by Ryan McCord
CHAPTER 10 FIRST DATE
Holding the grocery basket, James will remain a few steps back as Tina will continue to comb just about every isle of the store. He could watch her do this all day. As he admirably watches her shop for food with precision, he can’t help but wonder if he’s seeing a woman who has the power not only to make recurring appearances in his dreams for years to come, but play a leading role in them as well. The sight of her gait, her healthy midriff when reaching high for items, combined with the concentrated look on her face warms him.
Sure he had a few beers at the game, but not enough to be out of his head at this point. The coffee they picked up before riding the subway to her home village and present location of Rosemont had only slapped his focus into just the right shape.
She puts the final item, a box of elbow macaroni, in the basket and checks the list once more before asking James if he needs anything else. He wants to say toothbrush, but holds back fearing any misinterpretation for a request with sexual undertones. In today’s western world that kind of request could only be appropriate after finishing the bottle of 2004 merlot that’s in the basket. So he answers, “I’m good.”
She initially chooses nearby isle 12 to cut through towards the front of the store, but then chooses to commit a u-turn without any kind of obvious display of emotion. She’ll just hook James’s elbow to signify he change directions as well.
“What, is it someone you know?” James asks.
“No, no,” as she leads them down isle 11 instead. “That was the pet food isle. Yuk.”
As they wait in line to pay he starts to wonder if she too feels any sexual meaning has passed between them. Though he’s pretty convinced that she finds him attractive as well. He will find out soon enough. They have to lay it all out on the table tonight, because from this point on their relationship would either terminate or move forward. They have supported each other emotionally from afar long enough, its time to see if this has any symbiotic potential.
How do I approach a subject like that? James thought. I have to tell her how I feel first, not just ask her to move with me to Connecticut, right? Is this something I have to do with the art of romance in mind, or is just expressing my feelings going to be romantic and daring enough?
Once it’s their turn in line, James gets a few $20 bills out and assumes the buyer position.
“Hey, put that money away,” Tina says gently tugging at his sleeve. “You’re my guest tonight.”
“Yeah, but I want to be your date tonight,” James says urbanely, with a look in her direction just before the cashier asks for his ID. He reaches into the chest pocket in his jean jacket for the driver’s license and says, “And I always imagined that if we were to spend a first evening together, you would be in charge of preparing a home-cooked meal for us.”
She looks charmed for a second before curiously asking, “Who did you imagine I looked like all this time?”
“You first,” James fires back, the cashier hands him back his ID while he hands her back the pair of twenties.
“Nobody famous or anything. It’s this guy who played basketball for Notre Dame my senior year. Just a benchwarmer I had a class with. A print major I think.”
“You didn’t know the guy?”
“No, it just happened that way.”
“Well comparatively speaking, I’m sure I didn’t disappoint in the handsome category, but I know he’s got me by a landslide in the athletic rating.”
“No athletic ability for you?”
“Average. But I could never thrive athletically because my right foot is almost a size smaller than my left. Poor foundation. I trip for no reason at all sometimes.”
She laughs indulgently. “So who did I look like to you?”
“It’s evolved over time,” James says, taking the $2.32 in change and thanking the cashier before grabbing the bags. “When we first started corresponding, I didn’t know how old you were. Well that happened to be the stage of my life when I was into older women. I was watching Everybody Loves Raymond quite a bit, so I imagined you as Patricia Heaton.”
“What about this morning before we met?” She asks.
“All I could think about was McDonald’s coffee and finding a good parking spot.”
“Ha, ha, ha,” she mocks a laugh. “C’mon really?”
As they begin to make their way towards the exit, walking side by side, James knows she has just thrown him a curve ball he can knock out of the planet. So he says the first young, beautiful and intelligent celebrity journalist that comes to his mind.
“Lara Logan,” he states coolly.
“The 60 Minutes girl?”
He nods his head. “Since your picture is not on the web, I just felt it was best to imagine you as an attractive journalist. And I’m a sucker for the British accent, too.
“But you’re much better looking than her, I swear,” he says with an ingratiating smile, shifting the paper bag entirely to his left arm while wrapping his right arm around her shoulders, underscoring his complement with a gentle squeeze.
Tina thanks James and further welcomes his display of affection by resting her right hand on top of his. It would remain there until they reached the front door of her apartment ten minutes later.
Immediately after Tina inserts the deadbolt key, Duke can be heard barking on the other side of the door. This is music to James’ ears, as he’s ready to conclude there’s no way she has a cat and dog living together in a one-bedroom apartment. But having lived with women before, he knows he’s not out of those woods just yet. Tina mentioned her Boston terrier earlier, but cat lovers have a strange tendency to conveniently forget to tell men about a feline until they get you to show up at their place.
Tina gets the door open and Duke stands up to greet her. “Hello!” She says with love, followed by a stern “Down!” Once they get inside and shut the door, Tina will take the grocery bag and head to the kitchen. James gets down on one knee to pet Duke, who proceeds to sniff him down, his tail wagging the entire time. Remaining on his knee at the entrance, James takes a quick look around. The place looks modern, cozy, and ever more importantly, tidy.
My eyes would be itchy by now, too, he thought. No cats here. Tally a few more points in Tina’s direction. She’s on a record-setting pace and hasn’t even cooked dinner yet.
“Do you want me to take my shoes off?” He asks.
“No, come in and get comfortable,” Tina says, putting the perishables in the fridge. “I’ll pour you a beer?”
He accepts but then offers to take the dog for a quick walk to the grass first. Tina says that would be great as she could begin prepping to cook the meal.
Upon his return with Duke just five minutes later, James can’t help but notice the plushy burgundy sofa 10 ft. straight ahead with the television set on the stand next to it.
I haven’t seen comfort like that in…I don’t know how long, James thought.
Tina heads back towards the entryway and takes the leash along with his jacket.
“I was just thinking,” she says, opening the nearby closet and grabbing a hanger.
“You must be exhausted! I want you to sit down, drink a beer, take a nap even.
“I’ll wake you when we’re ready to eat.”
James has never taken the idea of marriage seriously until this moment. Of course, he wanted nothing more than to sit down, drink that beer, and watch Sportscenter before dozing off into dreamland. Instead, he offers to help her make dinner.
“Our time together is precious, Big Game James,” she counters before taking a sip from her glass of wine. “I don’t want you to hit a wall at 8 o’clock tonight.”
James and Tina have a longstanding rapport, but ordinarily, any other woman directing this sort of presumed moxie his way would have made him uncomfortable. But this is Tina, the female who knows him just about better than anyone. Still, in typical journalist fashion, he’s inclined to find some objectivity to this story; a character flaw in Tina that will make this who
le scene feel like the real deal. This is what he knows of her so far: She once took a chance on a driven pupil, and has stayed loyal to him ever since. Today she came through with great major sporting event tickets in a short period of time. Her home is well kept. She’s smart and sexy. She smells great. And if Gerry’s urban legend carries any weight, she’s got the manicure issue well under control.
Sure she’s divorced, but James can empathize with that. Of course he’s never been married, but he was once a 23-year-old male living in a country obsessed with sex. Man dropping the wife down a notch in the rotation has become even more fashionable in modern day USA than overalls on a farmer. James knows at the time Tina was married, he himself was still just a boy capable of doing anything deemed irresponsible, unaccountable and unremorseful because of it. No analyst would argue James was a knucklehead still arrested in development, so its very possible Tina’s husband suffered from the same shortcoming.
Then, he thought, she’s in the kitchen right now making me homemade mac n cheese. I’ve seen enough…even if the food stinks.
He takes the beer from the fridge, already poured into a frosted pint glass for him, then feeling the need to break a little more frolicking ground, closes in fast behind Tina who is washing the lettuce in the sink. Before she has a chance to react he gently holds her head in place with his right hand on her right cheek and gives her a warm kiss on the opposite cheek. This makes her blush a little.
“Do you have a sports page for me?” He asks softly.
“Yeah it’s underneath the coffee table,” she says with glee, nodding in the direction of the living room, her wet hands still buried in the sink. “The coasters are on the top there, okay?”
He acknowledges her coaster request before asking for ESPN’s channel number. On the coffee table’s bottom shelf rests the newspaper alongside a short stack of books that he takes a brief look at before grabbing the paper and sitting down. He sees Halberstam in there, as well as something Ya-Ya in the title, while The Bible happens to top the stack. He’s learned a lot about Tina over the years, but they never discussed religion. Maybe she ended a letter in God Bless a time or two, but that never accompanied any evangelical themes or testimony.
James is the kind of person who is lukewarm in his willingness in practicing religion. A baptized Christian who attends church on Christmas Eve and Easter, he prays a few times a year, but only when he’s on the verge of having a nervous breakdown or when losing his keys. When he sees Tina’s Bible he’s mildly impressed and thinks, “Maybe someday.” But before opening up to the sports page, he hopes for a moment that she doesn’t ask him to say “Grace” before the meal.
After minutes of scanning around extra pages of genuflect opening day coverage sure to be read by every customer getting their oil changed that day, James is reminded of someone when seeing a small article explaining why the Cubs decided to release an old No. 1 pick who has only managed to drink a cup of tea or two at the Big League level in his six seasons.
“I’d better check in with Gerry G, huh?” He said to Tina.
She then makes it clear that the two of them can stay with her as long as they want. James can only get an endless ring tone, however, so he follows by sending Gerry a text message reissuing the dinner invitation as well as notifying him that they have a place to stay for the night. He sends a second text listing Tina’s address.
James then spends the next 15 minutes slunk into the couch studying pro basketball box scores, imbibing his beverage intermittently. Soon enough, he succumbs to the cumulative effects of alcohol, love, an empty stomach and an all night road trip-falling fast asleep just minutes before the Cubs highlights come on. With his overeager REM operating feverishly, he’ll experience a series of vivid dreams for the next hour and a half: Dream 1.) He’s supposed to meet his family in Hawaii, only to have the rookie pilot mysteriously get lost and take the 747 to a very dark and down-pouring Miami instead. This garners a mixed reaction about the cabin.
Dream 2.) He is back in college, taking a math test that he knows nothing about, feeling the intense horrors that accompany the humiliation that is sure to develop.
Dream 3.) It’s very early on a weekend morning back in Pullman. It’s a beautiful, sunny start to what must be a summer day.
James wakes up with a sudden desire to read the newspaper, which should be placed near the front doorstep at his folks’ home on D Street back in Pullman. Soon after looking down and learning that the front door’s landing is still bare, James discovers that the lower half of his body has nothing on it as well. Shocked, he looks around the neighborhood to make sure nobody is around, and for reasons only Freud could attempt to describe, he sprints out to the driveway to his old car, a wood paneled Caprice Classic Estate station wagon, with the front end facing the street.
Moments after climbing into the driver’s side, he hears a vehicle driving nearby. It’s a policeman. The policeman and James make eye contact. The policeman will go on and park in front of James’s house. Soon enough, he gets out and heads to front door. James, curious to know what’s going on, scrambles for some shorts in his car, which is full of clutter in the back seat. He finds the shorts and proceeds to head back to the house. The policeman is already speaking to James’s mom, who clearly looks like she has just climbed out of bed herself.
“James McEwing needs to come with me down to the station,” the policeman said. “Is this him?”
“What did he do wrong, officer?” His mother said in confusion, tying her robe tight.
“He has to take his sobriety test today,” the policeman said. “And I know he had a few drinks last night.”
Around this time is when Tina carefully covers him with a blanket, as James will then go on to Dream 4.) He’s a jockey in the Kentucky Derby, riding a promising colt named Jo-Han Lee. In the hours leading up to the race, however, a fascinating turn of events takes place.
An outbreak of quarter-sized lumps has developed overnight around the horse’s right side of his hind waist area-one that’s sure to get bitter looks from the average spectator watching in standard high-definition television. The vet diagnoses the issue at hand simply as mosquito bites and that Jo-Han Lee should be fine to race. But because one can never tell how a horse will react, as a precautionary measure the vet further recommends that the trainer himself lather the affected area with some calamine (pink anti-itch ointment) in the moments before leading him out to the starting gate.
The white-haired owner, donning a lavish Italian suit, expressionless behind a pair of black sunglasses, coldly disagrees with this idea. Not only can he envision the Colt making blooper reel history by pausing just 10 yards from the starting gate to carry out an irresistible urge to plop to the dirt and buck around in relieving himself from either an itching sensation or out of simple annoyance caused by the ointment; but he also deems the exposed formation of mosquito bites, with or without the temporary alleviation applied, as an embarrassment in its own right. “This is the Derby, not the Yakima Downs for Christ sake!” He groans before bumming a cigarette from the vet. “I refuse to be the owner remembered for sending a black crow out in the peacock parade.”
James then wakes up very dazed with the chorus to the song “Sara” by Starship repeating in his head. He thought, where am I? Why does it smell like cheese in here? Will I have to raise hell to get compensated for the Derby fallout?
It isn’t until Duke slowly emerges from the hallway, making his way to the laundry room for a drink of water on the other side of the kitchen behind him, that James understands that he is back live in Chicagoland. Even still, it is very quiet and Tina is nowhere in sight.
James can only assume there’s a bathroom in that hallway, as he gets the urge to get up and use it. At the other end of the hallway a light shines from what must be Tina’s bedroom. Curious to take a peak, he leisurely makes his way past the bath. As he gets closer he can only see about half of a made bed and a dresser with a mirror attached standing on the wall
left of the entry way. He’ll knock on the open door inside and slowly peek in to see Tina typing feverishly at her desk on the far side corner of the room. She turns with a big smile as he can only wave in return, still waiting for his motor skills to warm back up all the way.
“Are you hungry yet?” She asks whimsically, chewing on some gum.
“Oh, take your time,” James waves unconcernedly, as he leans on the doorway. “I just woke up and wondered where you were, that’s all.”
Tina explains she is just updating her notes, responding to some reader emails, corresponding with a few assistant coaches and updating the newspaper’s college sports blog a little.
“All the tedious stuff that comes with being a sports reporter,” she rests back in the chair before coquettishly saying. “I like to call it Fish Food.”
James chuckles and coyly looked to the floor before telling her great minds think alike before excusing himself to the bathroom. While making his deposit, James uses this last moment of alone time to counsel himself over the big proposal to come. Don’t even bring it up at the table, he thought. Show her respect and appreciation by enjoying the meal and her company. I used to hate it when my folks used dinnertime to talk shop. Mac n’ cheese was created to please, not meant to discuss your future over.
Dinner couldn’t have gone any better. The meal turned out to be, described by James as, “Life changing.” Over the bottle of merlot the two talked about movies, hobbies they would like to take up (Tina-fishing and chess, James-piano lessons and water color painting) as well as reading, writing and the state of their respective social lives.
The moment a break in the conversation presented itself, Tina tried to start clearing the table before James insisted she sit on the couch and relax for the first time today while he takes care of dish washing.
“You can do the dishes,” she said. “Just let me help you clear the table.”
James nodded in agreement. “Okay but once the table is cleared you are to cool out. If you still want to help you can keep me company or turn some Sinatra.”
“Sinatra?” Tina says with surprise, making her way over to the couch with a glass of wine. She’ll sit down on the couch, back to the television, facing James at the kitchen sink. She sits femininely. Both of her legs are up off the floor, feet folded back under her buttocks. “No you’re not getting off that easy,” she says sharply, running her fingers through her hair. “Don’t think I forgot that you owe me some insight into that Joe Schmoe stuff you and Gerry started to talk about at the game.”
Knowing the moment of truth has officially arrived, James looks up to the ceiling as he pulls on the second yellow dishwashing glove.
She’s a journalist, he thought. She’s trained to listen and comprehend a bulk of information in one setting. Who. What. When. Where. Why not throw it all out there at once and see what happens.
“You might want to get your blotter out for this,” he said, talking loudly in the direction of the pan he is now scouring with a pad. “A pen and a post-it at least.”
Her breath becomes irregular for a few seconds-only because she knows he is about to say something that is sure to have an impact on their relationship. Once she gets some oxygen to the brain, she takes solace in knowing that no man she could ever fall for would propose while washing the dishes.
“Something tells me we’re not going to the movies,” she says. “So just fire away.”
“Okay,” James says with a big smile. “First of all, I want you to know that I love you.”
She can only continue to smile. Oh my, she thought. Maybe he is going to propose.
“And I want nothing more than for us to be together,” James says, not having any clue if this fills her heart with joy, but feeling good about getting it out in the open, nonetheless. “You’re very special. I’ve never met another woman like you, and I don’t think I ever will.
“Uh, in other words, I’m sold.”
“Keep going,” she says, as if she happened to be watching a mushy scene in her favorite soap opera.
“Yeah. And I got a job offer to be a carpenter in training with my cousin’s company in the coastal Connecticut area.
“I’m ready to start a career, Tina,” he said, gazing out the window in front of him. “I’m longing for security, a regular paycheck, you know. And this part of New England is a great place to start a life together, I think.
He turns to her and says, “I want you there with me.”
Tina gets up and walks towards the kitchen with a sense of purpose. James can only crack half a smile back at her in return. She embraces him, extending her arms around his neck before going right in for the big, wet kiss. Both of them enjoy this. It’s not as if either one will be able to tell you if the other is a good kisser, but ever more importantly, this shared seminal expression just felt right.
But before it should develop into a making out session, Tina slowly disengages. The two look into each other’s eyes in awe of this shared revelation.
“So we Are in love.” She says softly, rubbing her hand around his stubble. “Do you want coffee?”
“Yeah,” he says with great inner relief.
She goes to the pantry to grab her coffee jar.
“But we’re going to have to do something about this carpentry nonsense,” she said assertively.