Somewhere Unexpected

by Suzanne Glidewell

  I returned home to get ready for dinner before Ethan picked me up. I was finishing my makeup when there was a knock at the door. I looked through the peephole to see him standing there.

  “Hi.” When I opened the door to let him in, I noticed he was holding a narrow box almost as tall as he was, wrapped with a bow.

  “Hey.” He stepped into my apartment and kissed me hello. “I was able to sneak in. I guess I don’t look too shady tonight,” he joked.

  I looked over his outfit; a full suit and tie. I wondered if Ethan had ever looked shady in his entire life.

  “Happy birthday,” he said for the fourth time that day. “You look beautiful,” he commented on my black, tea-length, dress.

  “Thank you.” I adjusted the clasp on my necklace, a solitary diamond my parents had gotten me for my graduation four years ago. They probably didn’t think at the time that it would still be the only diamond I owned.

  Shut up, Maura. Look, he brought you a present.

  “Yes, this is for you.” He noticed my stare. “Sorry if I should’ve waited for dinner, but I thought it would be a little awkward to haul this through the restaurant.”

  He tilted the box over to me.

  “Do you want me to open it now?”

  “Yes, yes, of course,” he eagerly granted permission.

  I tore the paper, legitimately curious as to what it could possibly be.

  Skis.

  I immediately schooled my expression to mirror the excitement on his face.

  “Wow, skis.” I kept my exclamation factual.

  “Yeah, I assumed you probably didn’t have your own pair yet. And you really can’t go wrong with Rossignol. I made sure they were purple.” His expression revealed how proud he was of himself.

  I kept the smile pasted on my face.

  “Of course, you’ll need a suit to go with it. But I figured, being a woman, you would probably want to pick that out yourself. That’s the other part of your present. This Saturday before we go to the symphony, we can go to REI and you can pick out whatever you like.”

  He paused.

  “You look a little confused.”

  I guess the convincingness of my smile had begun to fade.

  “Well,” I tried to think quickly. Saying I was confused that he got me equipment for an activity that I hated would crush him. I couldn’t be that cruel.

  “It’s just that it’s the end of May...and I wasn’t expecting to do much skiing this summer,” I said.

  He let out a laugh. This was the closest to giddy that I had ever seen Ethan.

  “Of course not,” he agreed. “But I wanted to make sure you would be ready when you come with me and my family to Vail this Thanksgiving,” he informed me...which I guess was supposed to count as an invitation.

  My eyes widened at the unexpectedness of the whole situation.

  This amused him. “And I bet you thought I wasn’t good at surprises.”

  He pulled me in for a deep, long kiss while I continued to hold the skis. I was grateful that the kiss was nice enough that it distracted me from the anxiety I had started to feel from all the plans he had thrown at me within the span of three minutes.

  I envisioned Ethan and me sitting by a fire at some extravagant ski lodge and him ultimately proposing. I tried to block out the accompanying visions of me repeatedly falling on my ass in the snow while trying to ski down a stupid hill with all the experienced skiers passing and cursing at me for being in the way. It was hard to tell if it was a vision or a memory from childhood. Ethan broke away and stared into my eyes, tucking my hair behind my ear.

  “So,” he sighed. “We’d better get to dinner.”

  I nodded, slowly backing away.

  “Just let me grab my coat.” I handed the skis over to him, unsure of the right way to store them for the time being.

  Ethan was the most talkative I’d ever seen him while we drove to the restaurant. He held my hand the whole way there. He talked at length about his family’s tradition of going to Vail every Thanksgiving since he was ten. I tried my best to get myself as excited as he was about the whole thing. I did a pretty good job faking it, since he just kept talking. In my gut, I didn’t feel right about the situation. I didn’t want to go. What bothered me most was that I couldn’t figure out the exact reason why. It felt like there was more to it than the fact that I didn’t like skiing and I didn’t like the cold.

  “You’re awfully quiet. Are you okay?” He finally noticed my lack of involvement in the conversation.

  “Well,” I paused, “I was just thinking about Saturday, and I think it might be kind of a pain to go try on a bunch of ski suits when I’m all dressed up and my hair’s done.” This was by far the most high-maintenance thing that I had ever said. “So maybe we can do it another time? I’m sorry. I know that sounds incredibly vain.”

  “No worries,” he said. “We can do it anytime you’d like.”

  “Plus, there will probably be more sales if we wait closer to the season,” I rationalized. He looked over to me and smiled.

  “Did I ever tell you how attractive frugality is in a woman?”

  “Yeah, I know you like your women cheap,” I quipped with a grin.

  He raised an eyebrow at me, but didn’t smile.

  “Have you ever eaten at this place before?” he changed the subject. We turned down the street the restaurant was on.

  “No. Sydney recommended it.”

  I remembered what I had told Sydney about Ethan going to the gala. “So, in two weeks, the Archbishop is hosting a gala for benefactors and local non-profits. Do you want to be my date?” I asked as he parked the car.

  “It would be my pleasure.” He kissed the back of my hand as he held it.

  “Great.” I smiled, trying to ignore the feeling in my stomach.

  We walked into the restaurant hand in hand and saw my parents already sitting at the table. I don’t think Ethan noticed my mom eyeing my left hand. Thank God. I was sure to give her a subtle look of warning. She didn’t let the absence of a ring detract from the look of joy plastered on her face.

  “Happy Birthday, Maurie,” she exclaimed as she pulled me in for a big hug, more excited about my birthday than I was. When she let me go, I turned to my dad, who played it a little cooler than my mom.

  “Happy Birthday, Sweetheart.” He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to Ethan to shake his hand.

  Fortunately, my parents had already ordered a bottle of wine and an appetizer. Perfect. I planned to eat and drink away the anxiety that had been unwrapped with those stupid skis. Sydney had not done me wrong by recommending this place; if there was ever a place to eat feelings, it was Crow. I mean, really, how could anyone feel anything but good when eating bacon wrapped, goat-cheese-stuffed dates? It was helpful that my mother managed to hold back from asking or saying anything embarrassing.

  It was toward the end of dinner when Ethan mentioned his plans – well, I guess they were technically our plans, that I’d had no say in making, to go to Vail for Thanksgiving with his family. He turned to me and I instinctively mimicked his smile like I had been doing all night. My parents were not as quick to provide positive feedback.

  “As in ‘Colorado?’” my dad clarified.

  “Yes. My family’s been going there for years,” Ethan said happily. “I think Maura will be a perfect addition to our Thanksgiving tradition.”

  There was a pause. It turned into an awkward silence. My mom slowly forced a smile. I think this was the first time it registered for her, and possibly my dad, that if I was ever going to have a spouse it would mean not spending every major holiday together.

  Ethan turned to me, unsure of what to make of my parents’ reaction. Before I could change the subject, our waiter came out with a piece of tiramisu with a candle in it. He placed it in front of me and very coolly w
ished me a happy birthday. It was too classy of a place to have the whole wait staff sing Happy Birthday. The one time in my life when that would’ve been helpful. I looked to my dad for help.

  “Well, go ahead, Maurie, make a wish,” he encouraged.

  I blew out the candle but failed to make a wish.

  “You know,” my dad began, “tiramisu is Maura’s favorite dessert next to ice cream,” my dad began, turning to Ethan.

  I knew immediately what story was going to follow.

  “The first time she had it, we were at a family wedding and she was ten. Her cousin Greg, who was I think sixteen at the time, told her he was going to call the police on her because it had alcohol in it and it was against the law for minors to consume alcohol. She was certain they were coming to lock her up.”

  My dad’s story managed to get my mom to smile genuinely again.

  “She felt so guilty, she tracked the priest down at the reception and asked if he would hear her confession.”

  “It took us a few weeks to convince her she hadn’t broken any laws,” my mom added.

  “Well,” Ethan squeezed my hand, “you did an incredible job forming her conscience.”

  I didn’t feel like this was an entirely true statement, but the taste of the tiramisu helped me cope with my internal objection.

  We were able to make it through the rest of dinner without any more awkward pauses. I hoped my dad would talk my mom down enough after dinner to avoid getting a guilt-ridden phone call the next day. As Ethan drove me home, I wondered if he was going to want to hang out some more or if the night would end once we got to my apartment. I found myself hoping for the latter.

  Wasn’t that wrong? If this was a person I loved, shouldn’t I want to spend as much time with him as I could, especially on a day like my birthday? But if he came back to my apartment, it would turn into me wanting to make out and him not allowing it, or as much of it as I wanted, and then me ultimately feeling ashamed for any advances I had made.

  “So,” he called me out of my head, “it didn’t seem like your parents were too excited for you to come to Vail.”

  “It just caught them off guard, that’s all.”

  “We’ve been dating for a while now. I hoped they’d be excited by it. I mean, usually it’s a sign that a particular question is about to be asked, followed by a particular announcement,” he hinted. This was the closest Ethan had ever come to mentioning plans to ask me to marry him. Something I thought I was longing for until about three hours ago.

  “I’m their only child. If they don’t see me on a major holiday, it’s kind of a huge change for them.” I left out that it was for me, too.

  “Yet they went on a cruise on Easter,” he countered. His tone was even, and a rational person wouldn’t have taken it to be confrontational.

  “Thanksgiving is a bigger deal than Easter in my family.” I tried my best to mirror his unemotional tone.

  “You do realize one is a secular holiday and one celebrates the resurrection of Christ?” he said matter-of-factly.

  “No, I didn’t. I guess it was all those years in public school that confused me.”

  Sarcasm. Always a mature way to respond, Maura.

  But it seemed pointless to debate with him why my family was justified in making a bigger deal about Thanksgiving than Easter.

  “I’m just surprised that they were caught off guard, given that I invited you to a more significant holiday already when I invited you to Easter.”

  “Well, I guess it’s good they have six months to get used to it,” I said, really talking more about myself than I was my parents. Maybe I would feel differently about the whole thing as time passed. He pulled up to my building and turned to me.

  “So, what now, Birthday Girl?”

  I was unwilling to invite him upstairs until he suggested it himself.

  “You want me to take you somewhere else?”

  “Honestly, I’m kind of tired.”

  It was only nine o’clock, but in my defense, it was a weeknight. He affectionately put his hand on my cheek.

  “Fair enough. We’ll save the rest of our celebrating for Saturday.” He leaned in and kissed me politely. “Happy birthday.”

  “Thank you. Have a good night.” There was a small wave of relief that he didn’t offer to walk me to my door.

  All the events of the night were replaying over and over in my head as I took the elevator to my floor. As soon as I entered my apartment, I kicked off my heels and changed out of my dress. Why the hell was my brain reacting like this when everything I’d always wanted was finally happening? This was not a normal reaction to have. Of course, now I wanted to talk to Sydney about it.

  Way to be consistent.

  It was too late to call her.

  And I couldn’t even formulate what I was upset about anyhow. My boyfriend invited me to Thanksgiving with his family. How dare he? I would sound like a crazy person. I was being crazy. Leave it to me to find the perfect situation and then find something wrong with it. This was all Sean’s fault. I wasn’t sure how it was, but I’d be up all night anyway, so I had time to figure out some way to blame him for how unsettled I was.

  THOMAS

  I walked in from the outfield after the third pitch ended in a strike for the opposing team’s batter at the end of the seventh inning. I high-fived a few of my teammates whose names I barely knew before tossing my glove in my bag. Ashland was watching me from the sidelines. No stranger to bravado, I winked at her. My confidence was helped by the fact that I’d had four hits and a three-run homer in the sixth that led to our victory.

  “Good game, man.” Father Sean patted me on the back while I took a drink of water. I nodded and hoisted my gym bag over my shoulder. “Are you coming to the bar with us?”

  I saw Ashland gathering her blanket and walking towards me.

  “Nah, man,” I declined. “I think I have to get this one home to study,” I motioned to her as she approached.

  “Ashland!” he greeted gregariously. “Great to see you again.”

  She shook his hand. I could tell she was embarrassed about the things she had said to him the last time she’d seen him. Father Sean was polite enough not bring any of it up. “You must be this guy’s lucky charm. He couldn’t hit worth a damn last game.”

  I was surprised by his word choice, but I couldn’t argue with the truth of the statement. I was zero for five during that last game. Luckily, I’d been able to pick off a few fly balls to prove my worth my first time out.

  “We’ll see you next week.” He gave me another hard pat on the back before heading off with the other players.

  “So, what now?” I asked Ashland. We both knew what we really wanted to do. I tried to come up with an alternative. “Are you hungry?”

  She shrugged. “I have food and beer back at my place. I don’t really want to waste money.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Ashland humored me by allowing me to recap the game as I drove her home, although I’m certain it was the last thing she wanted to talk about. She led me upstairs to her studio apartment, further stroking my ego by asking about my glory days. I walked into her apartment, rambling on about the time I hit the ball out of the park at a game in Tumwater.

  “Why don’t you have a seat,” she invited, “and I’ll see what I have.”

  She briefly disappeared into the kitchen, returning with two opened beer bottles. A layer of clothing had also been taken off, revealing a fitted white tank-top.

  “So, I don’t really have a lot of food like I thought did,” she admitted, handing me a beer and sitting down next to me on the couch. “But beer has plenty of calories, right?”

  She took a drink. I mirrored her action, trying not think about the meal my mom had at home for me. It didn’t help that the beer was a Rolling Rock. She caught my eyes looking her o
ver.

  “It gets so hot up here in the afternoon lately. There have been days where I don’t even put pants on,” she said nonchalantly. I let the comment drop, reminding myself that I was not having sex with her that night. This didn’t prevent me from picturing her walking around her apartment half naked though.

  “You want me to look in your fridge and see if I can throw something together?” I offered, confident in my skills to create a whole meal out of random ingredients.

  “You know how to cook?”

  “It’s the only way to survive living in New York on a budget.”

  She put her bottle down on the coffee table, then took the bottle out of my hands and placed it next to hers. Ashland had no interest in feeding me. I stayed silent. It was rude to turn down an advance before it happened, right?

  We began kissing. I leaned back on the couch and she maneuvered herself on top of me. Instinctively, I moved my hands around her hips while she trailed her lips down to my neck. I willed myself from going any further, my hands glued to her hips. In my opinion, my level of self-control was impressive. Definitely new territory for me.

  “Are you sure you’re not hot?” she started to pull up my shirt.

  “No. I think I’m good.” The words sounded unconvincing as they came out of my mouth.

  “I can’t believe you told me we have to wait a whole month,” she whispered in my ear before pulling herself up slightly to see my face.

  “Isn’t it only two more weeks now?” The small strap of her tank top had fallen off her shoulder. I moved it back up, taking every precaution that she remained clothed.

  “No one has ever made me wait,” she said, kissing me again. It seemed like this factor turned her on.

  “I guess you’re just going to have to deal with it,” I said unapologetically, enjoying the small amount of power I gained from the whole situation. It was a welcomed change from the days of being an easily aroused undergrad begging for whatever I could get.