“Movie?”
“Tonight?”
“Do you have other plans?”
“Well…no.”
“Then let’s go.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“An hour? Alright, I’ll be ready,” Renee closed her cell phone and placed it on the seat cushion next to her, smiling to herself.
“Trevor?” Melissa asked, absently flipping through the channels on TV.
“Yeah.”
“He’s good with this spontaneity thing.”
Smiling again, Renee nodded. “He’s fun. I’m never bored.”
It was Melissa’s turn to grin. “I’m glad you’re having a good time. Still taking things slow? At the rate things are going, it shouldn’t be that long before you decide to turn things up.”
“I don’t know yet. Things are really great, and I don’t want to mess things up. I think that will change a lot of things, wouldn’t it?”
“Asking the wrong person.”
“Maybe soon. I don’t know. I’m still trying to get over the fact that things are going along so well. It’s weird. Neither one of us has any expectations. And it feels good that he knows all my weaknesses and my past. No secrets, you know?”
“If he’s coming in an hour, maybe you should shut up and go get dressed.”
Renee looked down at herself, at the costume she had chosen for her and Melissa’s night in, and her eyes bulged. She sprang off the couch and took the faster shower she could remember ever taking in her life, and picked out a nice pair of jeans and a lightweight sweater. She positioned her hair into a sloppy bun, laughing to herself about the way guys never realized the sloppy bun took longer to style than a regular ponytail.
“I think he’s here,” Melissa called from the living room.
“Great. I’ll see you later.”
“Hmm... no ‘don’t wait up’?”
“Nah, tonight’s not the night.”
“Okay,” Melissa laughed and watched Renee walk out the door. She was actually glad Renee was gone for now, because she wanted to ask JC something very important, and she feared it might escalate to an argument, which she didn’t want Renee around for. There were several reasons for that. One, the argument probably would strike a nerve for Renee, and two, she hadn’t yet told Renee about the thing that might cause said argument.
During one of the more recent conversations Melissa had had with Chris, he had mentioned that JC was seeing some woman named Bobbie, and that no one else in the group liked her, partly because they all liked her – Melissa – so much. As it turned out, he admitted during a chat the weekend after the concert, Chris had been pushing for Melissa to reach out to JC not just so they could reconcile, but so that JC would see how much of himself he was sacrificing to be with Bobbie. And it had worked. Bobbie was gone, and JC was now very focused on Melissa, as the other guys could attest to.
That should have pleased Melissa, but instead it only upset her. Why hadn’t JC told her himself that he was seeing someone? According to Chris, JC had broken up with her the day after he and Melissa had been on the phone all night. What was JC’s reason for neglecting to tell her about this woman? Granted, she wouldn’t have wanted to hear it, but it would have been nice to know. Especially since they were a fairly low-radar couple. Melissa could pick up any magazine and see Britney and Justin all over it. She could read any website and find out about Chris and Danielle, even if they were pretty undercover. But no one had any straight facts on JC and Bobbie. Until Chris confirmed it by his mention, Melissa had seen nothing except for one photo of the two of them, and that wasn’t enough to convince her.
So when JC never mentioned it, neither did she; and with all that happened the night of the concert, she pushed it from her mind anyway. But now she had time to think about it and let it brew in her mind. Renee said it best, “no secrets”. So why was Bobbie a secret?
She had only spoken to JC once since the concert, the same time she had talked to Chris. She knew that he was busy – they were on tour after all – so she didn’t worry about it. But this morning, three weeks later, she had pulled her phone from her purse while at the daycare to find that JC had left her a voicemail without calling her phone, something she’s just recently figured out how to do. He was just calling to check in, basically, and he promised to call her at night, as there was some extra time between tonight’s show and the next one.
Melissa now continued surfing the channels, waiting for her phone to ring. Tonight she was going to ask JC all about Bobbie, including why he never mentioned her. She wanted to know why he felt the need to keep her a secret, while he knew all about Michael – not that it was the same by any means.
Eventually settling on Judge Judy on CourtTV, Melissa put the remote down and pulled her feet up. She loved Judy. Glancing around the room during a commercial break, she started to reflect on Michael and the relationship in general. They’d been together for more than seven years. That was pathetic. Seven years! She was only twenty-two years old. And for the last few years, the relationship hadn’t even been worth being in. All they did was argue and pick at each other. It had all started just before she went on vacation three years ago. After said vacation, what was already starting to unravel just fell to shreds. That was when her eyes and heart were opened to someone else.
Before that, Melissa and Michael had been content with each other, if not happy. Then Michael proposed. Young, naïve, and ‘in love’, Melissa had readily said yes. Her parents questioned her, asking if maybe she’d want to wait until she was older. Her aunt, uncle, and cousin Andy asked the same thing. Melissa assured them all she believed she was making the right decision.
However, it wasn’t long before she started to ask herself the same questions. She’d never been on a real date with anyone else. She’d only kissed one other guy, and that probably didn’t even count, as it was during a game at a party. The whole thing was more and more overwhelming the more she thought about it. Could she really marry her first boyfriend? Should she spend some time being single?
About eight months later she and Renee had gone to Orlando, and she saw JC for the first time in years. Instantly she knew she needed to live a little without Michael. But she also knew they’d been together too long to just end things over her own cold feet. Besides, when other people were having crazy relationship problems, she figured she probably had it pretty good. She had someone reliable, and her brain told her to stay,
Her heart, conversely, told her something else.
Now that things between she and JC were getting significantly more intense, and things with Michael got nastier and meaner, she really had to wonder if she was doing the right thing staying put. Yes, with JC there was more passion, but they would never see each other. One-third of the year JC was on tour, and when he wasn’t, he was busy doing what famous people do. Michael was here all the time. He spent seven months traveling, but it was at weekly intervals; he’d be gone for a week, then home for a week. And while puck bunnies do exist, Melissa really didn’t have to worry about millions of girls and women trying to hook up with Michael.
Sighing, Melissa rolled her head back and from shoulder to shoulder. She looked wistfully towards the kitchen, trying to decide if she was truly hungry or just bored. Waiting for JC’s phone call was taking its toll on her. She needed to say what she’d been practicing all day before she lost her nerve or forgot it. She’d even tried it out on little Sean at the daycare that afternoon while putting him down for a nap. He was one of the more dependent children, who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) fall asleep unless someone was with him. Melissa had taken a special liking to him, and became his unofficial naptime partner. All she had to do was sit by him, occasionally rubbing his back. Sometimes it even took talking to him in a soothing voice. Today was such a day. In between giving him toddler-size massages, she gave him her speech to JC in a low voice.
“I was never sure you were dating anyone, which makes sense since we weren’t talking, but Chris told me about Bobbie. And I was just wondering why you never told me about her. I mean, it’s not like you have to tell me about her, but I was just curious. Chris said you broke up with her right after you and I started talking again, and he thought it might be because of me. That sounds a little conceited, I know, but it was Chris’s theory, not mine. So, I don’t know, it just bothers me a little that you didn’t tell me about her. We talk about everything else. Is there a reason you didn’t tell me?”
By the time she was finished, little Sean’s eyes were closed, and his breathing had slowed. Melissa sat there for a few minutes to ensure that he was sleeping before retreating to the front room to enjoy her break. She checked her phone yet again to see if JC had by chance called again.
Now she sat on her couch, only halfway paying attention to Law & Order, which was currently playing. Every commercial break, she got to her feet and walked to the kitchen. It only took ten seconds of gazing into the refrigerator each time for her to decide she wasn’t really hungry, still just bored. She looked at the clock again. The concert should be over by now; what was taking JC so long? Melissa paced the entire apartment, from the living to her bedroom, and back to the living room. She started to wonder if JC had developed psychic abilities and knew the conversation that was about to occur and was therefore avoiding it. Replaying her prepared speech over again in her head, Melissa realized how pathetic and desperate it sounded. She must have asked, “why didn’t you tell me?” at least five times. Groaning, she tried to figure out what else she could say. She’d gotten as far as, “Josh, I’ve been wondering,” when her cell phone, dangling from her wrist, began to play ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’.
JC was calling.
Melissa took a deep breath before answering, “Hi.”
“Hey baby, what’s going on?”
“Not much. How was the show?”
“Exhausting, as always. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Melissa smiled at that. JC would be lost without his music. “Where are you now?”
“I’m heading up to my room. We get to crash at a hotel tonight.”
Listening carefully, Melissa heard the sounds of an elevator, the ding as it passed each floor. “Good,” she said, taking another deep breath. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Sounds serious. What about?”
“Bobbie Thomas.”
It was JC’s turn to sigh. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I just want to know about her. Chris told me you were dating and that you broke up around the same time we started talking again. And I just…I don’t know. You never mentioned her when we talked.”
“What would you have wanted me to say?”
“I don’t know Josh. It was just a surprise to me. I mean, with all the teenybopper magazine gossip there is out there, I had only seen one picture of the two of you, and even after I tried to find out more about you and her, I still didn’t find anything.”
“Well, we broke up. So what difference does it make?”
“It’s just…it seems like you purposely didn’t tell me about it. We talk about everything. I tell you all about Michael and me.”
JC scoffed, “Melissa, I love you, but you know damn well there is a huge difference between you and that asshole and me and anyone I date.”
“Why?” Melissa did know it, but now she was agitated and she felt like goading him.
“Why? How about the fact that you’re engaged, and have been for about four years?”
“Why’s that different? I’m involved with someone, you were involved with someone. Why should the quality of the relationship make it different?”
“Trust me, it wasn’t the quality of the relationship, because neither one of us was any better off in that sense. It’s the status of it. Being engaged for almost four years is a lot different than casually dating for a few months.”
“According to Chris, it was more than a few months.”
“Well, according to Chris, you were considering leaving Michael, but that’s obviously not true either, is it?”
“I never told Chris I was thinking of leaving Michael.”
“Were you?”
“What?”
“Thinking of leaving.”
The ensuing silence revealed no answer, and JC took it as a ‘no’. “Well then, Chris isn’t exactly the information pit you want him to be, is he?”
“Josh, that’s not fair.”
“What? That I can always call you on your bullshit?”
“My bullshit? I’m not the one hiding relationships from people.”
“I’m not hiding anything. When you and I started talking, it was pretty much already over with me and Bobbie. What would be the point of telling you? Would you have even wanted to know? And if you had already seen something about us, why are you just asking me now?”
“I wanted to see if you’d bring it up.”
“Again, why would I? What would be the point?”
“I don’t know.”
“Melissa, you need to stop worrying about me and you so much. You should always know where you stand with me. What you need to focus on is you and that jerk you’re with. I’m tired of having to share you.”
“I hate having to hide you.”
“Well then. We have a bit of a dilemma, don’t we?”
“I did tell Chris I was thinking of leaving Michael,” Melissa said quietly and suddenly.
“What?” JC didn’t catch it.
“I did tell Chris I was thinking of leaving Michael.”
“Well…what…what happened with that? You haven’t left him, have you?”
“No.”
“Why not, if I don’t mind my asking?”
Melissa shrugged. She didn’t have an answer. She’d asked herself the same question a million times, and she always came up with the same result: there was no answer. The best she could figure out was that there was nothing Michael did wrong. He wasn’t cheating on her, he wasn’t abusive, and he wasn’t a deadbeat. They just argued a lot. They still cared about each other.
“I think you just gave me a one-shoulder shrug, but keep in mind I can’t see you.”
“That’s exactly what I did.”
“Scares you how well I know you, doesn’t it?”
“Sometimes.”
“He could never guess something like that.”
“Probably not.”
“He doesn’t deserve you.”
“And you do?”
“Sometimes I don’t think I do either, but I hope I do.”
“You do.”
“Good. Then I guess I can ask you out on a date.”
“On a date?”
“Yeah. We’ve done lots of things together, but we’ve never been on a date. Let’s do it.”
“Where? How are we going on this date?”
“We have a break in a few weeks, and I’ll have a chance to fly out there and see you. We can go out to dinner, go see a movie, anything you want.”
“Sounds like fun. Tell me the day, I’ll decide what to do.”
JC and Melissa discussed the date and time of their first real date and said goodnight, and shortly afterwards, Renee came home, Trevor in tow.
“Oh, hello Melissa,” Trevor mumbled.
“Hi Trevor, how’s it going?” it was endearing to Melissa how Trevor always got nervous around her, as if she was Renee’s mother.
“How was the movie?” she asked the couple.
“Not bad. It had its funny moments,” Renee said, ducking her head a bit.
“What did you see?” Melissa noticed the flush that was creeping across Renee’s face, and kept her smile in check when each one started to name a different movie, then heard what the other was saying and switched, both still naming different titles. “I’ll have to go see them both, I guess. You kids have a good night,” she headed back to her room, turning in for the night.
Renee nudged Trevor as they sat together on the couch, “You suck at lying.”
“You’re not much better,” he grinned at her, taking her hand and pulling it into his lap. “So…we’ve gone out a few times now,” he began. “And God knows we’ve got this making out thing down to an art form. Maybe it’s time to give this thing a name.”
Renee just stared at him. “Like, make it a girlfriend-boyfriend thing?”
“Are you ready for that?”
A slow smile worked its way across Renee’s face. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I am. God, you’re good. Are you real, or am I just imagining you? Not rushing me, not treating me like crap…I must be imagining you.”
Trevor laughed to himself. “I’m real, and I’m here. With you. And I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon,” he turned her face towards his and kissed her softly.
“Did I imagine that?”
“No.”
“Oh. Do it again just so I can be sure.”
The new official couple spent the next hour cuddling and kissing on the couch before falling asleep in each other’s arms.
“I hate my alarm,” Melissa informed Renee as she squeezed past her into the kitchenette.
“Why’s that?” Renee poured herself a cup of coffee from the steaming pot.
“Ugh,” Melissa made a face at the scent. “How do you drink that shit?” she hated coffee, even the smell. “I hate my alarm, because it wakes me up?”
Renee chuckled. “You got problems.”
“I know. Anyway, I won’t let it get me down. JC and I are having our first date tonight.”
“I still think that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard. Where are you going?”
“He still won’t tell me. All he told me is to dress formal and be hungry. That narrows it down to about four places that I can think of. But there’s probably more that I don’t know of that he found.”
“Well, I hope your date lasts long. I’m thinking of having a little date here myself. If you can stay away for the whole night, that would be ideal.”
“Renee! Are you planning that already? I thought you were going to take things all slow. It’s only been about a month, hasn’t it?”
“Well, I thought I’d wait longer. But…I don’t know, it just feels right.”
“Okay. If you’re sure.”
“Trust me. I’m sure.”
“Alright then. Good luck. I’ll try to stay away for the whole night. Have fun. And be careful.”
“Yes mom. I don’t think I’ll see you before you leave, so have fun. Take pictures. Remember every last detail so you can tell me about it. Well. Maybe not every detail. You can keep some of that to yourself.”
Melissa laughed. “Same to you. But…I don’t need the pictures.”
Renee finished off her coffee and rinsed the cup, dropping it in the sink. She stopped at the door to put on her shoes, and headed down to her car. As she reached for her door handle, she noticed there was a single white rose trapped underneath her windshield wiper. She smiled as she plucked it from the window and brought it into the car with her. She had never dated anyone who went out of his way to do sweet things for her. When she reached her destination, she brought the flower inside with her, and after she punched in, placed it in a glass and put it on a shelf in the cooler.
“Who’s that from?” Amy snuck up behind her. “That Trevor guy?”
Renee’s smile gave it all away. “Yes, it is from Trevor, if you must know. It’s been a little over a month now, and we finally made it official.”
“Made it official, huh?” Amy nudged her.
“Not like that,” Renee blushed. “It’s just a true girlfriend-boyfriend thing now.”
“And the rose?”
“Just something sweet, I guess.”
“Gorgeous and sensitive. Christ, where did you find him? Does he have a clone?”
“Not that I’m aware of, sorry,” Renee giggled. “If I find out about one, I’ll let you know,” she went to her podium to begin her day.
Laughing to herself, Melissa closed the door to her apartment. Her cousin Andy had just strolled through with a twelve-pack of Molson Canadian, telling her he brought it to take the edge off. The whole day, he’d been openly mocking her growing anxiety about her date with JC. It was after her fifth phone call to him that he’d said, exasperatedly, “I’m coming over.”
She couldn’t even argue with him, or bother to hide the fact that she was nervous. She was terrified of the whole idea. She hadn’t even been on a “real” date in six years. After the first year she and Michael had together, their only outings were mundane and obligatory events: sports dinners and banquets.
“It’s just a date, you loser. It’s not even like it really matters. Nothing depends on it,” Andy pulled a bottle from the box and popped the cap off, handing it to his cousin. “Chill out.”
“Sure it does! Everything depends on it.”
“Like what?” Andy rolled his eyes. “You’re already together.”
“The whole thing could suck?” Melissa didn’t add ‘duh’, but you could hear it in her voice. “And we’re not together.”
“The whole thing already sucks, dummy. You’re together but you’re not. Don’t you think that sucks? There is nothing, short of Michael finding you and shooting the whole place up, that could make your little date go wrong.”
“GAAHH!” Melissa shrieked. “Everything could go wrong. Like, seventy-five percent of the time we’re together, all we do is have sex. Even when I didn’t think it would happen, it did. We were all over it.”
Andy closed his eyes, his beer halfway to his mouth. “Honestly, there are a million other things I’d rather be thinking about than you having sex. Did you have to bring that up?”
“Well it’s true! We don’t really ever hang out or just talk. Maybe it’s because we spend so much time talking on the phone, and since we only have a such a little amount of time when we’re actually physically together, we end up – ”
“I get it.”
“So what happens if that’s all we do tonight?”
“So what? That’s an ideal date.”
“You are such a guy. Stop thinking with your dick.”
“Since it’s you we’re talking about here, trust me, my dick isn’t even taking part in the conversation.”
“I dunno about that; there was the time you practically felt me up trying to get that necklace,” Melissa pulled her robe closed more tightly around her.
“Oh shut up. I was hammered!”
“You were still my cousin!”
“Look, it was blinking like crazy, and I was drunk. All I knew was I had to have it. It’s your own damn fault for putting it down your shirt.”
“What an asshole.”
“So what’cha wearing?” Andy flopped down on the couch and kicked his feet up onto the coffee table. “I know you’ve got this part figured out at least.”
Melissa only groaned. “I have no idea. He told me to dress formally. I don’t know what that means. I was dressed formal for my confirmation, and I was dressed formal for Prom.”
“That’s quite the continuum.”
“Who the hell says ‘continuum’?”
“Physicists. Scientists.”
“And you are a manager at a heating and cooling company.”
“That’s a continuum,” Andy held his right hand, beer and all, out past his right shoulder. “Heating,” and his left hand past his left shoulder. “Cooling.”
“You’re a dumbass; did I ever tell you that?”
“Why do you still talk to me then?”
“You’re family, so I don’t have much of a choice.”
“No. You have to love your family, but you don’t have to talk to them. For example, has anyone spoken to Alicia lately?”
“Good point. I still don’t know what to wear.”
“So wear something confirmation formal and dress it up prom formal. Then you can dress it back down if you have to.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“I don’t know! Where’s Renee? Shouldn’t she be helping you with this?”
“She’s at work.”
Andy groaned. “Don’t you have that little black dress every female is supposed to have?”
“I have a bunch, actually. But I don’t know which one to use.”
“What a pain in the ass you are. Let me see ‘em.”
“You’re gonna help me figure out what to wear?” Melissa was incredulous.
“I can give you a guy’s opinion.”
“The only opinion guys have is how fast they can get the dress off.”
“Oh just go get them and shut up.”
Melissa sighed and went down the hall to her room and pulled three black dresses from her closet. One had spaghetti straps, a low v-neck, and an asymmetrical hem that hung from just below the knee to about mid-calf. The next one was sleeveless with a boat neck, but clung to her body, and stopped just above the knee. The last one also was spaghetti-strapped with a scoop neck and empire waist, and hung to her feet. She held them all up by the hangers and got back to the living room.
Andy looked at each one. “It’s summer. Do the floaty one. Leave your hair like that.”
One arched eyebrow met Andy’s conclusion. “You are so weird.”
“Go get dressed.”
About half an hour later, Melissa emerged from her bedroom, dressed in the asymmetrical gown, her hair in soft ringlets about her head. She added a pair of strappy black heeled sandals and went subtle-glam with her make-up; shiny clear lip gloss, smoky gray eyeshadow, and a pale peachy-pink blush. “How’s this?”
“Looks great,” Andy told her, watching a baseball game on TV.
“You’re not even looking.”
Andy looked away from the television to see his cousin. “Wow,” he whispered. “Didn’t know you could clean up like that.”
“I look okay?”
“You look gorgeous,” Andy stood. “And if you think that anything could go wrong with you looking like that, you’re crazy.”
Melissa smiled shyly. “Thanks,” she glanced over at the clock. “He should be here soon.”
“Want me to take off?”
“No, stay. I want you guys to meet anyway.”
“You realize I’m probably gonna hate hockey boy after I meet this one, right?”
“I’m sure you will. He has that effect on people,” Melissa sat down for two seconds, then got up and walked to the window. Then she walked to the kitchen. Then she came back to the couch. She went to the window again before Andy laughed at her.
“Have another beer.”
After Melissa had consumed another beer and a half, she heard a knock at the door. Andy responded to it, pulling the door open wide. “You must be JC,” he said.
“I am,” JC’s brow furrowed.
“This is my cousin Drew,” Melissa introduced him, giving JC the name Andy was now going by, a name she’d never use, as she’d been calling him Andy for over twenty-one years.
“Oh. Hey Drew, nice to meet you. Where’s Renee?” JC asked Melissa as he stepped inside the room. It was then that he saw Melissa in her entirety. “Oh my God,” he practically gasped, reaching for her.
“Drew helped,” Melissa felt shy again.
“You’re beautiful,” he breathed against her lips. “I’ll have to thank him,” he turned to Andy, “Thank you.”
Andy just laughed. “You’re welcome. You two have fun. I’m taking my beer home.”
Melissa waved at him and sized JC up. He was wearing a pair of black pants that made the view from the back intoxicating, and a smooth, satiny white button-up shirt. “You look…you look…wow. I could seriously just…no, nevermind.”
“You could what?” he asked softly.
“You know exactly what I could do. Now start walking. Where are we going?”
“That, beautiful lady, is a surprise. All I’ll tell you is that this place has been right under your nose the whole time,” he held her hand tenderly as they walked out of the apartment and the building, and as they climbed into the waiting car.