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Thank You for this food. Thank You for today; the unexpected meetings: I pray Your will comes from it. And I will accept whatever that may be.
In your name,
Amen.”
I felt the words pour out of me. I opened my eyes and looked at Dolly, now taking one piece of kibble at a time and chewing widely for me to see.
“She’s such a funny little thing.”
My mind trailed to Eli, and I wondered if he was saying the same prayer about finding his future spouse. But my mind stayed on Eli well after that thought passed. He was... Different. I liked something about him. Of course, he was attractive, but it wasn’t even that. There was somethingdeeperabout him. I felt intrigued by him. Not to mention our coincidences. But none of it mattered, he was getting backin touchwith his ex-fiancé.
But when I looked at Eli, there was something else. He looked familiar to mein some way.
My mind went back to my prayer. I took a few bites of my food, instantly feeling recharged, but I felt I needed a refresh before my date. I decided to take my time and find the perfect outfit to wear, re-style my hair, and lounge a bit. Remembering it was a nicer restaurant where people went for engagements, birthdays, andprom,I started browsing through my small wardrobe.
I knew about the scale of the place after I’d been to it one time for my coworker Collin’s big promotion to partner, when he invited the whole office out. While everyone ordered cocktails and wine, I ordered a lemonade and immediately 3 people asked me for a ride home, not even waiting for a reply before they slammed their drinks in unison.How lovely,I had thought.
At that moment, a young couple walked in, the girl wearing a corsage and a pale pink ball gown. The boy was in a tuxedo that looked like it was 2 sizes too small. “Must be prom,” Collin hollered out, already slurring. The rest of the group startedoohingandaww-ingsome recalling their prom experiences.
“I remember my prom! The best night of my school career. The ladies and I all went together for a girl’s night.” Jamie recalled with joy.
“Prom was epic. I had two dates.” Chaz already had his hands up to accept the victory cheers from the guys, but only a few high-fived him.
“Let me guess: your sisterandyour cousin?” Darren’s comeback left us all laughing hysterically.
When the group calmed down, I sat on a bar stool that overlooked the restaurant. The prom couple put their orders in with the waitress, and a moment later she brought out two red fizzy drinks with cherries. I still remembered the details of my prom date like it was yesterday.
Our moms were friends, and, following their direction, he asked me to go with him. I wasn’t about to say no, as it was the only invitation I received, and I decided I wanted to be there rather than skip it and always…wonderjust what kind of teenage nightmare I had missed out on
He picked me up in his mom’s minivan, and I tried not to notice his hair wasshagged like a mullet. Let’s face it—it wasn’tlikeanything—a spade’s a spade. My date had a mullet.
From the Pages of Katie’s Dictionary:
mullet
mul′it
noun
Business in the front, societal collapse in the back.
Prom officially started at 7 pm, so he decided we would have dinner at 5:30. That’s a little too much time, isn’t it? I was worried we’d have too much extra time to spare. I took my time at dinner, but we still finished up an hour later. To my horror, he wanted to go directly to the prom, which was downtown, and we ended up sitting outside on the bench waiting for the doors to open. The camera crew was already there, and they started with us, forever documenting the fact that I was thefirst to arriveat my senior prom with my date wearing the mullet.
Once inside, there were a few dances we awkwardly swayed to, keeping more than a bible’s distance between us. We were just friends, and we both knew it. Neither of us wanted to appear like it could be otherwise. After a little while, they announced Prom King and Queen—two people I only knew from passing in the halls. Well, the year was ending. This part of my life was ending, and I was ready to leave this all behind—high school and prom. I asked my date if he was ready to leave. I was back home by 9:00, yet somehow, my feet still hurt, my makeup was failing, and the light curl in my hair was all but a memory.
“Have any good prom stories?” Jenna whispered to me, breaking my trance, and I saw how obviously I’d been staring at the high schoolers.
“Not one. You?”
Jenna excitedly nodded. She couldn’t wait to tell me how she was a professional dancer about to be signed on by a basketball team, so prom was just another place for herto show her moves.
“I had a custom dress made with pants underneath and I did a few handsprings. Now that I think about it, I was a little cocky back then. But that’s what landed me a spot cheerleading for the Rangers.” She shrugged and took a sip of her drink.
“Tell me more about the basketball team.” I kept the conversation on her, but I was genuinely interested in how this formerNBA Cheerleaderended up at our boutique law firm.
“I found out I was pregnant with Mark, my oldest. Got married quickly after that and the rest is history.” She smiled, but it was waning at the hooting and hollering from our coworkers. “I’m ready to get back to my guys. How about we call a cab for these drunkards and flee the scene?” It was the best idea I’d heard in ages.
Now that Jenna had asked me about church, the pieces of her life were starting to come together. I decided I would genuinely like to get to know her and vowed to text her later.
