A Step to Love

I asked her why she couldn't make up her mind,

She said "You don't understand,

I'd love to go, but there's something you should know”,

“She showed me her wedding band.”

Hot, hot, hotter than hell.

“You know she's gonna leave you well done.”

Hot, hot, hotter than hell.

“She'll burn you like the mid—welcome to McDonald’s, how may I help you?” This was probably the thirty-first time I had asked somebody what they wanted on this Tuesday afternoon. It had been two days since my birthday and I didn’t feel any older. I just followed my weekly schedule of waking up at 6:30am, eating breakfast and getting ready for school. After school finished at 3:30pm, I would go to my dreaded job and drown in it until 9:00pm. I had to stop dancing during the week thanks to this.

“Em, I’ll have a number one, make the drink Sprite instead of Pepsi,” a young blonde haired guy said. He shot me a smile before waiting patiently for me to respond.

I chuckled at the weird expression he wore. His eyes were so cute and big—almost looked like they were about to explode, so let’s just say he looked a bit weird. “Anything else?” I asked and he shook his head. “For here?”

“Yes.”

“That’ll be three dollars and eighty six cents.”

“Thanks,” he said handing me the money.

I tried to fight a stupid goofy smile that came to my lips’ way, but then I remembered Puck’s face when we talked about the courtesy rules. “No, thank you.” And just as I said that, the music started ending slowly in a mix of instrumental delight. I walked toward the other side of the front counter singing silently to another song that had started after.

Mata ahoo Hima de.

“Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto.” The only the way I could possibly entertain myself in this place.

Himitsu wo Shiri tai…

You're wondering who I am.

“Secret secret, I've got a secret. Machine or mannequin, secret secret, I've got a secret…”

It was just another day our boss, Puck, got his magical old-music-fever and all of us had to suffer the consequences. I did like a little bit of the old music, but I wasn’t much of a fan as him and his daughter, Paige. She was just one of my co-workers and I swore that girl lived in a whole other universe. She was obsessed with music—especially music from the 60’s and 70’s.

I asked the blonde dude if he wanted ketchup or anything else, but he refused. With a wry smile, I handed him his blue tray full of his order.

~*~*~*~*~

I was determined to forget about Alex…or at least try. I wanted to show everyone that he didn’t have the slightest control over me and I knew just to make his life miserable one step at a time. I loved the fact that it was so easy to piss him off with the slightest details.

Several thoughts like this were occupying the spaces in my head while my eyes tried to find some peace with the blinding light of the TV hitting them.

“How was it?” I heard Nana ask me from the other small sofa. I shifted a bit to see her, so she’d know I wasn’t trying to be rude.

“Mmm, I’m tired, Nana.”

She laughed. “It’ll be worth it, you’ll see.”

“Yeah, at the end of the month,” I said, burying my face a little in the sofa’s pillow I had used to support my head.

“Do you think you can help me make dinner or are you willing not to move from there all night?” She asked, sending a shy smile.

I immediately thought of an idea to amuse myself. “No, its ok, Nana.” I rushed up to my feet. “How about you take a break for a bit and I’ll make dinner. You’ve been working too hard lately.”

Another smile she showed, made her look younger, clearing every line of her tired face. “How thoughtful of you, Lilly. Thank you.” She turned the webs of strings I recently noticed. I didn’t know if I was hallucinating, but I think she was making some baby booties. Her eyes flickered to the TV for a few minutes and turned to her creation again.

“What are you watching?” I asked to fill up some conversation before leaving to the kitchen. I didn’t want to be too obvious how excited I was to try on a little experiment.

“News…”

I turned to the TV for a bit and blended with whatever the reporter was saying to the camera.

“And there you have it,” the woman reporter said. “Make sure to lock up your house at night and to call the police if you notice anything weird going around where you live.” She laughed. “Oh, Terrence,” she turned to the other reporter next to her, “things are certainly getting worse, right?”

I looked to Nana that was almost finishing with her purple masterpiece. “Why should we lock our house? What happened?”

“Oh, they found several bodies near the Ritz Theater. The people were shot in various places and obviously died as a result.”

I suppressed a shudder. It was near where we lived. “How awful; I always knew that place was creepy…”

She sighed. “Well, I just hope they find whoever did that. Karma will get to them, you’ll see.”

“I think I’m going to make dinner now.”

The news kind of freaked me out and I didn’t know why, but every time I heard something bad, I always pictured those masked strangers of the day Brody picked me up at Sasha’s house.

I had to focus on other things, though. Like what to cook that would irritate Alex so much. Just like in my old ways, and in the old days. Ha.

Once I finished setting up the table, and cleaning the kitchen a bit, the oven’s alarm indicated that what I had made was hot and ready to go. I skipped excitedly, calling everyone to the table. Just when all of them (including Nana) were waiting in their places, I started serving.

I started from Pat, and finished with (can I say it?)…The Thing. Goshie that felt so good. I smiled to myself.

“What the hell is this?” he asked staring at the homemade cordon bleu.

I giggled. “Dinner.” Then I pushed my brows together setting mine on my plate. “Enjoy.”

“I’m not going to eat this bullcrap.”

“Alex, you shouldn’t disparage what is given to you,” I said in a fake sweet, slightly bitchy tone. “You know…there are a lot of people in the world that don’t even have a quarter of what you have. You shouldn’t be walking all blissfully unaware of this.”

“Oh, Lilly. You didn’t know?” I heard Pat say.

“What?” I took the Pepsi bottle from the middle and started pouring a bit in each glass.

“Alex is a vegetarian,” she said.

Just then, Brit and Jake snickered with their mouths full, so for the benefit of it, I added in a much innocent voice, “Oh, really? Gosh, Pat. I am so sorry.”

“What the fuck?!”Alex yelled from his seat. “She knows. She has known since we met.”

“Alex! Control your language at the table!” Pat hissed.

“If I would’ve known, you know I wouldn’t have served this to you.”

“Well, Lilly, you know what? It’s ok,” Pat said; her calm and motherly voice assured me. “Alex, you’re going to have to either eat it or make a salad, because it’s almost 10:00pm.”

He raised an eyebrow and all of us were bound to know he didn’t believe any of my words. But I just fluttered my eyelashes.

He wrinkled his nose before speaking. “Well, I’m doing this for the children in need,” he groaned in disgust and took a bite of his cordon bleu, making it the happiest moment of my life. I, Lillian Parker, had made Alex eat meat. I should definitely win an Academy Award…

Pat sighed as I walked to the empty seat between Alex and Jake. In front of me Nana sat, taking a sip from her Pepsi while Brit sat on her right, opposite to Jake. George sat at one end of the table while Pat sat at the other.

“George and I have an announcement,” Pat suddenly said. And we all waited… “I hope all of you know that our anniversary is coming soon, so we thought it would be nice to take a little break from it all and have a mini vacation.”

“Aw, that’s adorable,” Brittany said. George’s shyness was off the top, because he never spoke about these things yet we could see how much love and affection he had for Pat. The way he looked at her when she spoke, when she walked and the curios way he blushed whenever Pat said something that included the both of them. Was it weird that I thought shyness was a turn on?

“What place do you guys have in mind?” I asked.

George finally spoke. “Maybe Denmark or the Virgin Islands.” He paused. “…if that’s okay.”

We all mumbled words of agreement and a cute smile played on George’s pink lips.

“When are you leaving?” Jake asked and we all stared at him in disbelief. “What?”

Alex reached for the back of Jake’s head only to smack it, his arm brushing my back in the process. He earned an “ow” from Jake and a grunt from Pat that he noticed. What he didn’t notice, though, were the goosebumps that were now traveling my body.

“You idiot, mom just said it’s for hers and George’s anniversary.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “I only got here a couple of months ago.”

“You and Lilly got here on the same day; eight months ago to be exact, and she remembers.”

Jake looked at me. I nodded. “Oh, shut up, both of you,” he muttered.