The laughter grew louder. “Aww Mom. She is the sweetest. Not quite, but hopefully I will get close with my stock options.”
“Wow! From the cars?”
“The cars will help, but mostly from the prosthetic limbs we build with the 3D printers. We can make them affordable for the masses. We’ve been testing them at the VA Hospital.”
“My dad would have loved that.”
“I know. I actually think about him a lot. It took me awhile to enjoy dinner without the sound of war programs playing in the background.”
“Me too!” Wait, don’t let him off easy. You’re supposed to be angry. “You should have called sooner … like one, two, three years ago.”
“I know. I know and I’m sorry.” The phone was silent except for the low sound of traffic in the background. “I don’t want to talk over the phone, though. We need to sit face to face. I’m taking Mom and her friends to dinner tomorrow and I want you to come.”
“Of course!”
“I’ll see you at five. Ariel, I really can’t wait to see you.”
“I’m excited to see you too.”
Neither of us wanted to hang up. I made the first move and said a quick “bye.” Wow, so much for being tough with him. You better grow a pair before tomorrow.
I spent the rest of the day burning off the nervous energy by organizing my condo. I picked my dinner outfit and finished with a long soak in the tub and a glass of wine. The warmth helped me create a mental list of questions to cover the next night. I would finally have some answers. It was the best slumber I’d had in a long time.
The doorbell woke me at 8AM. I wanted to ignore it, but persistent knocking soon followed. I raced to the door with my disheveled hair and sleepy eyes. I opened the door to find an absolute hunk standing in front of me.
He looked me up and down and smiled. “Is that my Superman T-shirt?”
“Billy!” I screamed. “You said 5. I’m a mess.”
“I just got in and I couldn’t want to wait any longer. Can I come in?” I stepped aside and motioned with my arm for him to enter. He tugged at the hem of my shirt. “I had a feeling you stole that.”
“I sleep in it all the time,” I confessed. As he walked past me, I tried to pat my hair down and wipe the sleep dirt from my eyes. “I didn’t recognize you. Did you man-scape your eyebrows?”
He turned and laughed. This man before me was Billy 2.0. Same laugh, but taller, the voice was deeper, the muscles were ripped. He looked like an actual grown-up with a blue button-down and jeans. “I can’t believe you’re finally here,” I said. “It’s been too long.”
“Five years, two months and four days,” he said softly.
“Really? That long?” I said in fake surprise. Yes! He’s been counting too.
We made our way to the kitchen for some coffee and sat across from each other at the table. He looked down into his cup and tapped his fingers on the sides of his mug. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back for his funeral. There’s really no excuse.”
“It’s okay. You had a tense relationship. I’m sorry I didn’t deflect more of that. He would be extremely proud of you.”
“And of you too! Look how well your business is going with all those big orders.”
“I know. I can’t believe it. I just shipped out one thousand mugs … wait, how did you know about my big orders?”
He scrunched up his face. “Oops.”
“It’s you? You’re AB-Positive? I thought it was a blood bank or something?”
He shook his head. “It stands for Ariel and Billy.”
I tried to hide my pleasure, but failed miserably as my smile widened. I pointed at the Superman T-shirt and said, “Just because you’re nice doesn’t mean I return this.” He laughed and reached across to grab my hand. Something about the contact snapped me out of dream mode. “I’m confused,” I said as I pulled my hand back.
“About what?”
“About what? About everything. Prom, Chico, not seeing you all these years. What the fuck happened? I’ve gone over everything in my mind trying to figure out what I did wrong.”
“I saw you with Andy Olson.”
“When?”
“I left chess club early and saw you get into his car. Then … then I saw you giving him a blowjob. I thought you wanted to be with him and it killed me. I figured we would never be able to date anyway, so I thought leaving would be easier.”
I stood up and let out a yell. My arms flailed in frustration as I tried to get the words out. “Andy Olson is a motherfucker! He was going to rat us out and tell everyone about our limo ride on prom night!” I paced back and forth and continued my rant. “I fought him off. All this fucking time over that!”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried! You kept ignoring me and pulling away.”
“I could kill that guy! Shit. I’m so sorry.” He shook his fists in the air and groaned in frustration. “What happened to him? Please tell me he has a miserable life.”
“He does! Crazy Stacy Hamilton tricked him into a shotgun wedding. By the time he thought about a DNA test, years had passed and they already had three more children. Lord only knows if they’re his.”
“Serves him right. I can’t imagine being attached to that battle axe for the rest of my life.”
“I can’t imagine being stuck with that tiny dick for the rest of my life.”
We both laughed at first, but then I felt the anger building inside me again. All I wanted to do was march around the kitchen and yell. Tears began welling in my eyes. “I can’t believe this,” I said as I shook my head. I placed both hands on the fridge and rest my forehead against the cool steel. Billy came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. It felt so good to have him close. He suddenly dropped his arms and grabbed the calendar stuck to the fridge.
“What’s this note in the corner?” He smiled and looked up with a devilish grin. “Five, two, four? Does that stand for five years, two months and four days? So, I’m not the only one who’s been counting.”
I tried to rip it from his hands, but he dangled it out of my reach. I jumped up and caught it with one hand, causing a brief wrestling match before uncontrollable giggles overcame us. While I attempted to catch my breath, he leaned in and pressed his lips against my forehead. I wrapped my arms around his waist as I felt myself being drawn forward by his warmth.
“Can we start over? Please give me a chance to make up for lost time,” he said as he squeezed me even closer.
“Why now?” I broke free from his grip and sat back on the chair.
His eyes lit up as he framed his face with his hands. “It was the lion lady.”
“Is that a cartoon?”
He laughed and shook his head. “She’s a wealthy woman from New York City who had her face surgically altered to resemble a lion.”
I circled my face with my finger. “I’m not changing this if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“No, no, n
o! I love your face. The lion lady did something crazy and no one batted an eye because she’s filthy RICH. Another guy was facing time in jail and didn’t want to lose his assets so he adopted his mistress and transferred everything to her.”
“His mistress became his daughter?”
“Crazy, right? No one gave a shit because…”
“He’s filthy rich.”
“Exactly! And now so am I.” He lifted his hand and tipped an imaginary top hat. “We can do whatever we want.”
I was screaming with joy on the inside, but showed my best poker face. “What happens now?”
“We start our life together.”
“Just like that?” I said while snapping my fingers.
“I want you to mull it over. Mom is waiting for me to spend the day with her. We’ll swing by in the limo at five.”
“Another limo? We don’t have such a good track record with those,” I said with a smirk.
“This is a do-over. Think about what I said.” He leaned in for another kiss on my forehead and was gone with a wave.
Holy shit! I slid across the floor and celebrated with a dance that resembled some sort of spastic Irish jig. This is really happening. I felt my heart racing with excitement and plopped down right on the kitchen floor. The tile was cool against my back. I laughed while I thought of him ordering all those mugs. Sneaky little bugger. It made me love him even more.
Five rolled around and I sat near the door listening for the sound of the limo. I decided to wear red again since this was technically a do-over, albeit only of a limo ride. The dress nipped in at the waist and hit above the knee. It wasn’t quite as much fun as a ruffly Quinceañera dress, but it would do. I was out the door as soon as I saw the front grill. Be cool, Ariel. Calm yourself down. The driver opened the door for me and I peered in to find the smiling faces of Billy, Evelyn and several of her friends.
“Hi everyone,” I said as I slid in next to Evelyn.
“It’s so nice to see you,” she said as she opened her arms wide and hugged me tightly.
As we pulled away from the house Billy asked, “Are you sure you want the Blue Bonnet Buffet? I can take you anywhere.”