As Luck Would Have It (part 2 of 2)

            Unfortunately, he was broke.  That was a point he hadn’t considered.  And it was point enough to make him start to reconsider everything.  Aside from meeting Nina – twice – luck hadn’t been on his side lately.  He was, as his mother liked to put it, ‘between jobs’ right now.  Which also meant ‘between incomes’.  Which meant that he was relying on the kindness of his family.  And they were kind.  And he loved them.  But it also meant that he was essentially a twenty-seven-year-old man who was unemployed and living with his mother.  He didn’t have Dean’s good looks to compensate, and no great talents, or gift of the gab, to draw attention away from the fact.

            Not what most women are looking for.  And ten minutes on Google confirmed as much.

            And how, exactly, was he going to buy her dinner?

            He asked Dean first: “Just a fifty, just until…”

            “When?”

            “Until I can pay you back.”

            “Until you get a job?”

            “Or a million dollars falls into my lap.  Or my career as a super-villain picks up a bit.”

            Dean shook his head, “Sorry, I live in the bedroom down the hall from you right now.  That’s how much money I’ve got to spare.”

            And Rickie: “I really can’t.”

            “You encouraged me to ask her out.”

            “You’re welcome.  But I promised Kirsten a holiday somewhere nice.  I’ve booked the hotel room and everything… and when I say everything...  You wouldn’t believe it… the price for delivering champagne and strawberries to somebody’s room…”

            “That’s… romantic.  Nice touch.  But what about a twenty then?”

            “Sorry buddy, no can do.”

            Eddie buried his head in his hands.  How much was Nina going to appreciate a bag of chips and a stick of gum?

            #

            Fortunately – and before he forked out for chips and gum – he hit upon an alternative.  Since he couldn’t afford a restaurant, it occurred to him he could set up a picnic instead.

            He checked with Rickie’s sister Lyn: “Girls like that stuff, right?”

            “Yeah, it’s great.”

            “I don’t need fancy champagne?”

            “Just a few sandwiches, some cake, some fruit.  Fancy champagne would be good though if you had it.”

            He didn’t.  But he had his parent’s picnic basket, a tried-and-true recipe for curried egg sandwiches, and some exceptional little pinwheel scones from the bakery down the road.  And he had a spot.  A paved courtyard on the outskirts of a local park.  There were herbs flowering all around, and it overlooked the river.

            It took the promise of a big favour, but Rickie was even willing to set up the picnic for him, so they could just come across it as they walked.

            #

            Unfortunately, it was as windy day, and Rickie’s attempts to lay down a blanket and set plates and cups up on top of it was not going well.  There was a blanket blowing in his face, three forks had already been lost to the river, and three paper plates were now decorating a nearby tree.  He would have phoned Eddie to use some colourful language and negotiate for the expansion of the favour, but his phone had already been blown out of his hand once, and he wasn’t about to risk it again.

            #

            Fortunately, Rickie was able to find some good-sized rocks, and thanks to his recent gym membership was able to lug them over to the picnic site to hold the blanket down.  By the time he’d done so the wind was settling down, and a beautiful crescent of sunlight was breaking over puffy clouds.  The picnic was scheduled for sunset, which ended up being red and pink and breathtaking.  Rickie hid in the bushes as Eddie and his girl showed up.

            She gasped with delight.

            Rickie thought: not bad, buddy.  Not bad at all.  In fact, he had the strangest feeling that he was witnessing something borderline miraculous, that true love was actually blossoming out here under the trees, on red and green chequers.  But any more witnessing than this would be bordering on voyeurism, so he crept away and left the two of them to it.

            #

            Unfortunately, Eddie said the wrong thing.  He was talking quite innocently about the funny story Tony down at the hardware store had told him about his crazy old mother law and how tricky it was getting her into a secure unit for treatment.  He was nervous, avoiding eye contact, and so he didn’t see the look that came into her eyes, the walled-up sadness.  He hadn’t known about the aunt she’d been close to, whose mental health had taken a sudden downward spiral.  He hadn’t known.  And now he’d overstepped a boundary.  Saying sorry was all very well – and uttered profusely more than once – but he just didn’t know where to go from there.

            #

            Fortunately, this was the exact moment at which a little dog chose to come running along the path.  It was a little mop-head with a velvet ribbon tied around its neck, and it was wildly exuberant.  Clearly a fan of the park, the dog was chasing everything in sight, running in circles and leaping on top of leaves.  At one point, it did a full somersault, landing on its feet, and seeming surprised to find itself there.

            And, thankfully, Nina laughed out loud.

            Thanks, puppy.  Eddie summoned up all his courage, rolled it up into a ball, and reached out to touch Nina’s hand.

            She turned and looked at him.

            “I want to do this again,” he was finally – almost – eloquent.

            “That’s great…”

            “You too?”  Say yes, say yes.

            “I… I think so.”

            “What I said…”

            “It’s okay.”
            “I mean Tony, he’s… shallow end of the gene pool…”

            “It’s okay.  Really.”

            “So.  Another time.  Another… date, then?”

            “Another date.”

            He had what he hoped was an epiphany and not a really dreadful idea: “My family’s having a barbecue next weekend, why don’t you come along?”

            “Okay.”

            “Really?  Okay?”

            “Really.  Okay.”

            #

            Unfortunately, Dean was going to be there.

            Dean.  His brother.  Well, obviously he was going to be.  And Eddie, head in hands again, mentally scolded himself for not having thought about it sooner.

            That was over ten years ago.

            Still.

            He asked his brother: “Can I trust you with her?”

            “How hot did you say she was?”

            “What I said was I really, really like her.”

            “Soul mates and destiny and all that?”

            “Well… yes, maybe.  Maybe she is.”

            “Fair enough.  If she’s an eight or less I’ll keep my hands off.  A nine or a ten, I can’t make any promises.”
            Crap, thought Eddie.

            #

            Fortunately, Nina decided to bring her sister along.  They were chalk and cheese; night and day.  Alissa was dark and reedy, her hair was raven and dead straight, catching different colours under the lights.  She dressed in figure-hugging leather pants and a loose, lounging red shirt.  It took Dean almost ten seconds to form an interest, and another ten to start making his play for her. 

            Eddie sat with Nina and watched them flirting.

            “She’s always like this.”

            “Him too.”

            She leaned into him.  “I’m glad I came.”

            “My family are a little bit kooky.”

            “Well, you know mine are.”

            “And Dean.  I half thought he’d steal you away from me.”

            “He’s not my type.”

            “And it’s not as if you’re my girlfriend or anything…”  Exactly? Yet? Officially?  His alternatives were causing his face to flush a hot, unflattering red.

            Nina didn’t seem to think so, and she just smiled, just said: “We’ll see.”

            #

            Unfortunately, nobody was paying any attention to the pudding while they ate their dinner, and they weren’t alerted to it burning until the smoke came slinking out of the kitchen.  When Eddie’s mother opened the oven door the smoke came billowing and black, greasy, cough-inducing.  The fire alarms caught a whiff of it and commenced their screaming.  The sprinklers went next.

            #

            Fortunately, Nina just found that hilarious. 

            She walked out into the garden with him and they squished themselves into one of the swings down the bottom beneath the cherry tree.  That took some manoeuvring, which just fed the hilarity.

            “Your hair’s wet,” Eddie said.

            “Well, I’m glad you have sprinklers.  And smoke alarms.”

            “They were loud.”

            “Which is good.  You know, in event of a fire and all that.”

            He was almost stupid enough to say something like well, you’ve started a fire in my heart, but instead he just took her hand.  “Let’s do this again, okay?”

            “Definitely.”

            “Maybe your family next time.”

            “If you think you’re up to it.”

            “They don’t scare me.”

            “Naïve fool.”

            “But it’s date?”

            She grinned back at him.  “Yeah, it’s a date.”

 

Picture credit/discredit:  author's own work.