Up & Out - Ariella Papa [54]
“Don’t worry about it. They need you. You’re the whole show.” I shake my head, eat some more chocolate goodness. I don’t even like dessert that much, but I want to eat the whole thing.
“Don’t you think those people getting up and outed think they are needed, too?” She nods. I can tell she feels like shit about it. That’s why there’s been no talk of wedding favors.
“Sometimes it sucks being an adult,” she says.
Delores spends the rest of the week in a management conference at a company headquarters in Gary, Indiana. I can’t imagine she’s spending much time in meetings because she sends me e-mails and voice mails every five minutes. Still, I prefer not to have her around. The very sight of her makes my allergies act up.
Seamus rents a car on the first Saturday in June. We’re heading all the way out to the tip of Long Island for the day. We hit a ton of traffic, but he’s holding my hand and the windows are open. It’s just nice to be out of the city, which is beginning to boil.
“I like your sunglasses,” he says, looking over at me.
“Prescription,” I say. Another shopping trip with Kathy last summer.
“Nice.”
We stop at a few of the vineyards. In the sun, the wine hits me a little harder than I expect. Or it could be the allergy pill. The wine is not affecting him, because after every sip he swirls it around in his mouth and then spits. I am kind of embarrassed, but the people doing the tasting act like this is normal.
We stop at a little place called the Country Kitchen for dinner. It’s a small, charming place with purple tablecloths and focaccia bread baskets. We have a really good meal of locally caught seafood. He picks the wine and I feel myself getting slightly drunk.
“I always drink a lot of wine around you.”
“I like that. I like how your cheeks get red.” He reaches across the table. “It matches those glasses.”
“They’re new,” I say. “I just got them this week. I’m giving my eyes a rest from contacts.”
“They’re cool. You look good in that color.”
“Do you think it’s going to take us a while to get back to the city?” I am planning on skipping dessert.
“Well, yeah, I was thinking that maybe we could stay around here if you were up for it. I made a reservation at a place a ways down the road.”
“Really,” I say. I can’t believe he did that. “That’s a nice surprise. I would love to.”
I’m going to leave these glasses on tonight to kick it up a notch….
We have a great night and we drink one of the bottles of wine that he bought. The motel is clean and cute. It’s no frills and that makes it more appealing, like we’re having an affair or something. The glasses work, too. We have a lot of fun. In the morning we walk along the bay that is right behind the motel. We go back to the Country Kitchen for breakfast. I’m starting to look ahead and imagine this as our place and the Motel on the Bay an escape. It feels like we are finally becoming a couple and that means that sometime in a future, we will have a past.
This weekend has solidified something between Seamus and me. We keep having all these false starts because of our schedules and other commitments, but now things are getting more intense. I can imagine moving in with him. Sure, it might be a little strange to live in the same building as Jen, but we’ll manage. I am definitely getting movers this time. Maybe I’ll make Seamus Kool-Aid every morning. Perhaps sometime Tommy can come over for dinner and the two of them can talk about…okay they’ve got to have something in common. Me, they can talk about me. No, that won’t work. What can they talk about?
“What’s up?” Seamus asks. He squeezes my hand and puts it on his leg. “You all right, you seem a million miles away?”
“Oh, no,” I protest. “I’m right here. I’m just thinking about what a good time I had.”
I smile all the way to Queens. Then, he tells me that he is going to do a summer share in the Hamptons starting after the Fourth of July. I’ve never been into the whole idea of the summer share, but I kind of wish that he would ask me if I care or if