“You look amazing, Leah. Did you wear the blue dress for me? You are so beautiful,” Matty said and smiled in an almost childlike tone before pulling out a bouquet of yellow roses, my favorite, from behind his back.
“You remembered,” I exclaimed, blushing. “Yes, the blue dress is just for you. And you look so handsome; just like you always did. Um, let me put these in water quick.” Matty followed me inside and was quickly bombarded by the dogs. “Don’t jump on him, you two,” I scolded. So much for obedience training.
“I don’t mind at all,” Matty said, squatting down to pet them both. “They are great dogs; I already love them!”
My heart skipped a beat at the mention of the word “love,” and I tried to hide my reaction by focusing on finding a container for the flowers. I filled a large, clear glass vase with water before setting the bouquet inside, fluffing the stems around a bit to fill out the arrangement. I carried the heavy vase over to the side table in my hallway so that it would be the first thing anyone saw when they came to my house. Or at least the first thing I saw when coming home.
“Shall we go?” Matty asked. “If we leave now, we should be right on time for our reservation.”
“On time? What a concept,” I said jokingly. “Were we ever on time to any of our dinner reservations in high school?
Matty laughed before replying, “Um, no. We were never on time. And if I remember correctly, we didn’t even make it to the restaurant at all for our sophomore year homecoming!”
“That was Jimmy’s fault, if I remember correctly,” I said. “He was in charge of booking the limo but the rental company needed to get his parent’s approval since he was minor. He said after he hung up with the limo guy that he thought he asked his mom to call them back, but he totally flaked. We were left standing outside of his house for an hour before anyone thought to figure out why our ride hadn’t shown up!”
“And then since none of us wanted to call our parents for rides, Jimmy, who at the time was the only one of us who had his license and a car, had to drive us all over to the school in small groups,” Matty laughed at the memory. “I think it took him five trips to get us all there. And by then we were all hungry and cranky!”
I shook my head at the memory, “Never let a sixteen-year-old boy plan transportation for a group!” I laughed at the memory of us all crammed into Jimmy’s little two-door car. “Since we had missed our restaurant reservation, our dinner that night ended up being the refreshments served at the dance. We were starving by the time we arrived and stuffed ourselves with cookies. I can still remember feeling sick from eating so much sugar.”
“Good old Jimmy,” Matty said with a sigh. “I’d love to see him again.”
“I thought you might,” I said, pulling open my silver clutch. “I’m in touch with him on social media and messaged him about seeing you again. He asked me to give you his contact information so that you could get in touch.” I reached out to hand Matty a folded-up sheet of paper with Jimmy’s email address and cell phone number on it.
“Oh, awesome,” Matty said appreciatively. “I will definitely contact him. From what you told me the other night, he’s doing really well as a lawyer back home.”
“Yes, he followed in his parent’s footsteps and joined their firm upon getting his law degree. He seems successful and happy, I guess. It’s always hard to tell on social media how people are doing in real life, and Jimmy was never the most talkative, anyway. Krista and I were both able to make it to his wedding several years back; his wife, Amber, is quite lovely.”
By now we had reached Matty’s car, and I suddenly noticed that he had rented a red convertible. I had been so caught up in seeing him in his suit and getting the flowers that I hadn’t even thought to look at the car he had pulled up in.
“A red convertible!” I squealed like a school girl. “No way! I always wanted one of these!”
“I remember,” said Matty with a huge smile on his face. “You were on quite a red convertible kick as a kid. What was that even about?”
“They are just so cool! I’ve still never even ridden in one. Well, until now, I guess. I’m so excited!” I was acting ridiculous, but I was genuinely thrilled to finally get to ride in a shiny red convertible. I reached my hand out for the door handle, but Matty stopped me. “Hey, that’s my job,” he said as he moved in front of me to open the door, putting a hand gently on my back as he did so. “There you go, have a seat.”
I excitedly slid into the passenger seat and looked up at Matty with a huge grin. “Thanks, Matty; this is the best!”
“We haven’t even left the driveway yet, Leah!” Matty said with a laugh. Before closing my door, he leaned down and whispered in my ear, “By the way, I love your hair.”
Once again, I felt butterflies churning in my stomach. Was this really a date-date; or was it just two old friends reliving memories, including the flirtatious ones of our youth? Part of me was letting my thoughts drift to a romance with Matthew, while the other part
