Day of the Dinner

Tuesday you run errands for you mother and father. After dinner that day your father takes you to the pub he bought after retiring from law enforcement. He walks in and introduces you to the bartender, Melissa. Melissa was about twenty one years old, maybe twenty two. And she definitely knew how to use it. The two of you had a couple beers, then left. On your way out Melissa tells you that tomorrow was Karaoke night. You remember that Doe liked to sing and decide that you could end the night here.

You wake up Wednesday morning excited. You leave the house at noon to get some items, for yourself and Doe. Flowers for her and a new dress shirt for you. The one that you had brought was wrinkled, and you didn’t feel like ironing it.

When you get back you see Doe’s car in the driveway, and your heart skips a beat. You enter the house through the back door, looking around. It wouldn’t be proper for her to see the flowers before you picked her up for dinner, you think. Making it up to your room without being seen you place the shirt on your old bed, and the flowers on the dresser behind the door. That way if she walked by she wouldn’t see them.

You walk back out of your room and towards your parents room to see your mom. Doe is inside taking her blood pressure. She looks up as you enter the room. Her face brightens in a beautiful smile as you sit in the chair. “Hi John.” She says as she pumps the ball. Looking back down to take the reading, “Where were you this morning?” she asks, a sly tone in her voice.

You shrug as she releases the pressure and jots down the reading on a chart. “Had to pick up some stuff for tonight.”

“Lemme guess…flowers?” She asks, looking at you out of the corner of her eyes, smiling.

“Oh, am I that predictable?”

“To me you are. I’ve just known you too long.”

Your mother looks between you two, and smiles. “And just what is going on here?”

“Oh, nothing Francine, not a thing. I asked John out to dinner tonight. To catch up, you know? Then he had to go and pass the kid test.”

“Well, of course he would…” your mother says, then stops.

“Yeah, he always loved children, didn’t you? They pick up on that stuff easily.” Doe says, quickly.

You know there’s something unspoken going on here. But you can’t figure it out, and you know it’ll be a matter of time before they decided to just spit it out, so you remain silent.

“Oh yes,” you say, hoping you are keeping the suspicion out of your voice. “Children flock to me.” You finish smiling. “I’m the Pied Piper of kids.”

The two women laugh. “Alright John, that was a good one.” Doe says as she puts her equipment away. “Your father is picking up Courtney today so I can go home and change…pick me up at, say seven?”

“Seven is good.”

With that she smiles and gets ready to leave the room, "I'll put some coffee on then go home and get ready."

You raise an eyebrow, "It's not even two..."

"Need to take a nap first. Worked the emergency room yesterday because Cheryl called out."

"Ah, understandable. I'll see you later." You say.

She kisses you on the cheek again as she leaves.