Secondhand Purses (7 page)

“
K.”

“Honey, you okay?” I hadn’t even heard mom knock. I’m sure she had, we had an arrangement. I couldn’t even attempt to act unaffected.

“Mom, come look.” She looked shocked, then grinned as she hurried to stand behind me. My finger jutted out to point at the screen, still unable to voice the excitement I was feeling. I saw her pupils moving rapidly back and forth over the words on the screen, as her mouth opened in a gasp. She looked at me, her mouth rounded in an ‘oh’. We stood, staring at each other with smiles growing on our faces.

“SQUEEEEEEE!”

Simultaneously we started screaming and jumping up and down.

“Wait, wait. Mom, is this a date? ‘Cuz it seems like a date. Oh my
god
, what if it’s a date?”

“What do you mean?” She looked confused.

“I mean, if it’s a real date, does that mean he likes me? But if it’s
not
, and I act like it is, will it get all weird between us?” I started hyperventilating.

“Like, what if I say something stupid and he has to figure out how to tell me it’s not a date without killing me? And then it’s never easy between us again? What if I dress up like a date and he shows up in torn jeans and a tee shirt with axle grease stains?”

I was babbling. Mom was loving it. This was the girliest I had ever been in my entire sixteen years of life. I could see myself in her eyes, wearing a pink dress, a tiara and spinning in giddy circles until I fell over.              

“Sweetie, if he likes you, he likes you. That’s it. End of story. He knows who you are, because you have spent time together as friends. Act like it’s a couple of friends hanging out, and, just enjoy yourself without overthinking it. Don’t put a label on it. If it is something more, it is. If it isn’t, enjoy a night out with your friend.”

She was right. Very right. A lot right. Too right. I was okay with that. Kind of. But, wardrobe? My soul died a little as I asked the next question.

“Mom, what do you think I should wear?”

Her face slowly lit up as if I had just let her know that she was going to be privately serenaded by Bryan Adams (her secret celeb crush). Her eyes glistened and she swallowed a few times to clear the emotion that was blocking her throat.

“Mom…” I could barely stop the eye roll. She held her hand up and glared at me.

“Don’t you ‘
mommmm’
me, young lady.” She tapped her index finger against her lower lip thoughtfully as she walked to my closet. I saw a small smile grow on her lips as she pulled out a pair of faded jeans and a pale pink T shirt that I didn’t even know I had.

“Go with this and a pair of flip flops. Let me see your feet.”

“What? Why do you need to see my feet?” I quickly glanced down at them, wondering what mysteries of the world they would be revealing to her. I got nothing, just toes.

“I need to figure out if you need a pedicure or not.” I automatically curled my toes under to avoid the military level inspection of my cuticles.

“I don’t think he gives a crap about my toes. Seriously.”

“Vic, you’ve been crushing on him for what seems like forever now. You should
not
let nasty toes stand before you and Nick.”

Really?

I uncurled them and then really looked at my toes, tilting my head to get a different perspective. Okay, so maybe the polish was a little chipped and maybe not cute, but it wasn’t as if I had massive human bear claws that were going to send him running for the hills while crying out for his mommy.

Mom followed my eye line down to my toes and visible recoiled. I’m pretty sure I heard a screechy squeak come from her lips. I guess that meant I had another beautification appointment to submit myself to.

She didn’t say anything to me as she walked away, but she was shaking her head and I’m pretty sure I heard her say ‘stubborn’ and ‘where did I go wrong’ mumbled under her breath. I couldn’t help myself but giggle at her. I knew it should annoy me that she continuously thought that what people thought about something as menial as the condition of my toenail polish would matter, but I was too high from this possible maybe date that I couldn’t bring myself to that level of annoyance.

A week from Thursday? I had to wait eleven days? The wait was going to be some crazy level of torture.

CHAPTER SIX

Somehow, eleven days managed to fly by. Spending hours at Nonna’s house learning how to bake didn’t hurt. As a matter of fact, I had learned three different Italian pastries so far, and according to my parents, I was getting pretty darned good at them. My dad had a permanent smile on his face whenever I came home because I was satisfying his craving for sweets on a regular basis. The weird thing was, that the more I baked the pastries myself, the less I ate of them. It was weird, but for some reason they were much more tempting when made by someone else.

The outfit mom had chosen for me was laid out on my bed, along with the sandals she chose. I looked down and wiggled my formerly offensive toenails, now a light color of pink. Mom wanted me to go for the ever popular French manicure look, but I held Nonna’s stories of being a secondhand purse to my chest and stuck with my guns. To thine own self be true, or something like that. Light pink it was. The strange thing was that even though I usually hated all things pink, I had to admit begrudgingly that the pale shade was rockin’ on me.

I looked at the clock. Nick was going to be here in about forty five minutes. I looked at the clothes on the bed one more time and heaved a sigh. Oh my God, I hoped they were the right choice. I tried my best not to imagine how this evening would go. Lord knows that would get me nothing but heartbreak, based on past experiences.

“We are just going as friends. We are just going as friends. We are just…” The mantra I had been repeating to myself for the past eleven days was interrupted with a sharp knock on the door.

“Honey, aren’t you even getting ready yet? Nick is going to be here in fifteen minutes.”

What? When did that happen? I looked at the clock and sure enough, mom was right. Eek! I was so caught up in convincing myself this was just a couple of friends hanging out that I was running late for our hanging out. Yeah, that would be a classic Vicki move.

I practically jumped into the clothes mom had laid out for me, forgoing the planned third shower of the day. Catching my reflection in the mirror, it pained me to admit mom was right. This was the
perfect
outfit for a casual maybe date with the object of my affection.

I sent a moment of thanks to the parental gods that she chose jeans not shorts. I couldn’t remember when I’d last shaved my legs and I was totally out of time. Not that I expected him to go anywhere near that part of me, but I didn’t need it to sound like sandpaper when I walked. Or worse yet, say I had my legs crossed, he bent down to pick something up and accidentally rubbed against them? I giggled to myself as I pictured him jumping back, letting out a very masculine scream of pain as small pinpoints of blood appeared on whichever unfortunate patch of skin had the misfortune of meeting my Sasquatch legs.

I ran down the stairs, throwing on the breaks to attempt to continue down in a more leisurely pace when I realized that Nick was standing there. Coolness fail. I threw him a lopsided somewhat apologetic grin as he just stared at me. Uh-oh. What was wrong? I closed my mouth and did a quick tongue swipe of my mouth to make sure there wasn’t an offending food item adhered to one of my teeth. Nope, nothing there. I bit my lower lip and looked back at him as I saw it. Oh. My. God. I saw it. And my heart stopped.

Slowly, ever so slowly, a grin formed on those beautiful lips that I’ve had some serious age-inappropriate fantasies about. Swoon. I couldn’t tell, really, but I thought he was maybe just a little bit checking me out. I sucked in my stomach and tried to hold a smile without it looking like a grimace. His eyes twinkled at me. Busted.

I let the breath out in a huff and just shrugged my shoulders at him. We laughed simultaneously and I felt like we had totally had a moment just then. My mom was clutching her hands to her chest like she was about to pass out of sheer happiness. I had to get Nick out of here before she started blabbering on.

I made it down the rest of the stairs and looped my arm through his and started pulling him towards the door.

“Hey, you look great. I can’t wait to see this movie. Let’s get rolling so we can get a great seat.” He raised an eyebrow at me as we moved out the door, silently asking me what was going on.

I slowed down and just looked at him with a look that I hoped begged for understanding.

“It’s my mom, sorry. She was about to go all blubbery on me and I didn’t feel you should be subjected to that.” I started walking towards the car and noticed he was jogging to get ahead of me.

Next thing I knew, he opened up his door and bowed with a flourish.

“Your chariot awaits, milady.”

Seriously? I giggled as I curtsied slightly. I was worried if I went too low I would topple over and ruin a perfectly awesome moment.

“Thank you milord.” I attempted a British accent. Pretty sure I failed miserably but he had a crooked grin fixed on his face. Even if the accent sucked, I would use it every day if it meant that he would always smile at me.

I hopped in and went to reach for the door and realized he was gently closing it for me. Wow. I reached over to open his door and as he slid in he smiled at me.

“Keeper.”

“What?”

“Someone once told me that if after you open the car door for a girl she slides over and opens yours right away, that she’s a keeper.”

“Oh.” Cue furious blushing.

“Guess you’ll just have to keep me then.” Did I really just say that? Ugh. Mental forehead slap.

“Maybe so.”

With that, he turned the key in the ignition, and focused all of his attention on the road. Meanwhile, my head was completely spinning. Did he really just say that? What happened? Was that a moment? Was he just playing? How many maybe moments were we going to have?

I swear to God I was ready to spontaneously combust. I was so wrapped up in my head that I didn’t even realize he was talking to me.

“Uh, I’m sorry, Nick. I was zoned. Totally missed whatever it was you just said.”

“Geez, nice to know I’m such fascinating company.” He elbowed my shoulder to let me know he was just kidding.

I rolled my eyes at him.

“You know it’s not like that. I just got stuck in my head a bit.”

“I was asking what you thought of the actors they chose for Katja and Johan.”

“Ohhh, well, I think that Sam Sorensen will be pretty good as Johan. I mean, he meets the description in the book pretty well.” I paused, wanting to say the next part right without seeming like a total book geek.

“What?”

“Ugh, it’s like, I really hate when authors give you a full description of every physical attribute that the lead characters have. Or, any characters have. I come up with how they look to
me
. And it seems like all characters are always absofreakinglutely perfect. Like, big boobs, small waist. Always graceful. Men chasing them all over the place. What the hell is wrong with a little imperfection?”

Nick remained silent, and I had no idea what that meant. I didn’t imagine that it could mean anything good. Like, did he think I was a total freak or something? My nerves kicked in and when that happens, the shut off valve that connects my brain to my mouth remains firmly stuck in the free-flow position.

“Like, Katja, having Verona Ashton play her is fine and everything, she matches the physical description and all. But seriously? Katja is supposed to be a total bad ass. A take no prisoners total bitch of a woman. Someone that little girls should
seriously
aspire to be. And instead, they turned her into Apocalypse Barbie.”

He turned and looked at me with a mix of horror and amusement in his eyes. Oops. May have gone just a teensy bit too far on that one.

“Apocalypse Barbie?” He didn’t even attempt to keep the laughter out of his voice.

“You’re laughing at me.”

“No, I’m not.” He couldn’t even say it with a straight face or without coughing through the words. Awesome. My ‘sort of date but not really because we are just friends’ was laughing at me.

“Seriously, Apocalypse Barbie?”

“You know, like, she’s going to take on the world with her blonde hair, big boobs, tiny waist, barely there shorts that somehow miraculously keep from getting eaten up by her ass crack; all without breaking a nail.” I found my once strong and sure voice getting smaller and shrinking away from anticipated ridicule as the sentence poured out of me. Free flow of unfiltered words activated.

An awkward silence stretched out between us as I slowly scrunched down lower in the seat. This is where I usually lost people. The thing was, to me, these were real people. The charactes in the book, I mean. I had a friendship with them and I totally knew what they looked like in my head. Katja was no bimbo. Katja was a rock star in my mind, and exactly how I wanted to be. Like, she lived her life with no regrets, said what she wanted, and did what she wanted. So to have the movie industry turn her into another glamorized, air brushed sex kitten just pissed me off.

I heard a snort next to me and looked over in shock. Nick was bent forward over the steering wheel and his shoulders were jerking oddly. Dear Lord, was he having a seizure? I bent over so I could see his face and saw tears creeping out of his eyes. Further inspection revealed that he was laughing. He was laughing so hard that tears were pouring out of his eyes and he could barely breathe. At me. On our sort of date. Ugh. I was not too sure how I felt about this.

“Oh my God, that was awesome!” He took deep gulps of air trying to regain his lost composure. I raised an eyebrow at him.

“I was totally thinking the same thing about the lead male. I like Sam Sorensen and all, but he’s too pretty. Johan is supposed to have scars, inside and out. Sam started out as a freaking underwear model!”

Now it was my turn to have my mouth hang open. I totally got what he was saying, and secretly I sort of agreed with him, but at the same time, Sam Sorensen was the most drool worthy actor in the universe. I had fantasies about him, some that involved whipped cream and others with cannoli filling. Mmmmm, cannoli.

“Vicki, you okay?”

“Huh? What?”

“You were just moaning a little bit, is your stomach upset?”

Crap, did I actually moan out loud thinking about Sam Sorensen and whipped cream? Eek.

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about these really yummy cannolis that Nonna and I were making the other day.”

“Oh man, yeah, those were amazing. I had about four of them.”

“Four? Where on earth do you put it all?” I poked my finger around his abdomen to indicate that there was nothing to him. Who was I kidding? It was just a guise so that I could touch him. Holy six-pack.

He laughed and swatted at my hand.

“What are you talking about? I’m a growing boy and need my sustenance.”

I poked him again and he bent forward laughing. Hmmm, Nick was tickleish. Must file this away for future use.

I suddenly realized that the car had stopped moving. Looking around I saw that we were already at the movie theater. Weird. That did not seem like twenty minutes.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when the car door opened up next to me. I looked out in shock to see Nick there holding out his hand to me. I hadn’t even noticed he got out of his car, but I loved that he opened the door for me.

I took his hand as he pulled me out, but he pulled me a little stronger than I expected so I almost smashed into him. I laughed as I caught myself, and looked up into his chocolate eyes.

“We must stop meeting this way.” I gave him a crooked smile as I used his words from the day we met.

“Maybe, maybe not.” He grinned and started walking towards the movie theatre.

Sixteen was too young for hot flashes, wasn’t it? I thought I didn’t have to worry about sudden warmth uncontrollably taking over my whole body until I was old, like, forty or something. Hm.

I caught up with Nick and we got to the concession stand.

“What would you like?”

“Um, I was just gonna get a small popcorn and a soda.” I started reaching for my wallet and felt something smack my arm.

I raised an eyebrow at Nick who just sexy smirked back at me.

“Uh-uh. My treat. I invited.”

Hmm, this was starting to feel like a date. I had to remind myself it wasn’t so I didn’t get my stupid hopes up.

Nick handed me a soda and turned around with a large single bag of popcorn. He caught me looking at it in confusion.

“I figured we could share.”

“Okay.”

“Oh my God, is that Bryan Shawn?”

No. Please, no. Not this. Not now.

I turned slowly and saw the last thing I thought I’d see. I should have known. He said he won the tickets. I should have had a freaking brain cell spark and remind me that my dad does these stupid things.

Dad was behind a table, putting on his full personality for the group of people crowded around him. He looked over and grinned at me. I looked at Nick quickly then looked back and begged him with my eyes. Begged him to not say anything to give me away. I saw the knowing smile and a slight nod as he turned back to his fans.