Son for Hire: Chapter 76

As I come around the corner of the cafe and start for the park beyond I see that Evelyn had caught up with Kitty, at her side was the doggy bag of leftover breakfast.  The pair stood chatting and looking out over the beautifully sculpted landscape and greenery of the neighborhood park.  They hadn’t spotted me yet as I was coming up behind them but others had.  Already I could feel the eyes of those on the cafe patio and other morning pedestrians following me, the big bright bouquet cradled in my arm and my laser-like focus on the pretty women ahead of me drawing their attention.  A palpable sense of romantic expectation fills the late spring air, though perhaps it was simply my overactive imagination.  Well, Mom told me to make a show of it…here goes!

I swoop in behind the pair and lower to one knee right there in the grass.  I set the little box with the mug beside my knee so that I could hold the bouquet out in front of me in both hands.

“Kitty Garcia.”  I say loudly and proudly.  “Will you marry me?”

Kit spins around and looks down at me with a look of such confused bafflement that I could not help but giggle.  Grinning from ear to ear Evelyn fades off to the side to give us this moment.

“What the hell?”  Kit looks at me like she would a crazy man.

I hold the flowers higher.  “Will you marry me?”

Her eyebrows furrow, mystified as to what I was up to and why I was acting like this.  She glances around quickly and notices the dozen or more people that were surely watching this scene play out.  In low tone she whispers.  “What are you doing Donny?”

“I’m proposing silly.”

She raises a brow.  “We’re already married, remember?”  She shows her ring.

“Well once wasn’t enough.”  I say loudly.  “I know it was only a year ago but I want to marry you all over again!  I am crazy about you baby!”

In the distance I hear at least one woman go ‘awww’ and a murmur run through the people on the patio.  Out of the corner of my eye Evelyn is beaming in that way she had.

“You’re crazy alright.”  Kitty says, slowly softening to my over the top theatrics.  Her eyes turn to the bouquet and she melts a bit further.  “Oh, these are beautiful.”  She takes them from me, cradling them in her arms like a newborn babe she leans in and smells them.  Reading the card attached she looks back to me with a warm loving energy.  “That’s sweet Donny.  I…I don’t know what to say.”

“Say yes!”

With a roll of her eyes and a joyous laugh she says.  “Fine.  Yes.  Now get up ya weirdo.”

I stand up and, caught up in the mad moment, I reach out to gently cup the back of her head…then pull her in for a kiss!  A full flush hard smooch to the lips.  No tongue of course, I had my limits.  Evelyn lets out a little gasp of surprise and a little cheer rises up at the cafe as Kitty stiffens for a moment at the unexpected kiss but quickly relaxes again to accept it.  Her curls tickle my neck as she subtly leans into me to return it.  With Evelyn in my thoughts I kiss her long enough and intimately enough to leave no doubt to those watching that I was anything but a man head over heels in love.  Our lips part and I slowly pull away, gazing deeply into her eyes with a teasing sibling smile.  “I love you Kitty.”

Kitty’s fine cheeks blush.  She actually blushes!  My sister did not blush easily.

“Um…wow.”  Is all she can manage.

The mood is as pleasant as the weather in the murmuring of the strangers behind me who were now returning to their own business.  Who didn’t like to see a bit of romance to brighten their day?

“Goodness!  I feel like I should go.”  Evelyn quips with a laugh.  “Would you two like to be alone?”

“Oh no!”  I reach down and pick up the box at my feet then turn to her.  “You aren’t getting away so easily.”

“Me?”

“We wouldn’t be here without you Evelyn.”  Holding out the box I say.  “For the best darned landlady who ever lived.”

She looks at it, she looks at me, then she looks back down again.  “For me?”

“For you.”  I say.  “It’s not much but…”  I leave the sentence unfinished.  My feelings for her always left me at a loss for words.

She sets down the cafe bag beside her.  “You bought this for me?”  Taking the box she holds just holds it for a bit, staring at the plain box as if not quite knowing what to do.  The gesture really touched her, far more than I expected it would, and I started to worry that she wasn’t getting her hopes too high.  It was only a coffee mug.

I slide in beside Kitty and drape my arm around her shoulders as only a boyfriend or husband would.  She snugs up to my side with the flowers in front of her.  “Go ahead Evelyn.  Open it.”

There is a touchingly innocent sort of glee that comes over her as she pulls the top open.  Her motions are unhurried as she savors ever moment of the opening.  Each flap is carefully folded to the side to reveal the packing paper wrapping within.  “It’s a mug.”  She smiles as she pulls it up out of the box.  I reach to take the box so that her hands were free.  She hesitates a moment, once more allowing the moment to linger, before a last unwrapping the silly gag mug.  “Ohhhhh.”  She croons joyously as she sees the little cartoon fox.  “Bottoms Up?  Ha ha ha ha!  It says Bottoms Up!”  Her laughter is music.  She shows Kit then turns it back to admire it again.  “I love it Donald.  I love it.”

You would have thought it was expensive jewelry or something the way she was smiling.  I soon realize that it wasn’t the mug, it was that it was from her boy that made it so special to her.  Our strange relationship may have been as twisted as a pretzel but the happiness it brought was pure and wholesome and life affirming.  I knew that feeling well from the many gifts I’d received.

She brings the mug to her bosom and looks up at me.  “This is perfect.  I actually needed a new mug.”  I KNEW that wasn’t true, she had more cups and mugs back home than she would ever need, but the little white lie was even nicer than the truth.  “Thank you Donald.  I will treasure it.”

I shrug.  “It’s just a mug.”

She looks it over once more then wraps it up once more in the protective paper.  Taking the box back from me she tucks it away and closes it up to hold close like the treasure that she thought it was.  Without being asked I take the doggy bag to carry myself.  We gaze for a short moment, the promise of greater rewards the moment we could be alone again simmering in our eyes.  I could already tell that that silly little mug had bought me pleasures to come that I could only now dream of.

Turning to Kitty Evelyn admires her bouquet.  “So pretty.  I always liked peonies.”

“Do you now?”  Kit smirks with a sideways glance to me.  “What a coincidence.”

“What can I say?”  I giggle and pull her in tighter.  “You married a man of good taste.

Kitty with her bouquet of pale yellow peonies, Evelyn with her boxed up mug, and me with my excessive amount of leftovers begin to walk once more.  Our moods could not be higher as we explore the verdant and clean perfectly manicured green space.  There was no patches of bald earth or broken bottles or used needles or homeless sleeping in the bushes like the park near where Kitty and I grew up.  Kitty even takes off her sandals just to feel the soft grass against her feet.  The people we meet greet us politely and we greet them in return.  The sourness of our encounter with Gregory and Julie are a distant memory by the time we stop at the pond to feed the ducks some of my uneaten crepe.

At one point Evelyn takes in a long breath and slowly releases it as she pans across the sunny park.  “I really ought to do this more often.  I don’t know why I don’t.”

“It’s a lot nicer with company.”  Kitty says.  “I’m just a few steps away if you ever need a walking pal.”

“You are too sweet my dear.”  She says.  “I might just take you up on that.”

From the park Evelyn circles back via a different route to take us on a brief tour of the area immediately around the house.  Here and there she mentions who lives in this or that house and what happened at this or that corner.  As perfect as the day was and as pleasant as the company is the tour is brief.  The way she held and stroked the box I’d given her and the way her smoldering eyes fell on me told that her need to touch me could not be denied for much longer.  Before long we are back on the familiar street of home.

Chapter 77