Vic decided I couldn't make a rational decision on something this important by myself. The plan, my plan, had been to drive by and, depending on the look of the neighborhood, continue to drive by and go to a movie or go shopping for something frivolous When Vic overheard that I was going to look at a house to rent, he invited himself along for the ride. He said he thought I needed a male perspective, what he really wanted to do was keep me company, sweet but I wasn't lonely. Most of the time when I went apartment hunting for Grady and me it was by myself. He'd come after I narrowed things down to two or three possibles, but the legwork I did on my own.
"Come on, you know you wanted to spend today with me," Vic said, snapping his seatbelt closed. "My ideas are invaluable."
"You do remember we are getting mani-pedis at the beauty school after this is over, right?" I asked. Two years ago, I gave up doughnut runs and secret candybars in exchange for new bottles of nail polish. I owned samples sized bottles of every color in the rainbow, but usually went with ballerina pink. Neon orange was fun on my toes, but if I had to look at it all day while I was typing, I distracted myself. This was a splurge and something I had been looking forward to ever since Vic invited himself along for the day.
"That's the best part of today," he said. "Chris loves it when I have a Hawaiian manicure. The hot wax makes my hands silky soft."
"Way too much information." I looked at my hands, they were dry and a little rough, but the polish was nice. I only ever had time to do the basics, but I never really get exotic about my personal maintenance. Who had the time, much less the money, to do it all. Once I figured out all of those little beauty maintenance things those magazines recommend, just to get out of the house was going to take me twenty-six hours. A mere ten minutes at a time.
"Jealous."
My eyes teared up. I sniffled and dug around my purse to see if I had a tissue or at least a paper napkin from a fast food place. Until just a few days ago, I thought I had everything going my way. I choked and stifled what so much wanted to flow down my face.
Vic took his hand from the wheel and reached for me. "That was thoughtless of me," he said, giving my hand a small squeeze. "Sorry, sweet pea, I wasn't thinking."
"Nothing to be sorry about. You are happy and in love. It is something I want, but think I'll declare it to be chocolate for the time being."
"Chocolate? I love chocolate. What's wrong with chocolate?"
"Chocolate doesn't do anything good for me. It is on virtually all of the verboten lists, right next to caffeine and sugar. I figure if I could give up chocolate, which I did several months ago, I can give up the idea that I need love from some man."
Vic slowed the car and said, "Well, we're here. It doesn't look too bad."
No. It looked worse than that. It looked like someone had sprayed the entire little house and picket fence with Pepto Bismol. The tiny front yard looked like it hadn't been tended in ages, the porch had a swing covered in a sheet, and there was a dog lying in the driveway.
"I don't want to get out," I said. "I don't really want to move." Actually I wanted away from recent memories of Grady, I just didn't want to trade one set of bad dreams for another.
"We need to kill at least half an hour before we go to the Pedi Palace."
"Fine."
"Remember, this is all about girl power."
Vic and I had known each other since grade school and he wanted to be Scary Spice when he grew up. He never got over his fixation for the Spice Girls and the anthems of Girl Power. And as long as he didn't sing any of their songs or the Kelly Clarkson song, Stronger, I'd make it through the rest of the afternoon.
We pounded fists before we got out of the car. The yard had potential, if someone reseeded it and spent some time on the weeds. Winter had been long and there hadn't been very many days to start the yard work, it was the one thing I had actually liked about apartment living. I appreciate a pretty yard, just don't enjoy the work to get it that way.
"Oh my," Vic said. "Look over there." He pointed to a blond man wearing a scruffy pair of jeans and a t-shirt that was so holy it could have been sold at the Vatican. "Oooh, I've seen him before."
So had I.
~~~
tbc
the dog needs to go to bed ...
total word count 904
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