California Dreaming

Chapter 5

It was now 6:48, just twelve minutes before Carlos would arrive, and Ann was scrambling to make herself presentable. She hadn’t had much experience with this sort of thing, she thought, but she tried her best.

She ended up wearing her hair down, which was difficult, since it tended to gravitate toward the ponytail she usually wore it in. She was actually wearing makeup, which is something she rarely did. She’d found a top she liked in the closet and put it on along with a dark pair of jeans. Nice change from my work clothes, she thought.

Finally, Ann pulled out the pair of black high heels from their box in the closet. She could recall three times she’d worn those shoes before: a high school dance, her uncle’s funeral, and her high school graduation party.

She examined herself in the mirror. No, these shoes don’t work with jeans at all. She put them back in the box and put it back in the closet, grabbing a pair of black flats instead. Yep, those look better, she thought.

Well, this was it. She went to sit on the couch. She didn’t turn on the TV—she couldn’t figure out why, but she was afraid she wouldn’t hear the door if she turned it on.

As minutes passed by, thoughts started racing through her mind. What if he doesn’t show up? What if something happened to him and she didn’t even know about it? What if he told her he wanted to cancel but she never got his message?

She held her phone and impulsively stared at it, waiting for a text message to arrive. 6:57, and still nothing.

Ann started to pull her shoes off—they were a bit too tight, she realized. She stopped herself and decided she’d just have to deal with them for the rest of the night.

Not sure what to do with herself, she turned on the TV and muted the volume. Wait, maybe the sound of it turning on masked the noise of Carlos knocking on the door. She realized how ridiculous that sounded but had to get up and look out the peephole anyway.

7:03, and still no Carlos. It was probably just traffic. Maybe he didn’t know how far away she lived from him or something, she figured. She tried to concentrate on the TV, to no avail.

7:08. Maybe she should send him a message. But she didn’t want to sound needy or anxious, either.

Well, just one message couldn’t hurt, she decided.

“Are you coming?” she wrote.

She waited for a response.

“on my way,” he responded.

Oh, good, Ann thought. At least he didn’t forget. She tried to concentrate on the TV and had just lost herself in the repetitive chopping motion of some made-for-TV gadget on the screen when there was finally a knock at the door.

7:13. Jesus, he’s late, she thought. She answered the door.

Carlos was dressed up more nicely than she expected. He was wearing a striped blue and black dress shirt, tucked into his khaki pants, with a belt. He was wearing some shoes that obviously cost more than her shoes, and he had his hair in its usual spikes. He looked pretty hot, she thought.

“Hey, Carlos! How are you?” she asked.

“Hey! I’m doing pretty good. What about you?”

“Yeah, me too. I’m really excited,” she said, unable to hide her smile.

“Yeah, so am I,” Carlos said.

Ann quietly laughed, not sure what else to do.

“So, are you ready?” he asked.