Plus 1

by Erica Lee

  “Care to elaborate what this ‘thing’ is?”

  I went on to explain the whole story to her. It all started in my last year of college when we had to make and advertise a new product. Instead of making an actual product, I decided to make up a new social media platform. Since I had taken classes in coding and web design and was kind of an overachiever, I had gone ahead and actually gotten it up and running. It turned out that my professor really thought I was on to something and encouraged me to continue even after the project was over. It all kind of spiraled out from there. It was never going to be facebook or twitter, but the idea actually resonated with many people. I guess the fact that I grew up in a small town and then went to school in a big city was the inspiration behind it. I was able to see the good in both small businesses as well as corporations, so I developed a social media site that brought the two together. I created a form of social media that was for businesses. Small businesses can advertise their products and big businesses could pick up a product that they would never know about otherwise. For example, if a certain mom and pop shop had great grandma’s old recipe for “to die for” brownies, they could advertise and sell that recipe to a large grocery store so they were able to make extra money in order to keep their business from shutting down. Pretty much it was a way for businesses to work together instead of competing.

  Jenny was listening intently so I kept explaining how the businesses paid a monthly fee to join the social network and once they were on there they could post updates about their business, share information with other businesses, or put out advertisements. All my travel time was spent either pitching to businesses about why they should join or trying to get people to sponsor my endeavors. Sponsors would have their advertisements pop up randomly on a business feed that could benefit from their product (I used a complicated algorithm to make sure the sponsors showed up for the right people, using the same idea phone companies do to make sure your phone suddenly starts bringing up advertisements for cat food as soon as you mention the word cat to someone in the vicinity of your phone).

  When I was finished with my explanation, Jenny was completely silent. I cleared my throat to try to gain her attention. “So did I put you to sleep?”

  “No Rory,” she said seriously. “I’m just at a loss for words. I’m not sure why you don’t go around bragging about that to every person you know. I always figured you were smart, but...wow. You’re amazing.”

  It was the most sincere I had ever heard Jenny sound. It wasn’t to say that I didn’t find her to be sincere, but most of her words had at least a hint of flirtation behind them. But this was different. This response had me feeling choked up for whatever reason. I tried to push those feelings down. I didn’t want to show my vulnerability. I had no reason to feel vulnerable right now.

  I took a deep breath and was finally able to regain my composure. “Well, since I’m so amazing, how would you feel about being DJ number 2 at this wedding with me?”

  Jenny hesitated for only a moment before agreeing. “What the heck? I’m in. I probably shouldn’t ask for more than one day off at this point though, so what if I take the first flight out to Philadelphia that Friday morning and I’ll fly back later in the day on Sunday?”

  “Sounds good to me,” I answered cheerfully. “I’ll start looking up flights.”

  As soon as we were off the phone, I started searching flights on my computer. It wondered what it would be like to see Jenny again. Would we have as much fun together at this wedding as we did at our cousins’? After having become friends over the past few months, would my stomach still go into knots at the sight of her?

  Chapter 4

  I stood at the bottom of the escalators holding a sign that I had made that read “Miss Jenny Hanson.” I couldn’t believe how fast the past two months had gone and the anxiety of seeing Jenny any minute was building inside of me. Anytime I caught a glimpse of brown hair, my heart started beating more rapidly. What was wrong with me? I didn’t even get this nervous for dates, so why was I so nervous to pick a friend up from the airport?

  Within a few minutes, it was Jenny coming down the escalator. Her brown hair was pulled up in a ponytail and she was wearing UCLA sweatpants and a white t-shirt, a big difference from her look at the wedding, but she somehow still looked just as gorgeous. As soon as she noticed me, I saw that right dimple form on her cheek as a smile spread across her face.

  “Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” Jenny said as she dropped her carry on bags and wrapped her arms around me. Almost as soon as the hug had started, it was over and I found myself wishing it would last longer - for friendly reasons of course. Our whole friendship so far had been a series of telephone calls and video chats and it felt good to physically be in her presence.

  I picked up her bags and led her out to my car. It was 2:00 and was going to take us about 2 hours to get back to my hometown. The plan was to drop Jenny off at her aunt and uncle’s house, where she would be staying so she could get settled in. Then at 6:30, we had reservations at a little diner in town and by reservations I mean that we had practically rented out the whole restaurant since there were so many of us going. It was going to be the two of us, Jenny’s aunt and uncle, her cousins John, Mary, and Paul, my aunt and uncle, my cousins Valerie and Pam, my mom, and my best friend Todd, who insisted on crashing our two family dinner so he could meet Jenny.

  When I dropped her off, I found myself aching over the two hours that I would have to spend without her. Luckily, it flew by and soon I was in the car with my mom picking up Todd. Todd came out of his childhood home wearing khaki pants, a blue button up, and a rainbow bow tie. His short brown hair was just perfectly barely spiked. I shook my head at him as he climbed into the car. It was always like him to overdress and he currently had me feeling bad about the ripped black jeans and white t-shirt I was wearing.

  “Don’t give me that judgmental look,” he lectured. “It’s not my fault that you are fashionably inept compared to me.”

  I tried to sneak the middle finger at him without my mom noticing who was sitting in the passenger seat, but Todd wasn’t going to let me get away with that.

  He gasped and put his hand on his chest dramatically. “Mrs. Montgomery. Did you just see your daughter make an obscene gesture at me? Certainly that’s not how a distinguished Montgomery woman should act.”

  Luckily, my mom just shook her head and laughed at us. She was used to our antics by now. Todd and I had been best friends since 7th grade when we discovered that we were both gay. We grew even closer when we decided to come out in high school, which surprisingly didn’t go to bad given the small town we were from. Of course, there were some bible thumpers who tried to direct us toward Jesus and away from sin, but everyone else had been pretty open minded about it. I guess I should be honest though. It was much easier for me than it was for Todd. He had to endure some bullying in the locker room because high school guys are douchebags, but I quickly took him under my wing and into my tight knit friend group.

  I heard a throat clear behind me and looked around to see my mom and Todd staring at me. I had been so caught up in my thoughts that I must have missed the conversation.

  I smiled at them guiltily and shrugged my shoulders. “Mind repeating that? I was just in my own little world.”

  Todd leaned forward between my mom and I. “I was just asking your mom about her thoughts on this friendship between you and Jenny.”

  He made air quotes as he said the word friendship.

  I glared at him while I felt my face become red and then turned to my mom. “And what was your response?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

  My mom lifted both hands in surrender. “I told him that it’s none of my business. You can be friends or more with whoever you want as long as they treat you well.”

  I smiled at my mom as Todd stuck his head between us again. “But we both totally agree that you want to be on the more side with Jenny.”

  “Obviously I don’t,” I fough
t back. “I mean look at how many girls I have dated since meeting Jenny at that wedding.”

  “You have dated three,” Todd stated with a smug grin on his face. “Which is an average of one every two months and that’s low for you. Especially considering that you didn’t date any of them for more than 3 weeks. That means that since the wedding, you have spent approximately 25 weeks single, which is pretty unthinkable for Rory Montgomery.”

  While I was impressed with his quick math, I was annoyed at where he was putting his efforts in, especially since I was pretty sure he was exaggerating. I had dated Morgan for at least a month. The two girls who followed, Jessica and Alice, had been shorter than that, but I had also spent a lot of time traveling and I did mix some pleasure with fun on those business trips.

  Luckily, our conversation was cut off when we pulled into the diner parking lot. We walked into the diner to find that a few booths had been reserved for us. Todd and I squeezed into the booth that already had the newlyweds (except after 8 months, I guess you couldn’t call them that anymore) and Jenny in it, while my mom went to join her sister, brother in law, and my other two cousins.

  I smiled over at Jenny as I took the seat beside her and tried to keep my eyes from lingering as I knew Todd was hanging on my every move. It was hard to tear my eyes away though. She looked so good wearing blue jeans and a red and gray baseball tee. Man, this girl could pull off any outfit.

  I heard a throat clear beside me and realized that I had been caught. “Oh sorry. Todd, you know my cousin Valerie. This is her husband John, who I think you may have met at a family gathering in the past.”

  I took a breath and pointed my finger toward Jenny. “And this is Jenny - John’s cousin.”

  “John’s cousin,” he repeated as a smirk spread across his face. Clearly, he found it amusing that I would introduce her this way.

  I shot him a warning glance as he reached across me to shake her hand. “It’s very nice to meet you Jenny. I’ve heard a lot about you. Surprisingly not from your cousin though. We don’t really talk. You know, different grades and all of that. No, it’s all from this girl. She talks about you so much, that I feel like I know you already.”

  Before I could respond to Todd’s blatant disregard for the friendship code, I felt a hand squeeze my side. Jenny raised an eyebrow at me, then looked at Todd. “What can I say? This girl has good taste.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, worried about how Todd would react to Jenny’s flirtation.

  “Let’s talk about a more pressing matter,” he said while squeezing my leg like he was trying to reassure me of something. “Tell me about this roommate of yours in LA. Is he single?”

  We all laughed as I breathed a sigh of relief and Jenny told him all about Ryan, who was indeed single but unfortunately over 2,000 miles away.

  The rest of the conversation flowed smoothly and luckily, Todd didn’t say anything else to embarrass me. As the dinner came to an end and we all said our goodbyes, I felt sad that I had to say goodbye to Jenny again so soon. But luckily, we had already made plans for me to pick her up from her aunt and uncle's house early the next morning so we could have the whole day together leading up to the wedding.

  The night seemed to drag on as I tossed and turned thinking about the next day with Jenny, again leaving me wondering what the heck was wrong with me. When my alarm went off at 8:00 the next morning, I felt like I had just barely shut my eyes but still forced myself to get up.

  By 10:00, I was ringing the doorbell at Jenny’s aunt and uncle’s house. To my surprise, Jenny answered the door, with her shoes on and a bag of with a change of clothes already packed.

  As we walked to the car, I tried to sneak a peek into Jenny’s bag to see what she was wearing for the wedding. The wedding attire was apparently “country casual” and when I asked Jeremiah what this meant, he had shrugged his shoulders and told me to wear whatever I want.

  Jenny had told me that she had the perfect outfit planned out, but wouldn’t tell me what it was. Even now, she pulled her bag away as she caught my lingering eyes.

  When we got back to my childhood home, I gave Jenny a tour. The house was filled with pictures, mostly of just my mom and I. There were a few with my grandma and grandpa and even fewer with my dad.

  “It looks like you and your mom are really close,” Jenny remarked as she ran her finger across a picture of her and I hugging at my preschool graduation.

  “We are,” I agreed. “She’s like my best friend. We’ve been close forever, even before my dad left.”

  “When did he leave?” Jenny asked, with a hint of concern in her voice.

  “Right after I left for college. They told me about the divorce that summer after I graduated.” I lifted one shoulder and let it drop and tried my best to smile. “It wasn’t a surprise to me. My parents just barely tolerated each other for as long as I could remember and my dad was never really home anyway. I know they only stayed together for me, but I’m not really sure how much difference it would have made if they had just ended it sooner. I think it probably just would have saved all of us years of heartache, but I do appreciate the thought behind it.”

  Jenny must have caught on to the fact that this wasn’t something I really wanted to talk about because she squeezed my shoulder softly then asked to see my room.

  I was embarrassed as I walked in and pictured myself as someone seeing this room for the first time. I hadn’t changed the room at all since I was in high school - the walls were covered with movie posters and any open space had pictures cut out from magazines, mostly of female athletes. I found myself wishing I was showing Jenny my apartment instead. I was proud of the way I had decorated it. Clearly my taste had improved immensely in the past 6 years.

  Jenny immediately started exploring the room and I cringed thinking about what she might find. She stood by my bookshelf for a long time, then reached down to pick something up. When she turned around to face me, I saw that she was holding my High School Musical box set.

  Her smile was so wide, that her right dimple was even more pronounced than usual. “High School Musical fan, huh?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “You know how it is. I was young, in the closet, and liked to pretend that I had a crush on Zac Efron.”

  Jenny turned the box around and studied it. “Hm, that’s funny that you should say that since it appears the last movie didn’t come out until your freshman year in college, a whopping three years after the original came out. What year did you say you came out? Sophomore year of high school?”

  I grabbed the dvds from her. “Ok. Whatever. You caught me. The music is really catchy and this movie is a Disney Channel classic.”

  “I’m not saying I disagree with you,” Jenny admitted. “How would you feel about a little movie marathon?”

  I quickly agreed. Where did this girl come from? Gorgeous, caring, and willing to watch all three High School Musical movies in one sitting? She really was the perfect girl...you know...if you were the type of person that actually believed in love stories and happily ever afters.

  I put the first movie in and propped a few pillows up on my bed. Sitting close to Jenny had the tendency to make my mind wander. I thought about how much I wanted to reach over and grab her hand or scoot closer to her and feel her body up against mine. These were the type of things that wouldn’t even be a thought if I was with another girl. I would have just done it. With Jenny, they were thoughts that I shouldn’t be having since we were just friends. Apparently, Jenny didn’t see it that way though because just a half hour into the first movie, she wrapped her arm around mine and laid her head on my shoulder. I felt my breath hitch with the contact and had to remind myself to breathe. This must have just been part of the package when you were “flirtatious friends” as Jenny liked to call it. She was such a flirt that she probably didn’t even think anything of it.

  Both times I had to get up to switch to the next DVD, I worried that Jenny and I wouldn’t return to our cuddling position, but both tim
es as soon as I sat down, she wrapped herself around me again. As the third movie was coming to an end, I heard the front door open and my mom started walking up the stairs. I quickly jumped out of the bed, which was strange since it’s not like I was doing anything wrong. Plus, I was a 24 year old adult who lived alone and had my own company. I wasn’t some teenager sneaking a girl into my room in the middle of the night.

  My mom knocked on my door, before letting herself in. When she walked into my room, she looked at the clock on the wall. “Shouldn’t you guys be getting ready for the wedding?” She asked.

  I looked at the clock and was surprised to see that it was already past 4:00. We were supposed to be at the wedding in just under an hour. Jenny grabbed her bag and headed to the bathroom, while I stayed in my room to get ready. 45 minutes later, Jenny finally emerged wearing the outfit she had chosen for the wedding. I found my eyes looking her up and down more than once. Damn, she looked good. Her hair was pulled back into a braid and she was wearing a yellow sundress with brown polka dots on it. The icing on top of the cake was the brown knee high cowboy boots she was wearing. This girl made country casual look absolutely incredible.

  I found myself doubting the outfit I had picked out, which was a button up flannel top with a jean skirt and chucks. But the way Jenny’s eyes lingered on me just a few seconds longer than usual as she told me that she liked my outfit choice made all of that doubt slip away. Before we could leave the house, my mom insisted on taking pictures of us together like we were two high schoolers going to prom. We posed for a few and then I ushered Jenny out of the house before my mom would embarrass me anymore.

  When we arrived at the wedding, the ceremony had just ended and people were beginning to pour into the reception hall, which happened to be a barn in this case. We found the “DJ booth” set up and waiting for us. During the cocktail hour, we played some of the slower songs on the ipod’s wedding playlist so we could save the exciting ones for when the reception actually started. When it was time for the wedding party to be introduced, Jenny and I each grabbed a microphone. I agreed to let her do the bridesmaid and groomsmen announcements so I could introduce the bride and groom. Jenny was a natural and I wondered if there was anything she couldn’t do.