Page 80 of Finding My Charming

“I love you, too. I’m so glad we came out today. Thank you. Not only for all of the clothes. Thanks for spending the day with me and for what you said. I really needed to hear that.”

Her hand rose and rested on her heart. “I’m honored you spent the day with me and let me get to know the lovely young woman you are. It was the least I could do.”

A brief moment of silence passed before she stood and grabbed her purse. “I’m going to get us some pretzels, and you’re going to tell me about the boys.” She winked before walking away, shocking me once again.

Whatever version of Grandma I was witnessing today was the one I hoped I’d be seeing from now on. I felt like for the first time in my life we were more than merely related. She was my stylist, therapist, and now my girlfriend? We’d gone from awkward silence this morning to gossiping about the guys in my life. This had been one weird day.

She returned minutes later with a salted pretzel for herself and a cinnamon-sugar for me.

I smiled and thanked her before waiting silently for her to bring the topic up. In the meantime, I was going to enjoy the sweet, warm dough.

My joy only lasted a second.

“I hear there are two young men after your heart. Tell me about them, and I’ll have this decided by the time you’re finished.”

I looked between her and my pretzel. I’d spent weeks analyzing and stressing about the problem, and she thought she could figure things out within a few minutes. It was borderline insulting.

“Well, the first guy is Vincent. He’s a soccer player, and he already got recruited to NOU for next year on a scholarship.”

Her eyebrow rose slightly. “Sounds like he’s an impressive candidate. I’m sure he’s handsome and easy to talk to as well.”

I nodded. How does she know?

“Those are basic requirements, and anyone that’s consuming your thoughts would have to meet at least those.”

“He is definitely handsome and smart. The first time we hung out, I felt like I could talk to him about anything, and that’s never happened before.”

“And now?”

Now what? My confusion must have shown.

“Do you still feel that way now? Like you can talk to him about anything?”

I thought back to our past few dates. I’d certainly had fun and felt comfortable around him, but there was… something. Not a good something, but something on the edge of my mind that was changing. “Not so much.”

“Why is that?”

I wanted to say I didn’t know, but she would never accept that response. “I don’t think we have as much in common as I first thought. He and his family are very, very involved with soccer, and sometimes it seems like it’s all he cares about. If he’s not talking about it, he’s playing or watching or thinking about it. I’m not really into sports, so I feel like that blocks us for progressing.” I paused and tried to gather my thoughts. “It’s not a bad thing that he’s so into soccer. It’s just that I think he deserves someone who can appreciate it and talk about it with him. Does that make sense?”

Grandma nodded but said nothing. It was like she knew I had more to say.

“We don’t have enough things in common to build a relationship. I need to be with someone I can talk to about my interests, but Vincent and I don’t have really anything we share.”

She continued studying me with a glint in her eye as if she was waiting for something. When I didn’t continue, she finally broke her silence. “You don’t need to have everything in common with someone in order to make a relationship work, but having some mutual interest is important. Your grandfather and I barely had anything in common, but we had a wonderful marriage because we agreed on the big things.”

“Like what?”

“We both wanted a family and felt they should come before any job. We wanted to travel and made it a priority when the time came that we were able to. We enjoyed outdoor activities but disagreed on what that meant. I enjoyed a day on the lake, but he preferred whole weekends in the woods. Every relationship is a series of compromises with your partner. If either one feels like they are only giving, there is potential for built-up resentment if they don’t communicate it. Do you think you and Vincent have the capability to find a middle ground?”

I thought about her words and the relationships I knew of. My parents were far from being the same people, but they’d been in love with each other for almost thirty years. They had come from completely different backgrounds but both loved nature and working with people. I guessed what it came down to were the core values of each person.

Vincent might focus on soccer, but that meant he valued strong work ethic, dedication, and athleticism. Besides the last part, those were things I thought were important as well. Except. The conversation from lunch came into my mind and I couldn’t get past the feelings I had that something was going on. Part of me couldn’t believe his parents would pay for his grades, but it seemed to be the truth.

“We might. It’s just so stressful. It’s not like I can make a choice and see how it goes and change my mind down the road. If I get it wrong, I break the spell and ruin it for all of our family’s posterity.”

Grandma tilted her chin up and studied me again. “You’ve never been one to make mistakes.”

I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear and let out a huff. “No, but that’s because I take the time to analyze and compare the options to make the best-educated decision that I can. Right now, time is the one thing I don’t have.”