Hello! So this is part 2 to my 50’s story. Part 3 will Lord willing be up next week! 🙂
As you can see, I finally came up with a name for the story, and I think it fit’s pretty well. 🙂
This part is told from Greg’s point of view, and I’ve got to say I’ve never really written from a guy’s perspective, but this was a lot of fun! Part 3, which will most likely be the final part, will be back in Lucy’s pov though. 🙂
***
“So…what do you like to do for fun? You know I like to read and that’s what I would have been doing if not for this, but what would you be doing on a typical Friday night?” Lucy asked me, her finger tapping against her leg in what I assumed was a nervous habit. Just a few minutes ago her whole hand had been doing it, but now it had slowed down to just her pointer finger.
“I rarely do the same thing. Sometimes I go to the local diner with some friends, and sometimes I stay home and work on my motorcycle,” I said.
“You have a motorcycle?” she said, sounding surprised.
I nodded, forgetting that it was dark outside. Apparently she could see my silhouette well enough though because she replied almost immediately.
“That’s so cool! My father has always said that he wants to get one, but Mother won’t allow it. She claims they are too dangerous, and I guess I can see her point. Still, I’ve always thought they looked like the perfect thing to ride when you want an adventure,” she babbled excitedly.
“An adventure?” I chuckled. “That’s what you think of when you see a motorcycle?”
Her enthusiasm faded and I cursed myself. She had forgotten about being shy for a second and I had to go and ruin it by teasing her.
Her voice was quiet when she answered. “I guess it sounds rather silly.”
“No, no, I can understand why you’d think that way. When you ride a motorcycle you don’t worry about anything. You just feel…free, I suppose,” I said, struggling to say what was in my head.
“How long have you had it?” she asked, changing the subject though her tone was a bit brighter.
For both of us being so shy and awkward, Lucy and I talked rather comfortably until we reached the drive in. Once we had pulled in though, silence hung like a heavy, awkward blanket between us. My nerves returned, and I figured the reason was that during the drive here it hadn’t fully felt like a date. Now that we were here, though, surrounded by other couples and my own cousin and Linda, I felt an immense amount of pressure. Lucy had made it clear that dates were not normally on her Friday night schedule and I couldn’t help but wonder why. It wasn’t as though she wasn’t pretty, and if she was talking about something she was interested in she was quite charming. I figured it had to be that she had really high standards, and with this being a blind date, I wasn’t sure if I lived up to those standards.
“Hey, if you guys aren’t in some deep conversation right now, why don’t you go grab some snacks,” Jacob interrupted my thoughts, making me jump. A quick glance at Lucy and I could see she had been startled as well. A small smile made its’ way onto my lips. It was kind of nice to not be the only odd one who got lost in one’s thoughts. I remember when I was little and my mother first scolded me for not listening to her. It was then that I first realized not everyone became so focused on what was going inside their head that they didn’t notice what was going on around them.
“Hello, earth to Greg,” my cousin waved his hand in front of my face and I blinked.
“What?”
“I asked if you and Lucy could go grab snacks,” he repeated.
“Oh, right,” I looked over at my ‘date’. “Is that ok with you?”
She shrugged and proceeded to get out of the car which I took as a yes. I was quick to follow suit and hopped out of the car…right into a mud puddle. It splattered up onto my pants and I sighed. Just my luck. Lucy held a pretty straight face, but I saw the corners of her lips twitch slightly.
“It’s alright, you can laugh. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I am doomed to embarrass myself as much as I possibly can,” I said. She obliged and a small laugh along with a snort bubbled out of her mouth.
“I’m sorry, it’s just that it’s usually me who-“ she stopped talking and looked down at the ground. I followed her gaze and saw that while she had been laughing, she hadn’t been looking at where she was walking. She too, had stepped into a mud puddle. Our eyes met and we both burst out laughing.
Lucy leaned down and took off her shoes and continued walking barefoot. “I suppose I faired better than you, though,” she said.
“How so?”
“I have a dress on so the mud only affected my shoes. My dress is perfectly fine. Your pants on the other hand…” she trailed off and motioned at the mud that soiled the bottoms of my pant legs.
“That’s true, I guess,” I shook my right foot as the slippery mud soaked through my socks and hit skin.
We reached the snack shack and stood in the back of the long line. I squinted at the sign that had what food was available. Being so far back, I could hardly see it and I wished I had my glasses. Unfortunately, Jacob had been quick to reassure me that I would not need them and that my date would not approve of how I looked when I wore them. Now I was wishing I had ignored him and worn them anyway.
“Why do they make the print so small on that sign? Surely they don’t expect everyone to be able to read that?” Lucy fumbled through her small purse and surprised me by pulling out her own eyeglasses. My mouth dropped open slightly. Lucy eyed me for a moment before asking, “Are you alright?”
I shook myself, and nodded. “Y-yes, sorry. I was just thinking how I wished I had my glasses with me and then you pulled yours out. It was just an odd coincidence is all.”
“Why don’t you have your glasses? Do you only need them to read up close? But if that was the case, then I don’t see why you would be wishing for them now.”
“Actually, I’m as blind as a bat. I usually wear them all the time but for some reason I let Jacob convince me to not wear them tonight.”
“Jacob doesn’t like your glasses?” she raised an eyebrow.
“Well,” I scratched my neck nervously, “he said you wouldn’t.”
“I wouldn’t what?”
“Like me with my glasses.”
“That’s ridiculous. Why wouldn’t I like you if you were wearing glasses? If anything, it would make me think less of you to know you let him convince you of such a thing,” she made motions with her hands as she talked. It was something she did often and I liked it. She was very expressive.
“As you should,” I said, before thinking for a moment. “Wait, why do you not wear your glasses all of the time if you cannot see distances either?”
Lucy blushed. “Unfortunately, even though I think it’s silly that you or Jacob would think that I wouldn’t like you as much if you were wearing glasses, I let Linda convince me of that fact before my first date.”
“Then we are both guilty of not being completely ourselves and letting others tell us that it is better to not be. We cannot change the past, so I say we forget about it now, and in the future be sure to wear our glasses. No matter what,” I said and she smiled.
“Agreed.”
I once again squinted at the sign that was still too far away. “Can you read what it says now?” I asked.
“Yes, would you like me to tell you?”
“If you wouldn’t mind. And while you do that, I’m going to take off these rotten shoes. The mud I stepped in earlier does not feel any better after it’s been in there several minutes,” I leaned against a nearby car and tugged off my filthy shoes.
“What a sight we both must be,” Lucy smirked.
“What do you mean?”
“Look at us. Barefoot, splattered with mud, and you look at everything while squinting because you can’t see while I wear my ridiculously large glasses. This isn’t something that is too common, you know,” she explained.
“This is definitely the most interesting date I’ve ever been on,” I mused. “But it is also so far the most fun I’ve had on one too. So I don’t know if mud and glasses are a bad thing.”
“No, I would have to agree with you there,” her eyes sparkled. Or maybe that was just the lights on her glasses…really I wasn’t sure but I didn’t particularly care. Tonight was not like the other dates I had been on in the past. I was enjoying myself, and I could tell Lucy was too. In fact, I didn’t want to go back to the car and be stuffed in the back seat and watch a movie. I realized Lucy was reading the food items on the menu aloud and I hadn’t heard a single word.
“Hey,” I interrupted. “Sorry, but do you want to be here?”
“Do I want to be here?” she repeated, confused.
“Here. As in at the drive in,” I looked around and saw a diner across the street. “Because I’m thinking we should ditch my cousin and your sister and go have some fun. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy drive-ins as much as the next person, but not during a double date.”
“What’s your idea of fun?” she said, and I knew I had piqued her interest.
“A walk through a town I don’t know. A couple of milkshakes. Maybe a bit of dancing? I don’t know, I guess we’ll find out what’s fun when we have it,” I shrugged.
“So you want to go on an adventure?” she said slowly as a grin grew on her face.
“Definitely.”
***
Thanks for reading!
Anna Christine ❤
To finish it off I used clear polish with blue sparkles in it and painted it over the blue and white polish. That’s how I got this cute, beach look! 🙂 Let me know if you try it out!
Anna's Random Ramblings 