Page 6 of Your Fan Forever
“Idid.”
“Wow. Congrats. Linda.” He called towards the back of thestore.
“What?” Linda came running. “You’re going to have to find another crush, Noah is off themarket.”
Linda was Rick’s daughter. She was seventeen, but flirted like a grown up. She was a good kid, though. She rolled hereyes.
“You asked Callie to marry you?” sheasked.
I showed her thephoto.
“Wow. You didgood.”
“Youthink?”
“Yep. Lucky girl.” She said under her breath. “So, what do youneed?”
“I was going to cook dinner. Have it waiting for her when she got home. Somethingeasy.”
“Easy is ordering from Phil’s across the street.” Linda said with her hand on herhip.
“I cancook.”
“Okay.” She laughed and headed back toward the meat counter. “You like to grill.” She said it as a fact she knew aboutme.
Ishrugged.
Without asking she wrapped up two filets and gathered a bunch of asparagus. She plucked the ends off the asparagus and grabbed a bottle of something and sat it on thecounter.
“Let me finish this up, go pick out a bottle of champagne.” She pointed towards the beer and wine with a piece ofasparagus.
Inodded.
I wouldn’t find a bottle of Ace of Spades in this little shop, but they had Yellow Label. It would have todo.
By the time I returned, Linda had packed up our meal with a little card for preparation instructions and I was on myway.
I returned home whistling. When I was safe in the house with only Nip and Valentine to critique my awful voice, I began singing and preparing the meal. Callie only had one class on Wednesday afternoon. She would be in a car already heading home. I was done within anhour.
Two hours had passed and Callie hadn’t returnedhome.
I textedher.
Noah: Dinner’s ready. Where areyou?”
She didn’t answer rightaway.
I waited another thirty minutes before sending anothertext.
Noah: Where is my future wife? Callme.
I called her phone, but it went to voicemail. I had no right to be, but I stared getting angry and annoyed. Where wasshe?
I flipped through my messages to make sure I hadn’t missed anything and there it was. A message from this morning I’dmissed.
Callie: Reminder. Having dinner with Dad tonight. I’ll be home later. Wish me luck. {Heartemoji}
I shook my head. Her parents lived in Manhattan part of the year and on a ranch in Texas the other half. I never knew when they were in town or not. Every few weeks, she’d have lunch or dinner with her father as a way for him to catch up on her life. She dreaded them because inevitable the conversation would turn to his plan for her future. While some people would call his tactic bribery, he called it encouragement. It was the reason Callie was in school now. If she got her degree, he promised to give her thebrownstone.
