NaNoWriMo Day 23- The Shoes of Baltimore

“Right, right,” Mickey said. “I totally understand that. Your day off is your day off. My brother, for instance, works at this retail giant and they are just super cheap and refuse to hire enough people. They also refuse to fire the bad people, and the crappy workers just call out all the time. So you have my poor brother getting called to come in on his days off. He already works 50 hours a week, but they just don’t care. With you though it just sounds like this one girl in particular is a major headache. How is everyone else in your office?”

“I mean, it’s fine. For right now. The old guys can be such perv balls, but it’s just okay. Nothing amazing. I mean, this is just for right now. I totally just want to settle down and have kids. But before that, I just want to get married and be able to quit working. Like, it’s not what I’m meant to do, just sitting around an office, having to get up each day doing that. It’s just not me. I’m meant to get up and do what I want to do. And that’s going to be raising a family.”

“I totally get it,” Mickey said. “I think there is something to say about having a traditional family unit in place, old school style. People like to say women can do whatever they want and then look down at them when they just want to be moms. Maybe that’s what they feel like their calling is, so I’m not going to judge them for that. It obviously doesn’t work out for everyone because of the money, but that’s why you need to work extra hard and stay motivated if you’re the guy. Kids aren’t cheap. And having a nice house isn’t cheap. Neither is having two or three cars. But that’s the dream, right? And nobody said it was going to be easy.”

Jen nodded her head. She thought she was slowly falling in love.

“So, you’re totally fine with the woman you’re married to staying home and raising the family?”

Mickey smiled and nodded. “Yea. That’s how my parents did it, and look how great I turned out.”

Lauren giggled and put her hand on his arm. But she quickly retracted it because her mother’s voice entered her head.

“No signs of affection or intimacy! You have to remain cold. Guys know when you like them because you touch them. If you end up slipping up and doing that, you have to start touching everyone else around you. Touch the waiter. Find a woman who has a dress or a purse or earrings or something to compliment her on nearby. Touch her as you’re saying it. Touch everyone. This will have him question whether you actually like him or you just touch everyone. Men get in little circles and discuss women they work with or know. They all start telling stories about how a woman is touchy feely, and then it makes them feel like they aren’t so special. They thought it was just something special between them and her, but when she does it with everyone and they find out, they don’t think it’s that special anymore. So to save yourself from making him think you are in to him so early on the date if you do slip up and touch him, you need to start being physical with everyone around you.”

Lauren quickly looked around the restaurant and saw a woman with a decent sized engagement ring.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Lauren said tapping the woman on the shoulder. “But that ring is absolutely gorgeous. May I have a closer look?”

Knowing that this woman wanted the chance to show off her ring to as many people as possible, even people she didn’t know, Lauren expected the woman to quickly shove the ring in front of her face.”

“Of course!” the woman said. “It’s really quite breathtaking, isn’t it?”

Jen moved closer to the woman to pretend to examine the ring. It really wasn’t bad, but Lauren wanted one that was much bigger.

“Oh, that really is stunning,” she said. She let her hand fall near the woman’s wrist. That really is stunning. She kept there for just a second, so it wasn’t awkward. But she hoped Mickey was paying attention. She continued to ignore Mickey and look for a waiter, hopefully a male waiter. She found one, wasn’t sure if it was their water, but put her hand on his elbow and held it there while she asked if he cold let them know what the deserts were.

He told them and left. She returned her gaze back to Mickey who was smiling. She couldn’t tell if what she was doing had the desired affect, but she hoped that he at least noticed she was friendly and liked to touch people.

Mickey leaned in. “So what’d you think of that ring? Little on the small side I thought.”

That was one Jen’s favorite sentences she had ever heard in her life. She was turning red and blushing. This man was amazing.

She leaned in as well and whispered that she did think it was a little small. “Maybe it is an antique in the family, but the luster is missing and it is on the small side. I want my engagement ring to be so big that it hurts my hand wearing it. It’s nice that guys put in $10,000. Their wives like to show it off, but I really think a man needs to pay at least $30,000 to $50,000. I mean, it’s something she is going to have for the rest of her life. And if I was a guy, I would want to make sure that every other guy knew that his wife was not available to the public. It’s really to tell other guys there is no reason to even compete because you’d have to outspend that cost to get the woman’s attention. And there is no way the average guy is going to spend that much to woe a woman away from her husband. Plus, if the guy is willing to spend that much on her, why would she every want to stray as long as he is decent and stays faithful?”

“Right,” Mickey said. “It’s a commitment and it’s supposed to last forever, so why wouldn’t you spend big? It’s like you are planning to fail if you buy some dinky ring for your fiancé. I know some people say they don’t want to make a big deal out of it and buy some cheap rings, but that’s normally because the guy doesn’t have much money and the girl doesn’t want him to be embarrassed. For me personally, I’m going all in for my wife. She is getting a huge ring and she’s just going to have to deal with it.”

Jen started to wonder if she could ask Mickey to propose to her now. He said all the right things, and she was surprised at how open he was about his feelings. She never had a guy reveal this much information about himself on the first date.

“Well, what are some of the stuff you like to do for fun?” Mickey asked.

“I have two dogs. Like, I really wanted dogs, and they were so cute when they were puppies. But they are such a mess to deal with now. It’s exhausting. I really like the one but the other one doesn’t get along with it. So I’m thinking about giving him away. Or I might give both of them away. I’m not sure. It’s just so stressful dealing with both. And it’s hard to get people to constantly watch them for me and the dog walker is gone this week and they are out of control. They need a walk and I just couldn’t find another walker for this week, and they just keep driving me crazy when I’m at home. I have to leave the house and just hang out at Starbucks to get away from them. It’s terrible right now. She’ll be coming back next week, though, which will be such a relief. I love them when they’re sleepy. So calm. Look at how cute they are!”

She pulled her phone up and had pictures of them up in about two seconds.

“Aww they are cute,” Mickey said.

“Yea. They are my babies. But um, other than that, I really like looking at food and dresses on Pinterest. Like, I would never cook, but I just love looking at the receipts and wish a guy would cook them for me. They all look like they taste so good, so I’m constantly sharing the pictures on Facebook. A lot of people really like them. I think people are looking for me to share that each day because I always get a lot of likes and comments. Some of the people ask me how the recipes turn out, but I just don’t respond to that. I don’t know why they think I actually cook it just because I share it. Like, you can share that stuff and don’t necessarily have to cook it. Oh, and the wedding dresses! They are absolutely gorgeous. I share those from time to time and also get a lot of likes on those. It’s just a heads up of what expect. Like, my friends and family better be ready to all dress exactly like I want them to and match my dress. Oh, I also like to share videos of those spontaneous looking dance routines that couples do. I don’t particularly want to learn a complicated routine and really work to do something like that. But if something was set up pretty easy to do, I think that would be amazing. I want everyone to be jealous of it on Facebook and to try and copy it for their wedding. But it does have to be unique. I don’t want it to be like everyone else’s wedding. And I want it to be so unique that all of my friends try to copy it when they get married. I want people to talk about it for weeks and months and compare it to other weddings. Just looking at rings, dresses, and wedding ideas in general on Pinterest is a lot of fun. That’s probably my biggest hobby.”