A Good Reason To Wait?

I was going to ask him about his date and how come he agreed to go out on a night when he had Jesse – something that he wasn’t too willing to do before. But instead of those words coming out of my mouth, I asked, “With the waitress from Boston Pizza?”

Josh’s smile disappeared. “How did you know?”

Crap! I cringed. “She was that into you at the restaurant?” I offered.

He wasn’t buying it for one second. Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared down at me. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” I insisted. “Just…”

“Anna,” he didn’t look too happy. “Please tell me you didn’t beg her to ask me out.”

“No!” I shook my head and reached for his arms. With my hands curled around his biceps, I stared up into his eyes. “No Josh! I wouldn’t do that to you!”

“Then how do you know she’s my date?”

I sighed. He groaned. “No,” I gripped his arms tighter. “I swear it’s nothing.” I went on to tell him when he excused himself to go to the bathroom; she appeared at the table and seemed all nervous. “She asked if we were dating – I told her no. She asked if you were seeing anyone – again, I told her no. Then she told me that she thought you were really cute and she wanted to ask you out but she wanted to make sure you weren’t seeing anyone. She asked me what kind of woman you were attracted to…” I trailed off as he ran a hand over his face.

“You told her to ask me out, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Josh, I did.”

“Anna!”

“No, it wasn’t like that!” I insisted. “I told her what I would tell anyone else who was interested in a friend of mine – ‘the best way to see if he’s interested is to ask him’ – “

“I can’t believe this,” Josh groaned.

I wanted to shake him. “Josh come on. She didn’t ask you out because I told her too, she asked you out because she thinks you are hot and she wants your bod. Now deal with it because she’s not the only woman out there who’ll come on to you. Geeze!”

I turned away from him, a little ticked that he was making a beg deal out of his date having asked me about him. Didn’t he know that’s what women do? They ask someone about the man they were drooling over. I knew I had done it many, many times before myself. “She likes what she’s seen of you Josh,” I glanced over my shoulder. “That’s why she asked you out.”

He pondered that for a moment and then took a deep breath, his hand circled around my arm as he released that breath. “I’m sorry, I’m just not used to an ex being involved with setting me up with anyone – Carol would never have told anyone to ask me out.”

My hand slipped over his as I stared up at him. “I’m not Carol, now, am I?”

Without having to think about it, he chuckled softly, “No Anna, you aren’t Carol.” He told me that I couldn’t be further from being like her if I tried.

“Good,” I smiled and patted his hand. “Now, about this date, where are you taking her?” I started to suggest some places that she might like.

With a snort, he removed his hand from my arm and told me I did my part, “I can handle it from here.”

****

“Aunt Anna this sucks!” Cassie flopped down next to me as the rest of the kids reluctantly made their way towards the exits. Practice had been over for a good half hour but they were all hanging out around because Eric had mentioned, at the last meeting that Fireball might show up; they didn’t.

“I’m sorry Cassie but you know as well as I did that Eric didn’t promise that Fireball would be here.”

“I know,” she pouted. “But don’t you think he shouldn’t have mentioned it if he wasn’t sure? I mean,” she flipped her hair and cracked the gum she was chewing. “Doesn’t it seem a little cruel to get our hopes up like that?”

“It wasn’t intentional Cass.” Glancing across the room where Eric sat on the stage listening to Jenna go on about ‘Doa’, I couldn’t help but smile. “I’m sure he feels bad about even mentioning it now.”

Cassie followed my gaze. “He’s really good with kids, isn’t he?” She leaned in and rested her chin on my shoulder. “It’s a shame that he won’t be a daddy, don’t you think?”

“He could still be a daddy,” I told her. “Just won’t achieve it the way most men do, that’s all.”

“Yeah,” she sat back in her chair. “But what do you think Uncle Mike would say? He says he’s gay just so he doesn’t have kids.”

“Cassie!” I laughed out loud. “You know not to believe everything Mike says, right?”

“Of course,” she scoffed. “I’m not stupid Aunt Anna, I know he was joking.”

Turning to her, I told her that she shouldn’t believe everything any man says. “Just look at Jordy, he said he would never be a daddy and…” I motioned to Jenna. “He’s an amazing daddy, she loves him so much.”

“I know.” She sat there for a couple seconds and then an evil grin appeared on her face. “Speaking of kids Aunt Anna…”

I raised a brow.

She continued. “Are you and Uncle Jordy…?”

“Cassie I don’t think –“

“I know Daddy says he’d kill Uncle Jordy if he got you pregnant without a ring, but I’m sure he’s just kidding.” She smiled and went on to tell me that she couldn’t wait her baby sister or brother to be born. “I know I wasn’t too excited about when I first heard because –,” she made a disgusted face. “Who wants to think of their parents having sex? I mean, their like, old and….” The words she was about to speak froze on her lips as she stared at the exit doors while her mouth hung open.

“What?” I turned towards the doors, wondering what was going on. “Oh my…” I couldn’t believe it, Fireball, or at least their lead singer, was making his way into the room, right towards Eric and Jenna.

And all Cassie and I could do is sit and stare.

“Todd, you made it!” Eric had gotten to his feet and now was ‘man hugging’ Todd as he told him most of the kids already left for the day.

When Todd spoke, apologizing for being late, Cassie gripped my hand. “Oh Aunt Anna,” she whispered. “Do you hear him? Isn’t he sexy?”

“Shhh!” I waved my hand in front of her face as Todd motioned towards Jenna, who suddenly wanted to play shy, and gave Eric a confused look. “Yours?”

Eric chuckled, “No.” He picked Jenna up and she buried her face against his shoulder. “This is Mike’s niece, Jenna.” He attempted to pull Jenna away from his shoulder to get her to say ‘hi’ to Todd but she wasn’t having any of it. Not even when Todd tried to sweet talk her. In fact, she pouted and looked around for me.

“She wants Anna,” Eric explained when Todd asked what she said.

“Oh, oh, oh….” Cassie’s hand tightened on mine as Eric led Todd over to us. “Act natural,” she hissed at me but she was the one freaking out.

Cassie and I managed to stand before they reached us. I had relieved Eric of the ‘shy’ Jenna and he introduced us to Todd and that’s as far as we got before Cassie lost all cool and jumped him. Talking a million miles a minute, Cassie told Todd that she thought he was pretty much a god and she worshipped the ground he walked on.

Lindsay, who had been working on her homework a couple seats back when Todd came in the room, was now shaking her head at her sister. Giving Todd an apologetic glance, she said as calm as if she were talking to her dad, “She’s normally not so crazy, I swear.”

By the time Jordan showed up to take us out to look at potential homes, Cassie had returned to normal and actually had Todd’s full attention while she explained to him where the idea for the show came from and how she hoped it would be the first of many events that she helped organize for the benefit of our town. “My dad, mom and Aunt Anna have all been great role models when it comes to giving back,” she told him with great pride. “They are huge footsteps to follow in but I’m confident I can do it.”

“Sounds like you’re a woman to be reckoned with,” he told her as he took her hand in his and held it for a minute before shaking it firmly. “My band and I are honoured to be a part of this.”

Cassie’s ‘cool’ slipped as the 17 year old fan in her peeked out. With a squeal she told him he was awesome and hugged him. “This show is going to rock!”