Page 40 of Ten Years and Then…
It could never happen.
After Bianca hung up, and before Daniel returned with the snacks, a thought occurred to her. Her father had probably said the exact same thing, nineteen years ago.
Daniel, a minute later
Daniel opened the door, expecting a question or a snarky remark from Nora about how long he’d taken to supposedly run down to the vending machines.
He didn’t expect to find her sitting on his bed, hands on her lap and a vacant expression on her face. It took her a moment to notice him. “Oh. Hi. I was just … I was thinking. Not about anything. Just—not thinking, I guess.”
He couldn’t begin to guess what was going on. But maybe the flowers would help. “I’m sorry I took so long. I wanted to surprise you,” he said, holding out the bouquet to her. She blinked a couple of times, and then she seemed to finally see them.
“You didn’t get these out of the vending machine,” she said.
“I was going to bring you flowers tonight, when I came over to get you for the dance, but then I thought, you’d have to go back upstairs, put them in water, it would be a whole thing. So I figured, better to give them to you now.”
She took the bouquet, brushing a finger over the roses. “You got different colors.”
There’d been a little stall set up outside the Whitman building, run by the owner of the flower shop a block over from the Green Lantern Café. She’d had roses in several colors, and a sign describing what each color meant.
“Red, well, you know what that means.” Half of the dozen were red. Then he’d gotten two each in other colors. “Pink is for elegance and sweetness, lavender is for enchantment and wonder, and the blue is for mystery and uniqueness. I think that pretty much covers you.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “And you knew all that how?”
He couldn’t fake anything with her. He had to admit, it was kind of nice to know that. “They had a sign explaining it. I had no idea the different colors meant anything until fifteen minutes ago. But I did pick them out myself.”
She got up from the bed, kissed him. “And I picked you out. I guess we’ve both got good taste.” She kissed him again. “Oh, by the way, your cousin called while you were out.”
“Bee?” Nora nodded. “And you talked to her?” Another nod. “And …”
“And now I know what you meant when you were talking about her on our first date. She loves you so much, Daniel. She made me promise to never break your heart.”
Of course Bee would say that. “She’s got nothing to worry about. You could never do that.” As he said it, he saw, just for a moment, something different in her eyes. Something like sadness, maybe? And then it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. “Hey. Did she say anything—did she upset you? Because if she did, I’ll talk to her. Nobody’s allowed to say anything to upset you, no matter how much I love them.”
Nora shook her head, but there was still a hint of that sadness—or whatever it was—in her expression. Or maybe he was seeing things. “No. No! I just … I guess I’m in a weird mood today, that’s all. Maybe it’s a blood sugar thing. Or maybe I’m just thinking too much. Or not enough. One or the other, anyway. But I really do want a candy bar.”
Maybe that really was all it was. When he got too hungry, his brain got funny. Or dehydrated. A candy bar and some water, and she’d be back to herself right away. They’d be laughing about this later. Of course they would.
Nora, early evening
“For the fifth time, Nora, you look fine! Your makeup is fine, your hair is fine, the dress fits fine. Everything is fine, okay?”
Nora knew she was driving poor Kellyanne crazy. She’d wanted a second pair of eyes just to be sure her outfit and everything else was just right, and Kim was home for the weekend so she’d been forced to look for someone else on her floor to help out. Kellyanne from three doors down the hall was unlucky enough to be in her room when Nora came knocking, and kind enough to agree, which she was surely regretting now, twenty minutes later.
“I’m sorry. I just … I want it all to be perfect tonight.”
Kellyanne rolled her eyes. “You know what your boyfriend is doing now, right?” Nora knew no answer was expected. “He’s looking at his clothes for about two seconds to make sure there aren’t any stains big enough to see from a hundred feet away, and then he’ll run a comb through his hair for about two more seconds. And that’s it. That’s all any of them do, but we sit here for three hours and obsess over details you couldn’t see with a microscope. You tell me how that’s fair.”
Well, she was wrong about Daniel. He might not take three hours, but he definitely obsessed over details that nobody else would ever notice.
On the other hand, there were plenty of things he didn’t know to obsess about. When she’d asked what he was wearing to the dance tonight, so she could make sure they didn’t clash, he just stared blankly at her. “I only own one suit,” he’d said. “And one tie.” And then she’d had to ask what color the tie was, because it hadn’t occurred to him she’d want to know.
“I know,” Nora said. “But even with all that, he’s worth the effort. And I’ll make it up to you. Whatever you need, next time you need a favor, it’s yours.” She laughed then, thinking about how Daniel would react to her words. Once he stopped blushing over her saying he was worth the effort, he’d probably tell her that making open-ended promises of future favors was how people got killed in every gangster movie he’d ever seen.
“Yeah, sure.” Kellyanne said it with a laugh, at least. “If you can ever tear yourself away from him. I assume the roses are from him?”
“They are. He even knew what the different colors mean.” There was no point in mentioning he’d only learned that earlier today.
“Okay, I’m a little bit impressed now. Maybe he is worth all the trouble.”
