In the Life of a Rose

October 19, 2019

In the Life of a Rose...

It had been a few weeks since I had seen Chris, physically. Digitally, I saw him every day. It was either texting, calling, or FaceTime. For busy people, we had time for each other.

"So, Harley, I'm going out with him tonight," I said over the phone as I did my makeup.

"Like a date?"

"No- well I don't know," I said. "I don't even know what we're doing. I'm sure we're just gonna stay in his car so we don't get harassed by paparazzi."

"That's nice.""

"Yeah. Anyway, I'm done so I gotta go," I lastly said. She said bye and hung up first and I rolled my eyes. I pulled out the long roller in my hair and was surprised that there were curls. Picking it out, my thick, course hair was bouncing and I sprayed some hairspray to keep the curls locked.

I smiled at myself before going into my room and putting on the clothes Harley helped me pick out over the phone. It was weird that I needed help for a casual outfit for whatever we were doing. Her advice was to wear my burgundy matching outfit: the leggings tight on my legs, a long sleeve crop top on the inside, and to finish it with a long black jacket for the October weather. Especially since I was in LA where SoCal weather was a little warm in the Fall.

I put my feet into some black boots and grabbed a Burberry purse and my phone before heading out. Just as I was leaving my room, Chris texted to tell me that he was here.

By the time I locked the door, Chris was leaning on his car like a high school sweetheart. A part of me thought I had overdressed but he was wearing a navy blue wind breaker over a shirt—I didn't know if it long sleeve or short— some black jeans, and brown shoes.

"Where's the cable knit sweater?" I asked after the media went wild over his sweater in Knives Out.

"At home, actually. I took it with me," he responded before we hugged. Once we separated, he softly chuckled and grazed his hand through his hair. "Thea..."

"Chris."

"You wanna know what would make this better?" he began and I raised my eyebrows. "If we drove in your car." I jokingly scoffed, hitting his arm. "What?! C'mon it's amazing!"

"Why don't you buy one of your own?" I said, tilting my head. He smirked, looking at the ground and when our eyes met, he gave me this soft look. I frowned and looked at him, disgusted. "What is this look you're giving me?"

"What look?"

"Oh! I see. You're trying to pout and get what you want," I accused him and he lifted his arms up in defense before he started laughing.

"You caught me," he replied.

I looked at the closed garage and glanced at Chris who had a wide smile on his face. "Nope."

He released a breath and opened the door for me to get in. As usual, I watched as he jogged across the front and got in. Making a U-turn, we headed for the main streets.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"It's a surprise."

I sharply inhaled and shook my head. I was looking around, hoping we'd stop at any of my favorite fast-food restaurants but we just drove past them.

"Pretty moon," I said, looking at the cresent. "Most people see the slither of white but I see the shadow casting on the rock."

"Yeah, it's magnificent," he stated, his voice filled with warmth. "Ya know, I would take you to one of my favorite places but it's a family restaurant only in Boston so we gotta deal with stuff here."