”

“Word.” She then turned to me, “Hey quick question. What night are you going on that date again?”

My heart started beating rapidly as my cheeks abruptly turned red. My eyes darted to John, who looked taken aback.

“Date?” John questioned, looking from Lola to me. I gulped and was about to explain before Lola cut in.

“Oh she hasn’t told you about it yet?” Lola asked nonchalantly, “Gigi has herself a hot date this weekend. It’s all she’s been talking about this past week.”

“No I haven’t!” I said quickly, widening my eyes at Lola. I turned to John, “It’s just a dinner with some guy I met last week. No big deal.”

“Oh.” Was all John said in response. Suddenly, I felt a strong sense of guilt even though I shouldn’t. I had no reason to, “Cool.”

There was a short silence. I was trying to figure out if John seriously couldn’t careless about this date or if he was actually upset by it. He wasn’t showing much emotion. God, he was so hard to read.

“Soo...” Lola was the first to break the silence, “It’s Saturday, right?”

“No, Friday.” I corrected her.

“Oh no Gigi, it can’t be Friday!” Lola exclaimed, “I’m going to be cheerleading at an away game that night, so I won’t be home until like eleven!”

“Are you serious? Can’t you just not go?” I asked her, “Mom and Tim aren’t going to be back until Saturday morning!”

“I can’t just not go.” Lola argued, “If I don’t go, they’ll persecute me by kicking me off the team! Besides, it’s a big game, they need me! You have to stay home and babysit Cole.”

I sighed and sat back in the chair, trying to think of another solution. Sadly, nothing came to mind. I grudgingly reached for my phone in my pocket, “Fine. I’ll just reschedule with Richie.”

“Hold on, hold on.” John said, putting his hand up to me, “Don’t cancel your plans. I can babysit your brother on Friday night.”

My sister and I both exchanged a look and then looked back at John.

“What?” Was all I could say in response. I definitely wasn’t expecting that.

John smiled, “I can watch your brother for a couple of hours. I’m not doing anything Friday night. Besides, I’m great with kids.”

“John,” I started, looking at him with a serious expression, “Are you sure? You probably have more important things to do-”

“Nonsense.” He cut me off with a wave of the hand, “I insist. Just tell me what time to stop by, give me your emergency numbers, his bedtime and I’m good to go.”

“Perfect!” Lola exclaimed with a huge grin on her face, “Then it’s settled! I’m going to go back inside to study. See you two later.”

And with that she was back inside. I grabbed a lock of my hair and started twirling it around with my finger as I nervous looked up at John.

“You don’t have to do this, you know.” I said, “I could easily cancel my plans.”

“Gigi, I want to help.” He gave me a reassuring smile, “It’ll give me something to do. It will be a lot better than me being locked up in my bedroom watching romantic comedies from the 90’s with a box of chocolate.”

“Sounds like my kind of night.” I laughed, “Well thank you. Honestly, you’re too kind.”

“I do what I can.” He shrugged before pushing himself off the banister, “Anyways, I should get going. My mom is making lasagna for dinner.”

He tugged at the leash, letting Sally know they were leaving. She hopped up and started wagging her tail.

“Alright” I nodded, “So I’ll see you Friday?”

“Friday.” He confirmed with a small smile as he started walking away.

“Oh, by the way” He stopped on the bottom step and looked back at me, “Those glasses suit you. You should wear them more often.”

I raised my hand to my black-rimmed glasses and rested a finger on the side of them. My heart started beating rapidly once more as he looked at me.

I smiled nervously, “Thanks.”

With one last smile, he hopped off the last step and made his way back to his house with Sally in tow.

I opened the book I was reading back up, hoping I could continue on reading. But after 5 seconds, I closed it shut with frustration and threw it on the ground. I didn’t feel like reading about some lucky person’s love story anymore.

This sucks.