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I’d invite you to bring Hale, but I want some time together, just my girl and me.
That didn’t make me feel any better about all of this.
Tell me when and where and I’ll be there.
I’ll have a think about somewhere special and let you know. Love you, Elsa.
Love you too, Dad.
When that exchange was over, I fretted about it, but I didn’t have time to descend into it. I had to run down and switch out my clothes.
And for the next hour I finished dusting, mopped the kitchen floor, wiped down the counters, tidied everything away, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, put clean sheets on the bed and finished one load of laundry, half finished a second, and started a third.
I did this because I rarely had time to do it and I wasn’t a slob. I liked my place clean and tidy. But I usually had to break it up, dust one day, mop the floor three days later. It was almost like a treat to have it all done at once.
But also, Hale was spending time with me there. He’d seen it a mess. And I wanted him to know I’d made an effort.
In this time, I also got three more texts from the girls. They were all fashion ratings TikToks from the gala that I was mentioned in.
Although this blew my mind, and was a little terrifying, I got two eight out of tens, and one nine.
Not a bad showing.
By the time I had the third load of laundry upstairs, which meant clean towels, I had to jump in the shower while thinking about what to wear.
During the shower, I got rid of the studio makeup. After, I put on something much lighter and more subdued, and decided on a pair of mid-wash jeans, a light blue cardigan unbuttoned low enough to give you ideas, but not too low to be tacky. I folded and wrapped a fabulous Prada scarf around my neck. I spritzed with Jimmy Choo “I Want” perfume, put my Bony Levy pavé diamond “E” stud in one ear, the Bony Levy ball stud with chain and cuff in the other, slid on some midi-rings and then I was done.
I’d lit some candles that smelled good, just enough lamps to give the place a romantic atmosphere (even though it wasn’t dark yet, it would be and I didn’t want to be wandering around, switching on lights) and was pouring myself a much-needed glass of chilled white when the intercom went.
I moved to the new screen by my door and saw Hale flashing a peace sign at the camera.
I grinned to myself and buzzed him in.
I was standing in the open doorway when he got off the elevator carrying a plant.
I wanted to rush him.
I stood my ground.
He stopped in front of me.
“I asked the guy at the plant store, and apparently, it’s impossible to kill this,” he said by way of greeting.
“Are plants the new flowers?”
“Flowers die. You’ll have a memory of this date forever if you take care of this plant.”
It was a little frightening how much that worked for me.
Without another word, I took the plant and walked into the living room.
I set it on top of a stack of books I had on a table under the window and turned to see he’d entered and shut the door.
And then I jumped him.
Kissing me, he backed us to the couch, and sat while pulling me to straddle his lap.
We went at it a long time, it was equally as sublime as having him pin me against the wall (it was the lap straddle), but he stopped it by wrapping his hand under my jaw and pushing me away an inch.
