Page 42 of Friendshipped
“Fred and I were meeting at the theater in Beavercreek. And, after the whole reenactment ofThe First Wives Clubby Angie, I thought about asking Fred if we could pick another city. I was a little worried we might run into George and Angie since they’re from Beavercreek. Anyway, we didn’t.”
“Merciful,” I say.
“I could have taken her,” Lexi jokes with a little laugh.
“Good to see you laughing it off.”
“So, Fred and I planned to have lunch first before the movie. Which would have been nice, since I’m eating like a rabbit in a lab experiment these days.”
“No comment. Totally supporting your choices over here.”
I’m not in favor of Lexi thinking she needs to lose weight in order to make total strangers find her attractive. Any man worth her affection should love her as-is, but I am her best friend and if she wants to diet, I’ll volunteer to harvest the local lettuce fields to help her reach her goals if that’s what she needs.
“So, I get to the mall parking lot where we’re meeting,” she says, looking over at me with those big eyes and huffing a small breath out of her nose.
“Classy,” I say. “Did he take you to Orange Julius?”
“I wish,” she says. “He texted me through the app. Said he was running late. He’d be there in thirty minutes. Thirty. We wouldn’t have time for lunch, so we’d have to eat afterward. I started hunting my floorboards and glove box for a granola bar. I found an old stick of gum and the stub from when you took me to see Bruno Mars. Nowthatwas a great night out.”
“It was,” I agree.
I think back to how much I wanted to turn that concert into an actual date, but it was the summer after I had asked Lexi out in front of Guy, so I kept it platonic.
“I considered chewing the gum,” Lexi says. “But it was stuck to the wrapper, so it was a no-go. I thought about getting food, but by the time I hunted the car for provisions, I only had twenty minutes until Fred would be there. So, I sat there letting my stomach growl, figuring there’s always popcorn. And I was getting popcorn, believe me.”
“Definitely,” I say.
I love the spunky side of Lexi when she gets determined and feisty. Who am I kidding? I love all sides of this woman.
We pull off the freeway onto the street leading to the Corn Corners Tribune offices.
“So, Fred arrived, texted me he was there,” Lexi says. “And I walked to the entrance of the theater. He had purchased his ticket. Not mine.”
Lexi looks over at me with her eyebrows raised and a questioning look on her face.
“Am I wrong, Trev? Should he have bought my ticket?”
“Darn straight he should.”
“Okay,” she says blowing out a breath. “It’s been a while and I thought maybe I was possibly being unreasonable. So, I walked to the counter and he told me we were going to watch Ten Seconds.”
“The movie about the serial killer?”
“One and the same,” she says.
I shake my head.
“I had to buy my own popcorn and he kept grabbing fistfuls, which, okay, I didn’t need the whole tub that could feed a small family of four, but it was the principle of the thing.”
“Dude, I hope I never meet Fred.”
“I know. At least he lives in Kettering, so the chances of you ever meeting him are slim.”
Lexi pauses to take a long pull of coffee.
Then she says, “So, the movie starts, and you know me.”
I laugh. Lexi can barely watch the music video of Michael Jackson’sThriller. She’s so skittish about scary movies. I can’t imagine her sitting through an actual thriller about a serial killer.
