by Cece Peters
“My front door?” I said with fake shock in my voice. “Why, that is so unlike you, Matthew Boyd! Afraid you can no longer scale the side of a house?”
“While I am confident, mostly, in my abilities to get to your bedroom window, I think I’ll stick with walking in the door tonight. Just so I don’t mess my clothes up, you know. Besides, I want my Leah to be escorted properly out on her date.”
Butterflies filled my stomach, and embarrassingly I started feeling tingly and even a bit wet. I had spent years recovering from and pushing away my feelings for Matty; and in less than three days, they had come rushing back with a vengeance.
“So,” I cleared my throat before asking, “What time shall I be ready tonight?”
“Six, if that still works for you? I’ve got my rental car and, upon the recommendation of a few of the folks over in Lincoln that I met with today, reservations at Nonna’s for six-thirty. Have you been there?”
“Several times, yes. It’s nice. Very nice, actually. It’s the nicest place in town.”
“Perfect, that’s just what I wanted; the nicest place to take my Leah,” I could feel Matty smiling into the phone, and I wondered if he could sense that I was smiling, too.
“Okay, six it is. I’ll be ready,” I said.
“Oh, and Leah? Can I ask one favor?” Matty asked
“Of course. What is it?” I replied
“Will you wear your hair down for me tonight?”
CHAPTER NINE
Again, with my hair, I thought to myself as I drove home, not able to keep from smiling at the memory. While I almost always wore my hair up – either in a ponytail or a braided updo, and then in messy buns when they became popular - Matty had always liked it when I wore my hair down. I used to tease him that he had a hair fetish. The only times I could remember wearing my hair loose were to the four formal dances we had attended together in high school. Homecomings were not formal, so I wore my standard updos for those. Wearing my hair down was only for special occasions such as winter formal and prom. And honestly, only for Matty.
After getting home, taking care of the dogs, and tending to some chores, I flossed my teeth and brushed them twice. I then took a long shower, washing my hair twice and doing an extra conditioning treatment. Stepping out of the shower, I wrapped my hair up in a towel before drying off. I put on my bra and panties before wiping the steam off the bathroom mirror, finally taking the towel from my head, setting my hair free.
I had a lot of hair. Like, a ridiculous amount. It was very thick and wavy, and it was quite heavy. I got headaches if I tried wearing my hair up in a ponytail in the middle of the back of my head as it pulled on my neck. I had to secure my updos practically on top of my head to circumvent gravity. While Krista had natural, thick curls, my hair tended to be on the frizzy side, hence why I usually wore it up; it was just too much to manage. To wear my hair down meant I needed to add styling products to it, and I could rarely be bothered. I had tried short hair once, only to have to pin it back as I looked like an overgrown poodle. I had gotten a trim when the girls and I had been getting ready for the reunion on Saturday, but even then, I had my stylist put it in a casual updo for me.
My wet hair fell to the middle of my back. Since I had used plenty of conditioner, I was able to easily pull a wide tooth comb through it. Once it was detangled, I added in a styling cream that I hoped would control the frizz, especially since it was a warm summer night with a touch of humidity in the air. I ruffled it up a bit with my hands before reaching for my hair dryer, which had a diffuser attachment on it. I hadn’t done my hair this way since prom night in my sophomore year, but I fortunately still remembered how I needed to style it. Not only was our sophomore year prom the last dance I went to with Matty, it was the last school dance I went to, period.
Our school didn’t have junior or senior proms; the prom was something every student could attend every year, meaning it wasn’t as special to the older kids, leaving the attendance to mainly to the lower grades. The upper-classmen usually only showed up briefly or skipped the dances altogether in favor of driving over to the next city to go to fancy dinners and to party at the clubs. Most of our friends didn’t bother going to any of the dances our junior and senior years; which was fine by me, as once Matty moved away, I didn’t have any interest in going to them anymore, anyway. If a boy asked me to go with him to any of the dances, I would lie and say I was going to be out of town and unable to attend. I’d then hide in my bedroom from Friday night to Monday morning the weekend of the dance for fear someone would see me and call me out on my fib.
Once I got my hair dried to a damp state, I turned off the hair dryer and went into my bedroom. I had a closet full of nice dresses, most of them black, mostly for the university events I was mandated to attend. I had thought about wearing another black sheath dress, similar to the one I had worn to the reunion as I knew those flattered my figure; but instead I instinctively pulled out a shiny royal blue short circle skirt dress with spaghetti straps. I had worn it on a cruise with my family once during a formal night. It was louder than I typically felt comfortable wearing – I’d only worn it on the cruise as my mom had bought it for me - and it was really too fancy for dinner at Nonna’s; but I knew how much Matty loved blue. And loved me in blue. So, I decided to be brave and to take a chance on wearing it. Something told me that if I let Matty choose my dress for the evening, he would have selected this one out of my closet, just as he had chosen my dresses for dances so many years ago.
“Leah, how about this one?” Matty asked as we perused formal dresses at a department store in the mall while shopping for the winter formal of our freshman year. “I could get a matching tie for it.” He had pulled a bright blue gown off the rack; all of his suggestions had thus far been blue.
Matty had come along with me and my mom to look for my dress. He didn’t ask to come; when he found out we were going, he just showed up and got in the car. Neither my mom nor I thought anything of it as we’d both become used to Matty tagging along.
“Err, I don’t know, Matty,” I said with a concerned look. “It’s really, really blue!”
“I know, but you look great in blue!” he said before shrugging, hanging the dress back up, and going back to the racks to see what else he could come up with.
This was the first formal dress I’d ever had to shop for, and I had no idea what to choose. Most of my friends had already purchased their dresses, but their styles were all over the place. Krista and a few other girls were going to wear short dresses with long sleeves, while other friends of ours had gotten long gowns with spaghetti straps. I couldn’t decide which look to go with, so I’d delayed shopping for as long as I could.
But with the dance the following weekend, I had to come up with something. Honestly, I was starting to wish I could get out of going to the dance altogether. Dances up until then, including homecoming a few months before, had been relatively casual. Winter formal not only meant getting really dressed up, but it also had more of a date feeling to it as we were going to be driven in a limo and had reservations at a nice restaurant. I knew my mom was anxious for me to pick out a dress so that she could order Matty’s boutonniere. But the whole thing was stressing me out.
“Okay, this one is really pretty, Leah,” Matty said, showing me a pale blue floor length dress with cap sleeves and sparkles all over it. “Why don’t you at least try this one on?”
“Yes, Leah,” my mom said, coming up behind me and eyeing the dress. “That’s gorgeous! Come on, let’s get you a dressing room.”
Seeing that I was outnumbered, I followed my mom into the dressing room area at the back of the store. After helping me get into the dress, my mom turned me around to look at myself in the mirror, and I had to admit that I looked nice. I wasn’t one to fuss over my looks; in truth, I never felt very pretty, especially compared to my friends. They were all really into clothes and make up and doing their hair, especially putting in highlights and using curling irons. And while I
liked nice clothes, I wasn’t into messing with hairstyles or struggling to put on eyeliner correctly. I preferred a no-makeup makeup look to go with my ponytails and braids. I had a youthful looking face with big brown eyes; most people described me as cute, not beautiful. And people usually assumed that I was at least a couple of years younger than I actually was.
But in that blue dress that Matty had chosen for me, I suddenly felt a little more grown up, a bit more womanly. My chest filled out the dress nicely with a just a touch of cleavage showing. I tried tugging the neckline up, but my mom laughed and told me that it was okay, it wasn’t too scandalous, and that it was how the dress was supposed to look.
And Matty had apparently agreed that I looked good as he whistled when I came out of the dressing room. “Knock that off!” I’d scolded as the blush rushed up my neck and spread to my face. But I couldn’t help smiling at his reaction. Of course, that was the dress I ended up getting, with Matty buying a matching tie to go with his rented tuxedo and my mom ordering him a pale blue boutonniere.
The same scenario played out every time thereafter that we went shopping for the dances. I always dragged my feet until the last minute, Matty would show up when my mom and I were leaving for the mall, he would jump in the car to go with us, and then he would pull every blue dress he could find until I agreed to one.
“You look so pretty in blue, Leah, especially with your hair down,” Matty always said.
“As opposed to when I wear other colors and have my hair up? Thanks a lot!” I always replied with a cross look on my face.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Matty would say. “You always look pretty. This is just a special occasion.”
I would always sigh and roll my eyes, but inside I would feel so proud that Matty thought I ever looked pretty. So, for Matty, on those occasions, I relented. I wore the blue dresses and I wore my hair down, just for him. Even though we were not an official couple, he always made me feel like a princess. And I secretly loved getting dressed up just for him, knowing how much he wanted and appreciated it. And sixteen years later, here I was feeling that same excitement to dress up for him again.
Before putting on the dress, I did my makeup; I went a little heavier than in my regular day to day look, but I still kept it simple. A bit of shimmery eye shadow and two coats of mascara, some blush and highlighter, and finally lipstick. By now my hair was completely dry, so I put some smoothing styling cream in it, working it through with my fingers. I pulled two strips of hair from the front and secured them in the back with a jeweled clip; this way my hair was still down but would stay out of my face. Finally, I slipped on my dress. I added my diamond stud earrings, a college graduation gift from my parents, and slid on a pair of strappy silver heels that went well with the shininess of my dress. I transferred some essentials from my every day purse into a silver clutch and examined myself in the mirror. I couldn’t remember the last time I had put so much effort into my appearance, and even I had to admit that the results were worth it. I hoped Matty would think so, too.
I finally headed downstairs, where I let the dogs out one last time. While they could of course go anytime on their own through the doggy door, I always liked to let them out when I was home and watch them run around for a few minutes. I heard the doorbell ring just as Sadie and Jack came back into the house. I glanced one last time in the hallway mirror before taking a deep breath and opening the front door.
“Wow!” Both Matty and I exclaimed at once, before dissolving into giggles. We were both taken aback for a moment at the appearance of the other one; for me, he looked almost like he had when we were high school. He wore a nicely fitted navy blue suit, a white dress shirt, and narrow necktie. It reminded me of the formal way he had dressed for our school dances. I knew that my hair and dress also brought back memories of me for him. From a distance, someone who knew us as kids might think they were seeing ghosts.
“You look amazing, Leah. Did you wear the blue dress for me? You are so beautiful,” Matty said and smiled in an almost childlike tone before pulling out a bouquet of yellow roses, my favorite, from behind his back.
“You remembered,” I exclaimed, blushing. “Yes, the blue dress is just for you. And you look so handsome; just like you always did. Um, let me put these in water quick.” Matty followed me inside and was quickly bombarded by the dogs. “Don’t jump on him, you two,” I scolded. So much for obedience training.
“I don’t mind at all,” Matty said, squatting down to pet them both. “They are great dogs; I already love them!”
My heart skipped a beat at the mention of the word “love,” and I tried to hide my reaction by focusing on finding a container for the flowers. I filled a large, clear glass vase with water before setting the bouquet inside, fluffing the stems around a bit to fill out the arrangement. I carried the heavy vase over to the side table in my hallway so that it would be the first thing anyone saw when they came to my house. Or at least the first thing I saw when coming home.
“Shall we go?” Matty asked. “If we leave now, we should be right on time for our reservation.”
“On time? What a concept,” I said jokingly. “Were we ever on time to any of our dinner reservations in high school?
Matty laughed before replying, “Um, no. We were never on time. And if I remember correctly, we didn’t even make it to the restaurant at all for our sophomore year homecoming!”
“That was Jimmy’s fault, if I remember correctly,” I said. “He was in charge of booking the limo but the rental company needed to get his parent’s approval since he was minor. He said after he hung up with the limo guy that he thought he asked his mom to call them back, but he totally flaked. We were left standing outside of his house for an hour before anyone thought to figure out why our ride hadn’t shown up!”
“And then since none of us wanted to call our parents for rides, Jimmy, who at the time was the only one of us who had his license and a car, had to drive us all over to the school in small groups,” Matty laughed at the memory. “I think it took him five trips to get us all there. And by then we were all hungry and cranky!”
I shook my head at the memory, “Never let a sixteen-year-old boy plan transportation for a group!” I laughed at the memory of us all crammed into Jimmy’s little two-door car. “Since we had missed our restaurant reservation, our dinner that night ended up being the refreshments served at the dance. We were starving by the time we arrived and stuffed ourselves with cookies. I can still remember feeling sick from eating so much sugar.”
“Good old Jimmy,” Matty said with a sigh. “I’d love to see him again.”
“I thought you might,” I said, pulling open my silver clutch. “I’m in touch with him on social media and messaged him about seeing you again. He asked me to give you his contact information so that you could get in touch.” I reached out to hand Matty a folded-up sheet of paper with Jimmy’s email address and cell phone number on it.
“Oh, awesome,” Matty said appreciatively. “I will definitely contact him. From what you told me the other night, he’s doing really well as a lawyer back home.”
“Yes, he followed in his parent’s footsteps and joined their firm upon getting his law degree. He seems successful and happy, I guess. It’s always hard to tell on social media how people are doing in real life, and Jimmy was never the most talkative, anyway. Krista and I were both able to make it to his wedding several years back; his wife, Amber, is quite lovely.”
By now we had reached Matty’s car, and I suddenly noticed that he had rented a red convertible. I had been so caught up in seeing him in his suit and getting the flowers that I hadn’t even thought to look at the car he had pulled up in.
“A red convertible!” I squealed like a school girl. “No way! I always wanted one of these!”
“I remember,” said Matty with a huge smile on his face. “You were on quite a red convertible kick as a kid. What was that even about?”
“They are just so cool! I’ve stil
l never even ridden in one. Well, until now, I guess. I’m so excited!” I was acting ridiculous, but I was genuinely thrilled to finally get to ride in a shiny red convertible. I reached my hand out for the door handle, but Matty stopped me. “Hey, that’s my job,” he said as he moved in front of me to open the door, putting a hand gently on my back as he did so. “There you go, have a seat.”
I excitedly slid into the passenger seat and looked up at Matty with a huge grin. “Thanks, Matty; this is the best!”
“We haven’t even left the driveway yet, Leah!” Matty said with a laugh. Before closing my door, he leaned down and whispered in my ear, “By the way, I love your hair.”
Once again, I felt butterflies churning in my stomach. Was this really a date-date; or was it just two old friends reliving memories, including the flirtatious ones of our youth? Part of me was letting my thoughts drift to a romance with Matthew, while the other part tried to laugh that off and believe that we were just being playful. That we were just friends as kids and just friends now. Although the truth was of course that we had never been just friends. There had always been more to our relationship, and there certainly were times, especially the night before he moved away, where we had gone much further than friends. But that was sixteen years ago. And even though the last few days had been amazing, I was still confused about where we could be headed together. If we were headed anywhere.
“Okay, I know you wanted to ride in a convertible with the top down,” Matty said as he started the car, “but do you really want to have the wind blowing while we are driving?”
“Of course,” I replied enthusiastically. “The whole point of a convertible is to feel the wind on your face and in your hair! Let’s go!”
A few minutes after hitting the highway, both of us agreed to put the top of the convertible back up. The wind seemed like a nice idea until it was pelting us in our faces and messing up our hair and clothing. “No wonder you rarely see people actually driving these things,” I remarked as I picked some specks of dirt off my face and tried to smooth down my hair. “I guess they are more for show. But, I’m still glad you rented it.”
