NaNoWriMo Day 22- The Shoes of Baltimore

Did Jen just find a candidate to be her husband? He seemed to hit everything on the list her mother had made. He was under 30. He owned his own business and was ambitious, but he still wasn’t fully set financially. He had room to expand his own brand and his own business, and he could earn a lot of money if he really got his brand off the ground.

Jen thought of all the things he could potentially do:

Model

Host TV

Books

The list went on and on. She wondered if he had considered any of these options. She would push him to do television because it was such an easy gig. If he couldn’t write, he could just get a ghost writer. Maybe he could even get into acting.

As a little girl, Jen always wanted someone to whisk her down the red carpet. She wanted to go to the premiere events and openings around the world. Well, only when she wanted to. If it was too much of a hassle, she wouldn’t want to go. But when she did want to go, she wanted to make sure her and her husband made a grand entrance. She also wanted him to have the power to allow her to got o the most exclusive places. She wanted seats at restaurants that took months to get a reservation for to show her mother she made it. Just like her.

She would have to press him though to see how much money he was making. She also wanted to find out how motivated he really was to open more gyms and if she could mold him. Mold him into a star so their financial future together would be set.

He looked like a solid candidate thus far, but Jen knew she had her work to do. She was hoping he didn’t need too much nudging to go out and make a lot of money, but her mom told her to be prepared if he did.

“Sometimes, you just have to push. They will call it nagging or bitching or whatever they want, but that’s the only way you can get them to do it,” Lauren said.

“But won’t that cause problems down the road? Could he end up hating or completely resenting me?”

“Nonsense,” Lauren said. “Men today expect that. They always want something to complain about, so we can fill that role. They all want to be mothered deep down, so guiding them is part of a wife’s duty if she wants her husband to be successful. That’s what you have to understand. So get that through your head now. It’s going to be hard work initially. But it’s worth it. Otherwise, you can just spend the rest of your life having a job of your own, working 12 hours a day, giving up your weekends, waiting too late to have children. It’s up to you Jen. Just make sure that he does not ask you for a prenup. If he does, you have to get a good lawyer to put it in the contract you get half of everything if he cheats on you. It will be hard to prove that he is if he has enough money he wants to protect before getting married, so you’ll have to get cameras around. Hide them so he doesn’t know they are there. Make sure you get something set up on his computer so you can monitor him. Put a GPS tracker underneath his car. You have to have the proof if you want to get the money. Otherwise, he’s just going to leave you and he’ll have a new girlfriend lined up in about five minutes. Remember Carly Davis? Well, her husband left her and in the prenup, he had that he wasn’t paying her a cent. He took care of the children, sure, but Carly has been bagging groceries down at the Food N Save for the past 10 years, almost in her mid-50s now. Is that what you want? No. It isn’t. I’m telling you Jennifer, this is going to be ruthless. This is going to end up being your full-time job. But, my dear, it will be worth it if you can pull it off.”

“Can I pull it off?” Jen asked.

Her mom kissed her on the head. Lauren wasn’t known to show affection very often. But she would surprise Jen and give it to her when she needed it the most.

“Yes dear, I think you can. But you have to listen to me if you want this done right. You can’t go off cue and do what you think is best. This is complicated, and you should utilize my experience to help you get what you ultimately want: a family, wealth, and security. That’s the prize. Don’t get distracted.”

Jen sent a message back, after getting it approved by her mother first.

“Hi Mickey, I would love to learn more about you and your gym and your business. And, well, just more about you. Let’s meet this week for an early dinner. I’m available Wednesday or Thursday.”

Even though Jen’s schedule was wide open, Lauren told her that she needed to set the date a day or two before Friday. That way, if it went off well, he would text her the day after and ask her what her plans were. She told Jen that she would need to say that she was busy but that she would like another dinner date the same time next week. That way, she would be on his mind for a whole week before he got to see her again. The poor guy would have to agonize over her the whole weekend as well, watching other couples. She would be all that he thought about. At least, that’s what Lauren told Jen.

Mickey responded within 30 minutes and told her that sounded great. Thursday would work best for him. He asked where she wanted to go, and she told him that he should pick the venue. Normally, Lauren said the woman she pick the spot, but she wanted to see what this guy thought was appropriate for a first date. Would he go all out and try to impress her, or would it just be simple and underwhelming.

“This will give you your first clue as to whether or not he is deserving to be your husband,” Lauren said.

He didn’t tell her where they were going. He said it was going to be a surprise. Lauren told Jen that was a good sign.

“It means he’s going to spend a lot of money to try and impress you. Well, hopefully that’s what it means. I pray that he has good taste.”

On the day of the date, it turned out it was. You didn’t have to exactly dress up because there were people with jeans on. They tolerated it, but if you went there, it was known for being classy. Most of the people dressed up. Even though she didn’t know where she was going, Jen was still appropriately dressed. He looked good as well. He had a sport coat, his shirt was tucked in, his belt was appropriate, and his shoes were clean. So far, so good for Jen.

When they sat down at the table, Lauren told Jen to let Mickey be the first one to talk. But Jen quickly found out that wouldn’t be a problem.

“So, Jen, I want to know everything there is to know about you. I want to skip that little annoying chit chat you have at the beginning of dates until you both find common ground. Let’s get right in it and get to know each other. That will really get us to where we need to be to see if a relationship would work. I mean, people just skirt around the issue, but that’s the whole point. On the first date, you need to be able to tell if you are going to marry that person or not. I think you have a little more time when you’re younger, but still. You need to still be practical and ask yourself where the relationship is going. I have friends who have been dating the same girls for a few years and still don’t know if they want to get married. I don’t want to be in that situation. I want to know. If we do, that’s great. But if not, let’s figure it out quickly. Why do people like to waste so much time? I don’t know. I still thing as a species we still have a long way to go before we master this whole dating thing. Ah, listen to me ramble! Sorry. So tell me, how was your day?”

That wasn’t the question he originally asked, but Jen obliged. She was captivated. Normally guys were so guarded with their emotions. It might take two or three years before you even whisper the word marriage. But here was this guy talking about it on the first date. Her hopes were up now.

‘Well, it was good. I mean, it was okay. Like, today was supposed to be my day off, right? And like, one of the girls from work calls and asks me if I want to cover her shift tomorrow night. And I’m like, no, I’m not going to work a double. And why wouldn’t you just cal me tomorrow? Like, she knew I was off. Why was she trying to bother me?”

This is the point where most of Jen’s dates would have thought she was either self absorbed or just dumb. But Mickey didn’t see it that way.

“That does sound terrible. Who is this girl? Does she call out and do this stuff a lot? I can see her doing that from how you’ve described her already.”

“Yea, like, she calls out maybe twice a month? I mean, I guess not that much. But, like, she asks me every time and I’m like, I don’t want to work anymore than I already am! If I did, I would just get a full-time job somewhere else. I wouldn’t be derailing with this little part-time gig.”