Parkside Drive

“This is a damn nice street,” you say, craning your head in the passengers seat of Jayne’s car. Parkside Drive is, naturally, next to a park - in this case High Park. An expansive park west of downtown Toronto, it is unsurprisingly surrounded by large, older homes in a well-to-do neighborhood.

“Yup,” Jayne replies as she glances to her right at the hills and trees. You look at your phone and see that 373 Parkside is a few blocks down on your left. Jayne is clearly a little nervous as she glances around, and when she looks at you you give her a reassuring smile. Hopefully it reassures you, too.

Karissa’s house appears a few minutes later. Like almost all the other ones on the block, it looks to be about a 100 years old and is three stories tall, with a brick exterior and a nice porch. Your coworker’s house isn’t quite as large as most around it, and seems almost skinny to fit on a smaller lot, but with the three stories you are sure there is a lot of space inside. Like many houses of that era it does not have a garage but instead a small driveway to the left of the building where you can park one or two vehicles. They probably don’t bemoan the lack of a garage too much: bottom line, it’s a big old house with a beautiful view of a major park in a very nice part of town.

Stopping the car, Jayne hesitates so you get out first. You wait for her to reach you, and you smile at how great she looks before you both climb the steps up the porch to the front door.

Before you can even knock the door swings open and an excited Karissa is there, a perky blonde **** of pure energy and charisma. “Hi hi! I’m so glad you guys found the place ok, come in! I just need a minute to grab my stuff and we can go.”

Standing in the foyer, you and Jayne openly look around. The whole place is oak, old leather and tasteful antique furniture with numerous paintings on the walls and a few small sculptures arranged on decorative pedestals. Karissa is walking back into a room down the hall, calling out over her shoulder, “Don’t worry, my Mum is out with friends tonight. It’s just me here, you won’t be introduced to anyone but even if there was someone else here I’d just say you were work friends and we were going out for dinner because that’s all this is right? It's not worth trying to explain anything to others before there is anything to explain, even though I think my Mum would eventually understand. Well, I hope it’s more than us just being work acquaintances - or at least I hope it becomes more - but no matter what you are my friends and I’d always love to go have dinner or hit the clubs with you two.”

Now holding a small white handbag, Karissa is walking back toward the entrance. She is, as always, striking - her blonde hair and modest height (she barely comes up to your chin, and you’re only slightly above average tall for a guy) combine with undeniably cute features and make her look young and inherently cheerful. Wearing a floral pattern sundress, her large breasts strain at the material and as she quickly puts on some open-toed shoes you can’t help but notice how short the hem of her dress is. With a peek to your side, you see Jayne isn’t exactly looking away either.

Shoes on, Karissa gives you a huge grin which you can’t help but return. Then she gives Jayne a long, appraising look and says, “Oh my god Jayne, you look so good in that! I can’t remember seeing you in a skirt before, you always wear slacks to work, it’s hot!” Indeed, Jayne does look great, wearing a tight fitting black skirt that goes to her knees and a cream silk blouse. She’s clearly done her makeup more than she often does, and you can see her blush as you and Karissa both stare at her.

“Yeah, I guess I don’t wear skirts that often but I thought I would tonight. I was worried I was overdressed but when I picked Zach up at his place I could tell he went all out too,” she smirks as it’s your turn to shrug bashfully as the two women check you out.

“I approve Zach, you look great too!” Karissa enthuses. You did dress up a little, putting on your one nice gray casual blazer over a button up shirt. You wore jeans, but a dark blue pair that you think good.

"You are looking pretty dang good too Karissa," you say and Jayne agrees as the young woman beams and gives a slight curtsy that makes you catch your breath. Suddenly blushing yourself, you grope for something else to say so you point at a large piece of art on the hallway wall next to the entrance, “Karissa your house is beautiful, and this painting looks really interesting.” It wasn’t solely to distract from your self-consciousness, you really had noticed the artwork. It was a half finished painting, not a print, of some people on a frozen pond, curling in old-fashioned clothes.

“Oh that? Yeah, my Mum insists that goes by the front door, she’s very proud she was able to bring it back into the family. I’ll have to tell her you mentioned it, she’ll be thrilled. It was painted by my 6th great grandfather, John George Howard. This is just a half done sketch, he finished another painting that’s basically the same scene, it’s in the Canadian Archives in Ottawa I think with some of his other stuff.”

Jayne’s eyes go a bit wide and she gestures at the painting, “That name is kind of familiar, is he a famous painter then?”

Karissa makes a dismissive gesture and laughs, “Oh no, he was a decent amateur painter I guess but not, like, historically significant. This is a nice sketch, but mainly because it’s from near his lodge. He was an engineer and builder, did a lot of work in the early days of Toronto and bought all this land and then he and his wife gave it to the city to make High Park.”

“Wait, so you’re related to the guy who made the park? So the big old house in the park that’s a museum now?” Jayne asks.

Nodding patiently, Karissa says, “Yeah, that was his place, Colburn Lodge. My Mum can tell you allllll about it. He was married but never had kids with his wife, but had a few with his lifelong mistress. We’re descended from her, obviously. I guess it was kind of an accepted thing back then? He certainly took care of her and their kids, and this house has been in my family on my Mother’s side since before he died. This was all in the mid 1800’s though.”

“That’s pretty interesting Karissa,” you say, “I always liked history in school but I don’t know much about local Toronto history obviously. So there’s a museum about your great great, 6 times great, grandfather?”

Karissa smiles at you both and says, “Zach I’d love to take you both there. It’s really nice in summer, and while I think it’s kind of boring because I’ve heard about it a million times we can do the tour. The park is pretty great too, but that’ll be another date maybe,” she gives you both a sly grin, “for now I’m starving and Amico’s is calling my name!”