“I’ll make it up to her. My clothes are free for her to borrow anytime she wants.”
Momma was organizing the pantry with all the canning we had done. She paused and turned to look at me. I was prepared for her to tell me to take Milly’s skirt off and if that was the case I had a back up. It wasn’t as perfect as this, but it would do.
“I reckon I bought that skirt for Milly’s graduation. She can share. Lord knows she’s asked to borrow enough since she started dating.”
I exhaled a sigh of relief. I wasn’t going to have to change. If momma said I could wear it, then I knew I was going to be safe.
Bessy clicked her tongue. “She still ain’t gonna be happy.”
Momma waved her hand as if that didn’t matter and went back to the pantry.
“When is he getting here?” Bessy asked. She was almost as anxious as me. She hadn’t seen Hale before and only knew him as the cupcake guy. I wasn’t sure I trusted her and what she might say, although I didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t like momma would let me lock her in a closet.
“Seven,” I told her.
“Momma said his name is Hale. Not cupcake man,” she said grinning.
“Cupcakes?” Henry’s eyes lit up at the word and he looked at me hopefully.
“No cupcakes tonight buddy,” I told him, ruffling his blonde curls.
Henry’s smile collapsed and I wished I had something to give him.
“No need for cupcakes tonight. I’m making banana nut bread. The bananas are getting too ripe. I need to stop buying them if y’all aren’t going to eat them. The grapes get gone though. Figures y’all would eat the expensive fruit.” Momma spoke from the pantry like she was speaking to herself and not a one of us were listening.
“You aren’t wearing much makeup,” Bessy said, changing the subject and bringing things back to my date. Not exactly what I wanted.
“She don’t need makeup,” momma replied.
Bessy sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s not fair that Sammy Jo got all the looks. She barely left any for the rest of us. I need makeup.”
Bessy had been going on about wearing makeup for a year. She argued that the other girls in her grade were wearing it. Momma didn’t care about other girls, or what people thought in general. Bessy should know better than that. But silliness was Bessy’s biggest flaw. I hoped she grew out grew it.
Hazel walked in from the back yard, the screen door closing behind her. She was carrying a basket of corn. When she saw me she stopped and smiled. “Wow, you look beautiful.”
“See,” Bessy said, pointing at me. “She got all the looks. Don’t be too mesmerized, or expect the rest of us to stun you, because none of us look like her.”
Momma sighed in exasperation and gave Bessy a warning: “that’s enough from you and that mouth.”
I glanced at the clock above the table and it was exactly seven. My nerves were already frayed. But this made it worse, because he was near, and would be here any minute. What if I wasn’t dressed nice enough? These were the nicest clothes I could assemble.
“Oh my lord! Would you look at that car!” Bessy blurted and ran to the window. She peered outside at the vehicle that we could all hear approaching the house. I was relieved he had found my home and equally ready to vomit from the wad that rested in my stomach. Before Bessy opened her mouth I wanted to get him away. That was my main goal.
“That’s enough. Heat the oven and grab the biscuits. They’re on the iron skillet in the freezer. Put those vegetables into the crock pot,” Momma told Bessy rudely. She was making her busy to soothe me.
“Go on and get the front door and I’ll be there in a minute to meet the man.”
I wanted to go hug momma and thank her for being completely awesome. She knew Bessy was going to act ridiculous so she kept her occupied.
“Thank you,” I murmured, hurrying past them into the living room where the front door was. We never used that door. We always came through the back, directly into the kitchen.
I watched from the window as Hale walked the sidewalk and managed the worn wooden steps of my porch. Although momma stained and sealed them once a year they were still aging. Daddy built that porch when I was just a kid. The shade the old oak provided kept the sun from wearing it completely. Otherwise it would have fallen apart.
I expected him to be in slacks or something fancy. The jeans and cotton polo he was wearing came as a surprise. A good one. That meant I wasn’t under dressed. I figured his jeans probably cost a fortune, but they were still jeans. The pink and yellow roses in his hand made my cheeks flush. I’d never been given flowers like that. Sure, I’d had a rose or a daisy given to me at school on Valentine’s Day or when someone asked me to the prom, but nothing that extravagant. There had to be two-dozen roses in there, like I had won a pageant.
He knocked and I went to the door to open it. This was it, the possible beginning to my new present and distant future, or maybe neither one. Tonight was important either way.
The instant look of appreciation when he saw me made my heart flutter.