“Tell me, what happened this weekend? You had a family emergency of some sort.”
He sits back and gets comfortable. Suddenly my little argument with my parents and brother seems petty. Who cares if my parents don’t believe in me? Who’s keeping track of the achievements and failures of me and Ricky? Despite it all, I love my parents and Ricky, and we’re all healthy and safe. That’s what matters. “It’s nothing.”
“Nothing doesn’t really constitute an emergency, now does it? Are you keeping something from me?”
“What? No!” The coffee house isn’t the place to discuss this. When he meets my family, I don’t want him to have this preconceived idea about them. I want him to formulate his own opinion. Our arguments shouldn’t mask his impression of them. “My brother is struggling with the decision to go to college. I caught him at Vogue this weekend with a fake ID. I gave him quite the earful.”
He chuckles. “I bet. How old is he?”
“Seventeen. He’s much younger than me.”
“Ten years isn’t so bad.”
“I guess not. But showing up to a club at his age is, especially when he’s being scouted by so many schools for basketball scholarships.”
“Really?” His eyebrows raise high up on his forehead. “Wow. I’ve never been good at sports. I mean, I’ve played on a few bar softball leagues, but that’s about it.”
“You play more than I do. Every once in a while he kicks my butt in basketball.”
“Otherwise you win?”
“Um, no. I play basketball probably worse than miniature golf.”
“Wow. That’s pretty bad.”
I smack him on his knee. “Come on, now. That’s not fair.” I’m taken by surprise when he sneaks in and kisses me on the lips.
“Anyway,” I clear my throat, not sure how to transition from what happened. I secretly hope he does it again. We’re at his business, people can see us. This, to me, means we’re definitely together. Together together. “You should meet them sometime.”
“Yes, and you should meet my parents, too. You know Leann, and I remember you and my mom exchanged a few words, but you have yet to meet my dad or my nephew.”
“I’d like that.”
And over a simple cup of coffee I’ve gained a boyfriend, a smiling heart, and a prospective future.
••••••••
Friday arrives and it couldn’t have come soon enough. Ed and I have been trying to find a time for me to meet his parents, but so far, our schedules haven’t been meshing. This evening we finally thought we got it to work, but his parents aren’t able. We decided to still go out, and we’re shopping for Hannah’s upcoming birthday. She hasn’t shut up about her birthday all week, and I’m well aware of what she wants. There’s a pair of metallic open-toed heels at Target she’s been eyeing up. That paired with a flashy top should work well for her.
We’re supposed to meet in the café parking lot. I’m about to walk out the door when my phone rings. Ed. He’s canceling. I know it.
“Hello?” My stomach drops, and I think about his dad. What if something’s wrong, and he’s taken a turn for the worse? “Is everything okay? What’s wrong?”
“Everything is fine.” I hear him smiling through the phone.
Huge sigh of relief.
“I’m glad I caught you, though. Leann has an appointment, and my mom and dad are out so she needs me to watch my nephew for a couple hours.”
“Oh.” He is canceling. We saw each other on Monday, but these few days we haven’t even talked much. I’m looking forward to spending time with him. “Are you watching him at your house? Do you want me to come over?” That may have been straight forward, but I don’t want to miss an opportunity. Besides, he’s been wanting me to meet his nephew, so this is the perfect time.
“You would want to hang out with us?”
His reaction surprises me. “Sure! I love kids.” I suppose we never discussed children. Since neither of us have any, and we’ve only been dating a few months, the subject never came up. I would love to see how he is with his nephew. I see a future with Ed and that future could eventually mean marriage and children.
“Well, okay then. I was going to take him out for some ice cream. Would you care to join us for a scoop?”
“A scoop? What are we, in the 1950s?”
“Very funny. Why don’t you meet us at Tom’s Scoops in twenty minutes?”
I hang up the phone, and I’m out the door to meet my two dates. I’ll pick up Hannah’s gift tomorrow.
When I arrive at the ice cream shop, they’re already there. They’re sitting in a booth in the back and in deep conversation. I approach with a smile on my face as I watch the two interacting.
“Hey.”
“Hey!” Ed stands up and lets me scoot in next to him. “Ryan, this is my friend Whitney. Whitney, this is Ryan.”
He’s a spitting image of Leann with dark hair that’s spiked on top. A tooth on the top is missing and his toothless grin steals my heart. “Hi.” He grins, and it’s clear he’s not shy at all.
“Hi. Nice to meet you. What are you two talking about?”
“Minecraft.”
“I’ve heard of it. Is it on the computer?”
“And the tablet and the Xbox. It’s everywhere.” Ed rolls his eyes and scrunches his nose.
“Hey!” Ryan tugs at his shirt. “You love playing with me.”
“I do, buddy, and you’re a master builder.”
“Master Builders are in Lego.”
“I stand corrected. Either way, you’re good at it.”
“I built my uncle’s coffee place in Minecraft. But it’s a soda shop because coffee is gross.” He sticks out his tongue. “It’s so awesome, though.”
“I bet it is. Epic, even.”
Ryan raises his eyebrows. Apparently epic isn’t something the young kids use to describe things. How do I know? I’m not five.
“Since it is a coffee place, I did make a coffee maker for it. It makes coffee, even.” Ryan’s cheeks blow up like a balloon as his lips curl into a smile.
“How does it make coffee?” I’m confused how this can be. I whisper to Ed hoping he can provide clarification. “Isn’t it a video game?”
“Sure is. They can do amazing things these days. He watches all these videos and learns how to do these things. He even created a trampoline once and the horses and sheep jump on it.”
“They what?” I laugh imagining this. “How in the world?”
“He could talk for hours about this,” Ed warns me. “I suggest we get our ice cream or we’ll be here all night.”
I agree and we leave the booth and weigh our options. I opt for a hot fudge sundae, Ed gets a strawberry cone, and Ryan decides on a banana split.
“This is humongous.” Two scoops of vanilla ice cream overflow in my bowl and it’s doused in hot fudge. I pull the cherry off the top. “Do you want this, Ryan?”
“Yeah!” He takes it from me. “Thanks. You’re pretty cool.”
He’s pretty cool himself. We sit at the booth eating our ice cream and exchanging thoughts on Minecraft. Since I know nothing about the game, I’m being made fun of often, but I do raise a few questions, and Ryan is excited to go home and try building based on my curiosity. After ice cream, Ed suggests a trip to the library. Ryan is elated at the idea, and we walk over since it’s only a few blocks away.
The library is fairly busy for the evening, especially since they close in about an hour. There’s a movie playing in the community room and a children’s activity going on back in the young adult section. As Ryan runs to the children’s area, Ed and I sit down at one of the kid’s tables. I select a coloring sheet from the spinning rack, Joy from Inside Out, and start coloring.
“Color often?”
He’s mocking me. I don’t care. It’s good to feel young sometimes. “Here and there. I don’t own a coloring book if that’s what you’re asking. This is kind of similar to painting faces, I guess.” I finish color
ing her dress in. “I do paint, however. Not often, but I have a few paintings hanging in my apartment.” This is the first I’m mentioning my painting to him. I keep the crayon to the paper as I wait for his response, my stomach in knots.
“That’s cool. I can’t wait to see them.”
I’m picturing him coming to my apartment now. We’re watching chick lit movies (yeah, right, like he’d do that!) and then after I’m painting his portrait. I wonder if he’d pose for a nude. I shake the idea out of my head. We’re out with his nephew. I can’t be thinking about this stuff. “I can’t wait, either.”
“I never stay in the lines.”
I stop coloring at gaze up at him. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. I didn’t say I can’t stay in the lines. I said I don’t. Staying in the lines is no fun. The best part of life is everything outside of the lines. Lines restrict you. Keep you from growing.”
I love his analogies and how he views everything in life. He struggled at first with the potential loss of his coffee shop, but together, we’re working through it. Growth is so important. Without growth, you always remain the same, never taking risks or learning what you’re capable of. Maybe that’s the point Ricky was trying to get across. If I don’t take a leap, I’ll be selling eyeliner over the counter for the next… forty years? Oh, God, that’s insane. Forty years until I can retire?
“Uncle Ed! Look what I found!” Ryan comes running toward us, and Ed puts his fingers to his lips to remind him we’re in the library.
“Inside voice, remember?”
Ryan is holding so many books I wonder how he can even walk. He struggles to get them on the table, so I help to stack them.
“Like superheroes much?” I ask. Every book is Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man.
“Spider-Man is my favorite.”
“Can you read all those?” I know nothing of the reading skills of a five-year-old.
“Yes. My mom reads them to me.”
“Ryan is a super reader. He’s learning a lot of the sight words right now. He’ll be reading soon, no doubt.”
“Are you in school, Ryan?”
“I’ll be in Kindergarten!”
“Kindergarten!” I slap my hands on my legs. “That sounds so exciting! Are you excited?”
“Yep! I can’t wait to meet my teacher.”
“It’ll be nice because he will be in school full-time so Leann doesn’t have to worry about daycare anymore.”
“That must be expensive.”
“It’s not cheap. I help her out when I can. Being a single mom, she works her butt off to provide for this awesome dude.” Ryan is sitting at the table now and is engrossed in a book about the Hulk. I could probably put a two liter of Mountain Dew and a giant pack of gummy worms in front of him, and he wouldn’t even notice.
“That’s incredible.” Wow. He helps pay for her daycare? Ed is truly a class act. I want to ask about Ryan’s dad, but what if it’s something horrible like Leann is a widow or his dad is in jail? I don’t want to bring anything up that would upset Ryan, and it really is none of my business.
“Are you a big reader?” Since it was Ed’s idea to go to the library, I figure he must love to read. I haven’t met many men that choose to go to the library for a fun time.
“Nah. I like to read the newspaper but that’s about it.”
“The newspaper? You mean like on the Internet, right?”
He laughs. “No, I mean like a real honest to God newspaper. White paper, black print. Current events. Sure, the news may technically be old by the time I read it, but I would rather read about current events than celebrities.”
“I love reading about celebrities. Maybe one day I’ll be doing their makeup.” The thought of putting makeup on them doesn’t excite me like it did just a month ago. The thought of meeting them excites me more than working for them.
“You know they’re just people like you and me, right?”
“Of course I do.” Do I tell him about my obsession with romantic movies, specifically romantic comedies? I love all the Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Hudson movies. Mila Kunis lives out all of my fantasies. I want to have the confidence of Mindy Kaling or Amy Schumer. Hannah’s like that. Independent with no thought about what others will think. “I find their lives fascinating, that’s all.”
“You don’t find your own life fascinating?”
Geez, I never thought about it. Fascinating? That’s such a powerful way to describe life. I run through my daily routine. Coffee, work, putting makeup on people, selling a few products. I go home and eat, maybe watch some TV, and repeat. No paparazzi, glamorous clothes, or covers of magazine. “No, it’s not very fascinating at all.”
“How can you say that? You buy coffee every morning at an outstanding coffee shop, and in the meantime, you met this awesome guy who thinks the world of you and has a pretty rocking nephew.”
I’m blushing, and I’m glad Ryan is still looking at his book. I’m embarrassed but his words are so sweet, and I’m reminded how lucky I am.
“Yes, you’re correct. I guess in that aspect, my life is pretty fascinating. But you’re about the only fascinating thing in it.”
“Don’t say that, Whitney. You’re fascinating whether you think so or not. Everything about you is fascinating.” He leans over and kisses me on the cheek which Ryan happens to see, and he lets us know by sticking out his tongue.
Chapter Fourteen
After a long phone conversation with my mother I accept an invitation for dinner, this time an outdoor barbecue on the fourth of July. Ricky likes grilling and will take any chance he can to showcase his skills. I think it’s time they meet Ed, and he’s graciously agreed to attend as well.
I want for them to meet, and I’m nervous. I smoothed things over with my mom, and I’m sure she relayed the information to my dad, but it’s still going to be awkward. They don’t know about Bridget, the girl that slept over in Ricky’s room, and I’m not sure Ricky told them he discussed my painting with me. Well, they’ll find out soon because I brought a new portrait with me.
“What’s that?” Ed asks as he gets into my car and notices the wrapped canvas in the back. “A big issue of Playboy? Or a large textbook with a plain book cover? You can decorate it with hearts and band names and pictures of unicorns.”
Nice comparisons, Ed. And how did he know I drew unicorns on my textbook protectors? “A painting.”
“One of yours?”
“Yep.” Now I’m even more nervous about him seeing it. It’s one thing for my family to judge me—I’m used to it—but another for my boyfriend to join in on it. “It’s supposed to be for my parents. Maybe I won’t bother giving it to them. I should just throw it in the trash.”
“Stop talking like that. If you painted it, I’m sure it’s wonderful.”
Easy for him to say if he’s never seen my work. Now I can’t stop thinking about this. I’ll leave it in the car and see how things go. The right opportunity to give it to them may never even come. I don’t want to walk in and just hand it to them. Of course maybe that’s the best way. Yeah. That’s probably easiest.
We arrive at my parent’s house, and I lead Ed to the backyard, my canvas wrapped in plain brown paper. I want to avoid the entry through the front at all costs. Once we’re in the back, we can sit outside and relax. It’ll be a much more comforting way for him to meet everyone. Inside, Ed can be cornered and given the third degree. Outside, he can easily step out of a conversation.
Ricky’s outside flipping the burgers and chicken breasts when we enter through the gate. “Hey bro!” I pretend like our confrontation never happened, even though it ended on a positive note, anyway. I offer up our not so secret handshake, which he obliges to.
“What’s up, sis? And who’s this?” He points the tongs at Ed, who jumps back as though it’s my brother’s intent to stab him.
“This is Ed. Ed, this is my brother, Ricky.”
Ed shakes his hand and then cocks his
head. “You look older than seventeen.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. It’s my mad grilling skills.”
And his height. His height throws everyone off. You have my giant brother and then little me. It’s quite entertaining to see us stand next to each other, which I won’t give Ed the satisfaction of.
My parents come out from in the house and I introduce them. The quicker I do that the easier this may be.
“Dad, this is Ed. Ed, this is my dad, Barry.” My dad gives him a bit of a stink eye, but I know that’s the fatherly thing to do. Or he’s remembering this is the guy Hannah’s cleavage picture was meant for. Crap. I move on before the thought crosses his mind if it hasn’t already. “This is my mom, Sheryl.” My mom whispers to me how cute he is, and I jab her in the side when I realize he heard.
“I understand you own a coffee shop.” My dad loves entrepreneurs. He always wanted to own his own business but never had enough confidence to do it. Having to support a family left him helpless trying to pursue his dreams, though it shouldn’t have. He settled for a factory job because it made ends meet. No one ever told him he could work toward another goal. He accepted life at face value and never tried to make improvements.
“Yes. I graduated with a business degree and then took out a loan with the help of my dad to buy the place.”
“Very commendable to see people pursuing their life’s dream. I admire that.”
The way my dad is looking at Ed, the sadness in his eyes, I think maybe it’s not the fact that I’m not chasing after a dream that has him so upset; rather, it’s because he never got his. Now’s the best time to give them my gift.
“Mom, Dad, Ricky, I brought something for you.” I hand the canvas to my dad who exchanges glances with my mom and brother. He pulls at the tape and opens the side. Ricky helps pull the painting out.
My mom’s eyes fill with tears, and she covers her mouth with her hands as she examines the piece. “Whitney, this is beautiful. You painted this? For us?” She holds up the canvas for everyone to see. My grandma loved daffodils, and now my mom has a painting that boasted an entire field of them. Grandma always told me they reminded her of sunshine. Whenever she felt a little down, she’d picture a daffodil, its vibrant yellow petals blowing in an evening’s breeze, the center brighter than the rest. My dad sometimes called her Mama Daffy, which made her roll her eyes, but her face shined when he said it, so I knew she loved it.
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