Page 81 of For The Weekend
“Maybe.” I shrug, fooling exactly no one. “What was it like for you? How did you know she was it? Was it a gradual kinda thing or, like…” I explode my hands. “Boom?”
“Boom.” He repeats with a soft chuckle that rattles around his chest. Another grump who needs some practice laughing. He places his dough into a bowl and covers it before washing his hands and turning to me. “The moment I laid eyes on her, it was like someone had punched me in the gut. I knew, without a doubt, that she was the one for me.”
“Really?” Fully invested in his story, I lean against the counter, watching as Leonard’s gaze goes somewhere far away from here, to another time and place, absently wiping his hands off on a towel.
“Really,” he confirms. “We were in high school—she went to a different one than me. Her father owned a small grocery store, and I’d just gotten a job there. I had to wear this orange apron and name tag and could not have felt more like a schmuck when she walked in. Breezed right past in this short skirt and long hair like some shampoo commercial. I couldn’t stop staring, stopped stocking so I could watch her.”
Leonard pauses, a fond smile pulling his mouth up. “Of course, she didn’t see me or know who I was, but any time she came in to visit her father, it was like being struck by lightning. And she had no idea.” He folds his arms over his chest and meets my gaze, coming back to the present. “Until this one day, she was in the parking lot, arguing with her boyfriend at the time. I’d heard grumbling from her father that he didn’t like the guy much, and naturally, I didn’t either since he was with the love of my life. But that day, she yelled at him, ‘How about I kiss someone else even though it means nothing and see how you like it?’ That jackass said, ‘Go ahead and try it.’”
I clap giddily, guessing at what happened next. “And she did! With you!”
He nods, a triumphant smile on his face. “It was my lucky day to be walking past, because she grabbed me by the collar and laid one on me.”
“I can’t believe it! What happened? What did the boyfriend say? What did you say?”
“The boyfriend was pissed and took off. I was…stunned. I couldn’t do anything, especially because she wiped her thumb over my lips and apologized for—” he crooks his fingers in quotation marks “—proving a point with me. I said she could prove a point with me anytime.”
“So smooth, Lenny!”
“Not that smooth because it took a while before she broke up with him for good, but we eventually got together when her father asked me to give her a ride home. I knew I was going to marry that girl, and I would’ve waited forever for her. Thankfully, she didn’t make me wait that long.” He sighs, his eyes going red-rimmed. “We married a few years later, young, dumb kids in love, and every day, I thanked her for proving a point with me.”
It’s too much, and I press my hands to my chest, flying high from the romance and his love for his wife, sad because she is gone and they are separated now. Unable to take it, I fling my arms around his neck. “That story is so lovely. Thank you for sharing it with me.”
He eventually pats my back then gives way to a hug after a few moments. “Thanks for asking me about her. About us.”
I bat at my tears before they can spill from my eyes then back away, slugging him in the arm to rid ourselves of the melancholy. “You big softy.”
He clucks his tongue, dragging his knuckle over his eyes then props his hands on his hips, back to his usual gruffness. “So, what’s the story with your giant?”
“Heisa giant, right? I don’t understand how nature makes people that big.”
Leonard washes his hands so he can get back to work. I donotget back to work. “I think I might love him, but I’m not sure. I’ve never been in love before. I mean, I thought I was, but it never felt anything like this, and I don’t know if what I’m feeling is love because who falls in love after hanging out literally fivetimes.”
“Hanging out,” he says, glancing over his shoulder at me. “That’s what you kids call having sex, right?”
I whack his shoulder. “You scandalize me!”
He rolls his eyes at me before plucking eggs from the fridge. “From the way you’ve been walking around here lately, I figured you werehanging outa lot more than five times.”
“Leonard!”
He shrugs. “There’s nothing wrong with it. Ann and I werehanging outa lot too. As long as you’re being safe.”
I cover my face with my hands. “Oh my god. This is worse than the time my parents had this talk with me.”
“You can never have it too many times with your kids,” he says, and I’m hit with a pang of gratitude. Leonard didn’t even realize what he’d said. A slip of the tongue. Referring to me as one of his kids.
But I find myself hugging him again, this time from behind, my head on his shoulder with my arms around his chest. “I love you, Lenny.”
“Don’t get all weepy on me. Too early for that.”
“But you said?—”
He nudges my arms off him so he can meet my watery gaze. “I know what I said because I think of you like one of my own, and I’m glad you’re happy. If this man makes you happy, don’t second-guess it. Hold on to it and don’t let go. Love is too fleeting in this life to ever wonder if it’s right.” He points to his chest and then to mine. “You know in here what it is.”
“Thanks, Len.”
He elbows me. “Come on, kiddo. We got a lot to catch up on. You can daydream about your boyfriend later. Now, we bake.”
