Chapter 15

I am so stupid, I said “Oh so will everyone from the office come too.” 
He looked a bit embarrassed “No….. I was …. I was asking you out…” I didn’t know what to say, mostly because he just asked me out and I almost invited everyone to the date. “It’s fine if you don’t want to….” Shawn tries to back out. 
“No, I would love to.” He smiled big as did I. He said “The date is without everyone from work right?” he asked just to make sure. With a laugh I answered “Ya, Ya it is.” 
He drove me home and he ran out to open the door for me. After I went out I thanked him for the ride and walked to wards our lawn. Shawn called out to me “About that date, I’ll come pick you up say at 10:00 am.” 
“That early” I asked. 
“The more time the better.” he said and drove off. 
When I walked inside my mom, dad and MC were waiting for me with wide eyes hoping for tonight’s report. They rushed me to the couch, sat in front of me and all started to ask bunch of questions nonstop at the same time. 
I screamed “Calm down!” and when they stayed silent I continued “One question at a time.” 
MC raised her hand and asked her question “Did he kiss you?” 
I screamed “Next” then my mom raised her hand “Did you kiss him?” 
“Seriously next” I yelled again. This time my dad raised his hand “How was the hunt?” 
“Finally a real question; it was good. At first I was sure I would blow it up because my previous boss was there but once we got to Ron King, we were unstoppable. He showed us around, he told us stories about his life and finally when I went all crazy on Cussto he gave the investment to us.” 
MC raised her hand again but I said “MC, do not ask me if I kissed the boss!” 
She asked “Did anything happen between you two?” they all stared at me hoping to hear something juicy. 
I answered “Well he did ask me out and we are going on a date tomorrow at 10:00.” 
“Why didn’t you start with that? That is literally the only thing we want to hear.” my mom celebrates. My dad continued “Finally you are going to have a love life.” he looked up with both his hand on the air and said “Thank you God. I was getting really tired of asking Princi to go out with one of my friends’ sons.” 
“Dad” I complained. My dad had always been offering me random man to go out with and I always refused. 
MC continued “We need to find you the perfect cloth to wear.” 
“No. This is my date and I am going to go as I wish. I want to be comfortable when I am on this date.” 
“Comfortable is not beautiful honey. When your father asked me on a date, I made sure that I looked like a princess.” 
MC continued “Mrs. J is right. You can’t look comfortable on a first date. You have to look beautiful, make sure that all his attention is on you. Then once you get him in your pocket you can show him the real comfortable ugly you.” 
“Thank you for calling me ugly. But I am going as me.” I stood up and went to my room. 
The next morning I woke up early and wore a casual cloth. I wore skinny geans and a t-shirt that said ‘Star Wars’ on the front because I thought it would be symbolic for one of our times on that stair way. And I wore a geans jacket on top. I tied my hair up and wore snicker shoes. I didn’t go crazy on the makeup. Like I said, I want to go as me so I wore eye liner softly and added a rose lipstick. 
I went down stairs and found MC in the kitchen with my mom. “What are you doing here?” I asked her. She looked at me from the bottom to the top “This is how you are going to go to your first date?” 
“I asked the question first.” I complained so she answered “Home doesn’t feel like home any more. I mean Noah is gone and mom with her new boy friend, it just doesn’t feel like the home I used to know. Now answer my question.” 
“What was your question?” 
“Are you really going to go to your first date like this?” 
“Yes” I gave her a solid answer. 
My mom came close “Princi, don’t you have therapy today?” 
“Oh right, I totally forgot. MC, do you want the session? You could really use it because I don’t need it.” I said sarcastically. 
“That is not funny.” MC complains. My mom continued “I will call DR. Goodman and tell her you can’t make it today.” 
You know when you get excited for something, it feels like time freezes. It is finally 10:00. Shawn came right on time_ I went in to his car and we went to the movies. We bought large size popcorn and we watched this action- comedy combo movie. It was so much fun. After the movie was done we went for lunch. We ate and ordered tea as to talk and know each other more. 
I asked “I was curious, how did you know Ron King.” He smiled as he answered “Well funny story, do you remember the time I told you about my band ‘NG1M’ 
I nodded and he continued “It was still high school and we decided that before the band breaks, we have to perform in front of actual audience. And so we went to this coffee shop. It was an open mic and so we performed. Ron king was in that audience and he liked our performance. Granted we were terrible but for some reasons he liked it. And after wards he called me to his table and we have been tight ever since.” I laughed at the story. 
“Wait why did the band break up?” I asked another question. 
“Mr. Davis, my father told me to stop. But I didn’t, I would go out every night and hide my guitar under my bad. But one day Mrs. Davis found me and told my father. He broke the guitar and made sure I would never get close to music.” 
I got confused “You said Mrs. Davis, you mean your mom.” 
“No, Mrs. Davis is my step mother. My dad divorced my mom for her 17 years ago. I was just 8. And anything that made me happy she would snatch it away from Me.” his smile completely disappeared from his face. So I tried to lighten up the mood. 
“Do you want to know a secret?” He looked at me in a way of saying ‘sure’. “I eat an apple every day because of the saying ‘One apple a day keeps the doctor away!’” 
Shawn smiled big as did I. “So that was the reason.” I nodded. 
“You talked about being in a band; I am quite the music gal as well.” I moved the subject. 
“Really you were in a band too?” he asked. 
“No, but I go to a coffee shop near home and perform on the open mic.” 
He looked surprised “So you play. That is so cool. You know what? I need proof so you will play for me.” 
“Not before you play for me though.” I fired back. 
We talked for hours. And then Shawn got a call. He said he had to take it and he walked out. I am having a great time. Tonight I have Ice cream night with MC and my mom and I can’t wait to tell them everything. While I was having a pleasant thought in my head, Shawn came back in from his call with a heavy look. 
“Is everything ok?” I asked. “Yes” he answered. But then after a while of silence “No actually, nothing is ok. My… my grandma is really sick. She has a fever and cough. I am just worried.” 
“I am sure it’s just flu.” I tried to calm him down. “I don’t know: she has been sick for a while. She got worse at the Christmas party but then she got better and now she is sick again.” 
I can tell how much he loves his grandma “You must really love her.” I made a comment. “I do” he answered “She was the only one there for me after the divorce of my parents.” he pulled out his phone and showed me her picture. I took the phone on my hand to take a closer look. Shawns’ grandma has a friendly face. Her face is a bit wrinkled but you can still tell that she was a beautiful woman when she was younger. After I was done I scrolled and saw a picture Shawn took when he went sky diving. 
“You went sky diving?” I asked him. 
“Ya, it was last year. I went there with Chris to erase it from my list.” 
“That has to be the wildest thing you have ever done right?” I asked again. 
“Probably” he answered “Speaking of which, what is the wildest thing you have ever?” he asked. 
I am not as interesting as other people and at the time I couldn’t think of any answer, so I tried to back out. 
“I don’t know. I haven’t done anything to be called a crazy moment. So…” 
“Come on I am sure you can think of something.” he encouraged to hear a story. 
I stayed quiet for a while then I remembered a silly story “Well I wouldn’t call it the wildest story but I was once turned in to a butterfly hunter.” 
He leaned in to show that he was paying attention. I continued “I have always been afraid of butterfly so I think that is why I feel like it was wild. Anyway, one day a beautiful green butterfly flew in to our house. I panicked because like I said earlier I am scared of them. But then from a few distance I saw a small water bottle. I grabbed the bottle and closed it up on the butterfly so it can fly in, and so it did. I made air holes for it and kept it in there. But then like three days later another beautiful green butterfly flew in to our house. I grabbed the same bottle and did the same thing. I had two green butterflies in one bottle. But then my brother told me that it was wrong so he told me to let them go. I was sad but still he was right, so I opened the window then the bottle and let them free. The sad thing was the new butterfly flew out quick but the one I had caught two days ago stayed in. I believe it was exhausted so I turned the bottle upside down and shook the butter fly out of it.” 
Shawn laughed really hard. I didn’t know if his laugh was ‘it’s a funny story’ laugh or ‘you are a lame person I have ever talked to’ laugh. 
“What is so funny?” I asked with a giggle in my voice. “That has to be the funniest wild story I have ever heard.” he answered. 
“Sorry, I am just not that interesting.” I complained but he followed up with “No, you are the most interesting person I have ever met, and I have met Ron King. You know, wildest moments are defined by the life style of the person.” 
“What does that mean?” I asked. 
“Well for example, if a person has fear of height, going sky diving might be the wildest thing he can possibly do.” his explanation didn’t really satisfy me. 
“So what you mean to tell me is, since I have fear of butterfly, butterfly hinting is probably the wildest thing I could ever do.” 
He looked flustered when I said that. “No that was not what I was trying to say. I am sorry if I offended you. I never meant to say it that way. I was just trying to tell you your story was pretty interesting.” then he took a big sip from his drink. 
I smiled because I was just toying with him a bit “Ok.” 
When I looked at the time, it was almost 8:00 pm so he gave me a ride home. I took my sit belt off and turned to him “Today was amazing Shawn. Thank you.” 
“My pleasure” he said and I followed up with “We should do this again sometimes.” 
“Oh yes, we will.” he immediately answered. 
I somehow suddenly turned around while I was still in the car and something caught my eyes. It was my lunch box. The lunch box I threw away just to avoid Shawn. 
“What is that? I asked but Shawn tried to cover it “What is what? It’s nothing.” 
“It isn’t ‘Nothing’, it is my lunch box.” I reached to the back and pulled my old lunch box out. I held the lunch box on my hand and looked at him.