An Incest Birthday- The Final Chapter Part 1
Introduction:
The story comes full circle on the twins’ birthday.
(Randy)
We made it. I couldn’t believe we were actually here. It had been a whole year since the incident that changed our lives forever. It was our birthday and our one year anniversary all rolled into one, and I would make it a day Rita would never forget. I made sure I woke up before she did so I could get an early start on the day. I planned to have a pampering type thing for her throughout the entire day with everyone helping me out, well everyone who knows about us that is, anyone else just thinks it’s another spoiled day or something. I have Chris helping me out on my end staying ahead of everything and I have Ashley on the women’s end making sure she’s beautified and ready to go by the end of the day. Ashley actually volunteered to help, stating that she’d give her the full spoiled girl treatment throughout the day to ensure she was as beautiful as she could be, and all with no charge to me. Taking a couple bullets for her really seems to have its advantages.
I had to wake up and sneak out of the bed at 6:30 just to ensure we didn’t wake up at the same time, and with her being excited the day before about our anniversary coming up I knew she would get us as soon as possible, so I kept her up as long as I could, which turned out to be two in the morning before she made herself go to sleep. I set her alarm on her phone to go off at eight so she would get some amount of sleep and not sleep the day away. I had a few things planned for her and the way things play out with women you’d rather have too much time than not enough time, so I wanted to be safe. I snuck out of the house and went over to Chris’ after leaving a note on our bed for whenever she woke. If my plan worked we wouldn’t see each other until we were to have dinner tonight, and she would be just as anxious to see me as I would be to see her. I had the whole day planned out, it was just a matter of staying ahead of Rita and keeping her interested in everything going on around her, which I thought I pulled off pretty well, but only time would tell just how well.
(Rita)
My alarm on my phone woke me out of my sleep, but I didn’t remember setting an alarm on my phone yesterday, in fact, I’ve never set one on that phone, but then I realized what today was, and I knew Randy set it to make sure we didn’t oversleep for our day. It was exactly one year ago we realized what we really meant to each other, and like him I wanted to enjoy every minute of this day. I shut the alarm off and rolled over all giddy to wake him up only to notice he wasn’t there, just an empty sheet where his body was. Confused, I flipped the sheets back and saw a note folded under it. I perked up when I saw my name written on it with a rose stamped around it. I smiled as I read the card to myself.
“Rita. This night is ours, but the day belongs to you. 9:30, The Breakfast Club, some familiar faces will be waiting for you.”
I smiled and had a mini giggling session in our bed and got up to head to the bathroom. Randy had laid out an outfit for me to wear with a rose across it. I smiled as I picked it up and smelled it, anxious to see what he had planned for me.
(Randy)
“So everything’s set for the day right?” I asked Ashley over the phone.
“Yep. We’re all good to go. Once she meets your mother and aunt at the breakfast place I’ll take it from there. Do you want your mom and aunt to come too?” Ashley asked.
“For the manicure and the massage thing yeah, for everything else no. I don’t want Rita to get distracted by mom and Aunt Lisa trying to eat, especially the shopping part too.”
“Yeah women are already notorious for shopping anyway, but they take it to a whole other level. Becky, dana, and Carina don’t have to go either if you want?”
“No they’re ok, as long as they don’t know what’s going on they’ll think it’s normal.”
“If they suspect anything I’ll just say it’s her birthday and that’ll kill any suspicions.”
“That works too. Thanks again Ashley. I could never pull this off by myself.”
“Don’t even worry about it. very least I could do after all you did for me.”
“Yeah. Well I’m gonna get a little sleep. I had to keep Rita up late so I’d be able to sneak out on her. I knew she’d be wide awake today and I don’t wanna be
tired at all today.”
“You should be good until the end of the day. All you have to do is stay away from us, don’t answer your phone if Rita calls, and make sure you’re at the place before us tonight dressed and waiting for us, you got the easy part. All your notes are already in place waiting for her.”
“Perfect. I’ll see you guys tonight then. I’ll call and check on things every once in a while.”
“Yeah yeah, go get some sleep, you got an anniversary to get ready for later.”
“Yeah I do. Thanks again Ash, I’ll see you later.”
“So how’s it looking? Everything going according to the plan?” Chris asked.
“Yep. Ashley took care of everything. As long as I stay ahead of her we’re ok.”
“Can’t mess up there, all you have to do is not be late to the only place you gotta be at.”
“Yeah, but you know how crap always seems to happen in situations like these, so I’ll be there like two hours early, just in case there’s traffic or our car breaks down or aliens decide to land on our planet at that exact moment. I’m not gonna mess this up.”
“We got it man, but for now I’m going back to sleep. We don’t need to get up now so we got a few hours to do nothing, I suggest you get back to sleep too while you can.”
“I am, I already set my alarm to get up at noon. Our day’s not as full as the girls but I still wanna be up and about in case anything happens.”
“That sounds like something to worry about after we get up. Good night man.”
Before I could say anything else he rolled over and went to sleep. I was on my way to do the same thing but I couldn’t help but be excited for the day I knew Rita was about to have. I wished I could be there to watch somehow as everything happened, but I’d have my time with her at the end of the day, and the rest of our lives to come.
(Rita)
I pulled up to The Breakfast Club literally with about half a minute to spare. You’d think with everything done for me but my hair I could be ready in time, but no, story of my life. I parked and went into the restaurant not knowing what I was looking for, but kept my eyes open for anything familiar. I went around to the other side of the restaurant before I saw mom and Aunt Lisa sitting in a booth in the corner waving me over to them.
“What are you guys doing here? I didn’t see your cars parked outside,” I said.
“You weren’t supposed to, we parked across the street to surprise you,” mom said.
“Sneaky. I actually thought I was gonna be meeting Randy here.”
“Oh are we not good enough? Don’t wanna be seen in public with us?” Aunt Lisa joked.
“Haha nope your oldness might rub off on me. Randy left a note saying meet here, I just thought I was meeting him. you guys will fill in nicely though.”
“Nice recovery, and don’t think I didn’t hear you call us old,” mom said.
“Yeah you don’t look a day over 45,” I laughed. “I’ve always wanted to come here. We ride past it all the time but it never crossed my mind to actually come in.”
“That’s because you always stuff your face at home before you come out. It’s pretty good here, we already ordered for you… bacon, eggs, sausage, and waffles with lots of syrup.”
“Oooooooooh my favey! I’m not gonna be able to move the rest of the day!”
“Speaking of the rest of the day, do you know what else Randy has planned for you?”
“Not a clue. I was surprised to find a note in bed instead of him. I don’t know how he snuck off, usually I know when he gets up, maybe I was just tired.”
“Yeah from all that late night sex you were having last night, we heard you,” Aunt Lisa said.
“No we were actually quiet last night. You heard the porn we were watching.”
“What are you looking up new moves to try? Kids these days…”
“I like how no matter what the conversation starts out as it always ends up turning to sex.”
“We’re a table full of nymphos, of course we’re gonna talk about sex all the time!” mom said. “But anyway, have you figured anything out for the move to Seattle?”
“Yeah we pretty much figured out when we wanna go, and the area we wanna stay in, but that’s about it. We don’t know if we should get a house or an apartment, jobs in that area, whether or not we can bring Tibbles with us, there’s still so much to figure out.”
“Well you should definitely get an apartment, unless you’re moving there permanently. If you’re moving to a good area the job thing shouldn’t be a problem in Seattle, and I suggest a place that likes does, Tibbles with his little shedding self is going with you.”
“Don’t be dissing my little Tibbles, he’s so cute! Anyways Mr. Jennings said he’d help us get started out there, and he’s not taking no for an answer.”
“Well if he’s gonna keep offering then you might as well take it, you see what he did with that shopping spree, he had to spend at least $100,000 on all of us that day and he didn’t even blink an eye. It must be nice having that kind of money just laying around,” Aunt Lisa said.
Just then the waiter brought us out our food, which looked absolutely delicious. There was an extra jar of syrup that had to be for me, but since Aunt Lisa had a stack of pancakes I decided to share. The waiter left some towels at our table and smiled as he left off.
“He seems nice. Maybe I should flirt with him a little,” Aunt Lisa said.
“Lisa please, that kids not old enough to buy liquor,” mom teased.
“Yeah but I bet he has the stamina to go along with that body. The things I could do…”
“Like serve your time? You better stop messing with that boy before someone sees you.”
“Fine, you killjoy. It’s not like I have a penis to go home to or anything…”
“Oh just eat your pancakes you big crybaby. So Rita, did you have anything planned for Randy?”
“Ummm, kinda,” I said through a mouth of food. “I didn’t know he had anything big planned for me though, what I was gonna do might not be big enough.”
“What were you gonna do?” Aunt Lisa asked.
“Nope, I can’t tell you before he knows, you’ll have to find out after Randy does.”
“What’s the big deal? It’s not like we’re gonna go run off and tell him…”
“Yeah, I guess. Ok. I got him specially engraved dog tags with our faces on them and a message on the back of them. He’s gonna wear one and I’m gonna wear the other one.”
“Dog tags? It is kinda unique, and the engraving scores you some extra points, not bad.”
“Yeah, but she might have a point,” mom said. If Randy went all out and all she has are dog tags for him is he gonna feel underappreciated? Not to say it’s not a nice gift Rita, it really is, but…”
“I know what you mean mom, trust me, if he loves me he’s gonna love my gift. It’s for both of us, we both had a hand in it, and if that’s not enough I know something that is.”
“What? You two did everything sexually possible so you can’t be trying anything new, and that’s a pretty big statement to be saying,” Aunt Lisa said.
“We didn’t do EVERYTHING sexually possible,” I said with a grin as I ate my sausage.
“Look at her, playing with her food. It’s not a real penis honey,” mom laughed.
“Yeah just a little louder mom, I don’t think that table over there heard you.”
“It’s nothing I’m sure they’ve never heard before, plus it’s fun embarrassing you.”
“Yep, and that’s my cue to leave now. Can we get the check please,” I said flagging the waiter.
“We were only gonna mess with you a little bit, come on stay a little longer.”
“Nope, not today. I don’t know what else Randy has planned so I’m not taking any chances at making detours or anything. You can poke fun at me tomorrow, or waaay later tonight.”
“Why waaay later? Something happening we should know about?” Aunt Lisa teased.
“You know what’s happening later, and you can bet they won’t be quiet about it,” mom said.
“That’s for me and Randy to know, and for you to never find out, check please,” I said.
The waiter came over once he saw me with my hand in the air, and Aunt Lisa went right back into her flirtatious ways trying to tease him. “May I get anything else for you?”
“Yes we’re about to leave can we have the check please?” I asked.
“Your breakfast has already been paid for, tip included. I was told when you were on your way out to pass you this note. Have a nice rest of your day ladies.”
He handed me the note and smiled as he took our empty plates and left the table. I opened the note and a little laminated hand and foot stamp fell out of the fold of the paper.
“Don’t even think about paying for a single thing today. Instead, take this stamp and head over to the best nail shop in town for a full manicure and pedicure. The reservation is for 10:30 am so don’t be late. Feel free to take mom and Aunt Lisa with you, or not ; ).”
“Well don’t hold out Rita what does it say?” mom asked.
“All you need to know is we’re going to Botanical Works and we got about twenty minutes to make our reservations so we need to get moving right about now,” I said.
“Botanical Works? He’s really going all out! Well let’s not disappoint him then,” Aunt Lisa said.
We got up from the table, pretty excited to say the least, and headed to our next stop of the day. I was loving that he wanted to pamper me like this, but it also made me want to see him that much more. At least I would be enjoying myself until the time came where he did show up in front of me, so for now it was off to Botanical Gardens until my next surprise came.
(Randy)
I woke up mid nap so I could check on Rita’s progress and make sure she was keeping with the schedule. I looked over at Chris who was still passed out on his bed and grabbed my phone from off the floor beside me and dialed up Ashley for a progress report.
“Hey Randy. She just got to the nail shop, I see her pulling up now,” Ashley said.
“My mother and aunt should be with her, if Rita told them to come I mean,” I said.
“Yeah they’re with her, they came in separate cars. Everyone else is already here.”
“Ok. When she goes shopping it’s just you her and Stephanie. I don’t want mom and Aunt Lisa stealing the spotlight with their excessive shopping or Becky
trying on everything in the store, there’s only so much time in the day and we have to stay on schedule.”
“Yeah yeah I got it I got it. I know exactly where I’ll take her. There’s the strip that has like five dress stores right next to each other so she’s bound to find something she likes within a reasonable amount of time. See? I can be of some help.”
“That works. Make sure she picks out something she’ll look beautiful in.”
“What do you think I’m gonna do? Have her show up looking like Shrek? I got this. You just make sure you look presentable. Speaking of are you still sleeping? You sound rough.”
“Yep. I got about another hour and a half, two hours before I have to get up. Setting all this up really took a lot out of me. I wanna make sure I’m wide awake when I see her tonight.”
“Ok. I’m gonna slip in a trip to the salon. I thought about the whole doing it myself thing but since everything else is being professionally done why not her hair too? I can slip it in after the massage and shave off some time from each thing so we’ll still be on track and her hair won’t get messed up from laying on the massage table.”
“If you can fit it in without messing anything up go ahead. Doesn’t that usually take a long time though? And we didn’t set up an appointment so that’ll take even longer.”
“I can call them now and set it up for later. It’s a hair salon; if you offer them enough money they’ll miss their kids graduation to do your hair.”
“Yeah well I don’t know how that goes but ok. I’m going back to sleep for a couple more hours. I’ll call again when I get up to see how everything’s going.”
“Yes sir!” Ashley teased. “Can I do anything else for you sir!”
“Yeah you can let me hit you in the face with a dodgeball…”
“Yeah I’ll pass on that, but thanks for the offer! Talk to you later.”
She hung up and I put my phone back on the charger and rolled back onto my makeshift bed. I was enjoying the playfulness we were starting to develop, and that she threw in an impromptu hair appointment that she would definitely have to come out of pocket for scored her a few extra points too. Whatever she did with her hair I knew I’d like, as long as it didn’t look anything like Halle Berry in BAPS I was ok. I could think about her hair anytime I wanted to, I rolled over and went back to sleep while I still had a couple hours to do so.
(Rita)
Mom, Aunt Lisa and I walked into the nail shop to see Ashley, Stephanie, Marie, Dana, Becky, and Carina already sitting in six of the chairs. They weren’t being helped yet because they were probably waiting on us but there were no other customers in the shop so my guess was it was rented out for the hour or something.
“Good everybody’s here, now I can finally get my soak on,” Becky said.
“Yeah you’re gonna need all the help you can get to fix those feet,” Carina laughed.
“Don’t be a hater Carina. You’re just mad because your feet are the same size as Shaq’s.”
“Haha yeah your feet are pretty huge Carina,” Dana laughed.
“Not as big as those fake mountains you got bouncing around on your chest.”
“All real baby,” Dana said squeezing her tits. “Don’t be jealous, it’s not a good look for you.”
“So yeah hi everybody,” I interrupted. “I’m sure we all have something that’s busted on us, that’s why we’re all here, well except me, I’m flawless.”
“Yeah flawless except for that pimple popping out on your forehead,” Stephanie teased.
“A PIMPLE? WHAT? WHERE?” I said scrambling for a mirror.”
“Haha I’m just kidding. Had to bring you back down to earth with the rest of us.”
“Stephanie that wasn’t nice,” mom said. “It was funny, but it wasn’t nice.”
“I’ll have to remember that one,” Aunt Lisa said taking off her shoes and sitting in a chair.”
“This is what I’ve been dealing with since I got here,” Marie said slouching in her chair.”
“Just get some headphones and tune them out, that’s what I usually do,” Ashley said.
The workers came into the area and stood next to a chair while the lady in charge I assumed stood in the middle of all of us with her hands overlapping each other on her stomach.
“Good I see everyone’s here. Hi my name is Diana and I’ll be your host for the next hour and a half to two hours. Ms. Jennings has rented out the salon so you won’t be bothered by any other customers, and you’ll each have your own nail technician to consult with. Ms. Jennings has made it where you all are open to any designs, styles, and spa treatments you want for your hands and feet, so don’t be shy to ask for whatever you want. Now that that’s out of the way, I won’t waste any more of your time, if you have any questions our technicians are more than capable of answering them or you can call for me and I’ll be right out, enjoy yourselves ladies!”
She walked to the back and right away everyone picked up the book and went through it looking for what they wanted. I picked out the French tip manicure and pedicure with a glossy finish and a white stencil spade design on my hands and feet. It looked so pretty in my head I just had to try it out, and with it being free of charge why not. They turned on all our jets and soaked our feet while they prepped everyone’s hands to be scraped and cleaned and prepped.
“So to what do we owe the occasion Ms. Jennings?” Marie asked.
“Just a girls day out. I don’t think we’ve all ever been out at the same time, just us.”
“Keep setting up things like this and it’ll happen more often,” Dana joked.
“Yeah way to sound like a goldigger Dana,” Carina teased.
“Shut up Carina she knows what I mean. We can all pay for ourselves.”
“We could, but it’s so much nicer when Ashley does it, seeing as she won’t miss it like the rest of us would. She doesn’t have to worry about common things like rent, gas, food,” Becky said.
“I have to worry about food, I can’t cook and dad is almost never home so if I don’t order something I’ll starve. Eventually all that grease is gonna catch up with me,” Ashley said.
“That reminds me, Mrs. Stevens, umm both of you, how are you still so thin after eating the way you eat? We saw how you ate at the restaurant. You can fit into our clothes easy! What do you do, go to the gym, yoga, that p90x stuff? How do you stay in shape?” Stephanie asked.
“Ummm, I don’t really know how to answer that. Lisa?” mom said turning to Aunt Lisa.
“It’s hard to explain because we don’t even know. We both eat like pigs but we never seem to get bigger. I mean I walk all the time and Anna does whatever she
does, but other than that I don’t know. Maybe we have really high metabolism or something,” Aunt Lisa said.
“So translation, eat whatever you want and never gain a pound. Lucky!” Becky said.
“It isn’t quite clear cut like that, we do have to do some exercise, and we do eventually put on some pounds, but it always seem to fall back off after a week or so,” mom said.
“So then yeah, that’s high metabolism, like really high metabolism,” Dana said. “Hey can you run that drill thing on my cuticles? Thanks. So yeah Mrs. Stevens
you can eat like a fatty and never gain more than five pounds before your metabolism works it back off.”
“Are then pills for that or do you just have to be born with it?” Becky asked.
“To my knowledge there aren’t any pills, you just have to be born with it, but if there are pills I know what I want from you for Christmas Ashley,” Carina said.
“Please if there were pills I would’ve already had them, but then again I wasn’t like actually checking for them so who knows, there just might be something out there,” Ashley said.
“Did you inherit this too Rita or did you get skipped over? Marie asked.
“I got it too. Come on now Mrs. Wilson you’ve seen how I ate when I was at your house, don’t you think I’d be just a little bigger than I am now? And by a little I mean a lot bigger. I would at least be thirty pounds heavier than I am now,” I said.
“You lucky bitches,” Becky said. “I’m changing the subject since I’m all depressed now. What designs is everybody getting? I don’t want the same thing as someone else. I’m getting Hello Kitty imprints so if someone else picked that then change it.”
“I’m going with hot gloss pink on my hands and feet,” Stephanie said.
“I’m doing that too but I picked lime green instead of pink,” Carina said.
“I guess I’m the plain one since I picked a regular French tip design,” Aunt Lisa said.
“Nope I picked that too, I can’t pull off all that color, it hurts my eyes,” Marie said.
“I was gonna get Hello Kitty, then I saw this slut pick it so now I’m still deciding,” Dana said.
“You should’ve been faster. Not my fault I have better taste and think faster,” Becky replied.
“I like the stencil spades, and I’m gonna make them glossy so they’re all shiny,” I said.
“I saw that, that would look really nice on you. I’m sticking with my bright red, I just seem to radiate better when I have on red nail polish,” mom said.
“What did you pick Ashley? Stoner black? A death metal skull design?” Carina teased.
“I pick that one time and I’m forever branded. No I didn’t pick either one of those, I got the French tip top with a light blue and purple mix, it looks good on the
picture,” Ashley said.
“Light blue and purple? Just like on there or you getting a design? That sounds weird.”
“The design. She’s gonna do that thing where you mix them together, but you’re not really mixing them together, the colors are just touching… you’ll see when it’s done.”
We all sat quietly for a while the technicians worked on us. There was some casual small chatter but that was only to let the technicians know how something
was supposed to go or something like that. I laid my head back and relaxed as I was being taken care of.
“So Rita, any idea where you’re headed after this?” mom whispered.
“Nope, none. I don’t even know how long this is gonna go on,” I replied.
“I tell you what, if there’s a massage somewhere in here I could care less about anything else that happens, my back has been killing me lately with all that walking,” Aunt Lisa said.
“He definitely has at least a little more planned. He wrote times on everything which means he wants me done at a certain time so I can get to something else,” I said.
“And now you’re starting to inherit our investigative skills,” mom smiled. “They’re taking a while but they’re slowly coming in for you. What else did you notice?”
“Ummm, nothing yet. Was there something I missed? All I noticed was the card.”
“He has help. Most likely Ashley. How else do you think all this is getting paid for? And someone has to make sure you show up to each spot, it’s not us.”
She was right, but something felt a little off. “Or it is you. You could be trying to throw mw off. You were at the breakfast place already when I got there, you could be in on it.”
“I assure you Rita we’re not, but even if we were, this day was made to be about you, so it can’t be at all bad, so sit back and let it come to you, enjoy being a princess for a day,” Aunt Lisa said.
“Yeah I guess that’s true. Maybe noones behind it, maybe he called in a favor from Mr. Jennings. I wonder what Randy’s doing now though…”
“Probably planning the next thing, making sure he stays ahead of you.”
“Oh that’s pretty, I really like that,” I said to the technician while looking at my nails. “I changed my mind, just the stencils on my hands, just the French tip design on my feet. I don’t want to take away from how good it looks on my hands. Yeah but I mean what though, I’m curious.”
“You’ll have to wait and find out, maybe he’ll fill you in when you meet up.”
“He’s probably running around right now making sure everything is perfect for me, I know it.”
(Randy)
I rolled over on my makeshift pallet, yawned and wiped the sleep from my eyes, and checked my phone, 11:57, three minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I figured I’d get up now before I did the “five more minutes’ thing and wake up three hours later. I checked on Chris who was still knocked out on his bed looking like he could sleep for another five hours. I got up and ripped the covers off of him, causing him to curl up into a little ball.
“Come on man give me back my covers!” Chris whined.
“It’s time to get up. We can’t sleep any more we got a long day ahead of us.”
He grabbed his phone off the table. “It’s 11:58 I still got two more minutes of sleep…”
“Nope man get up. You can get in the shower first if that’ll help.”
“Just because it’s your birthday doesn’t mean you get to order me around.”
“That’s exactly what it means, now get up and get to the damn bathroom!”
“A black eye would be a bad look for your date tonight…”
“Chris please you can’t fight, Becky can beat you up, Stephanie always does.”
“That’s because I let her, and I beat her up too if you know what I mean…”
“Yeah, I’ve been witness to it. Now come on man we gotta get up and get moving.”
“Yeah yeah alright alright I’m going, don’t get all soft on me.”
“How can I? You’re talking all the soft with you.”
“You stole that from Captain America. Would it kill you for some originality?”
“Would it kill you to stop procrastinating and get in the shower?”
“It might… let’s see if I… ok I’m going man, chill,” he said when I reached for his phone.
“And try to leave me just a little hot water if you can… not a lot, just a little though.”
“You’re so funny. I’ll remember to laugh when it’s most awkward for you.”
He headed to the bathroom and I took the opportunity to call Ashley and see how things were holding up, not that I didn’t trust her, I was just curious. It took all the way to the last ring before she picked up her phone, but I wasn’t worried, they were in a nail shop after all.
“I had to get away from everybody so they wouldn’t see me answer the phone. You’re lucky I felt the vibration. What’s going on did you just wake up?” Ashley asked.
“Yeah, it took forever to get Chris up and in the shower though. How’s it working out over there? Did Rita pick out something she liked?”
“Yeah she has this nice spade design thing, you’ll see. Your aunt went with a plain French tip and your mom got bright red on her hands and feet.”
“She always gets that, she says it makes her radiate more or something like that.”
“Yeah that’s what she said. I’m about to slip out and take Rita dress shopping.”
“How are you gonna get away from everybody else? What are you gonna say?”
“I don’t know, I’ll think of something. That reminds me, since I’m taking Rita to the salon now you gotta go to the massage parlor and write a note about the salon, and then go give the salon people a note. I put it on my card, so all you have to do is go there with the note.”
“You spent enough money today as it is, you don’t need to spend any more.”
“It’s fine. I’m helping you out. If we do her hair ourselves she’ll be questioning every little thing, if its professionally done she’ll pick a style and go with it, it’s a lot easier this way.”
“If you say so I guess. It’s not like you’re gonna let me pay back the money anyway so…”
“Not even a little bit. I’m happy to do this anyway. I feel like a wedding planner.”
“HEY! That’s one word that doesn’t need to be used around here!”
“Awwww is Randy scared of marriage? Wait how would that even work for you guys?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t intend to worry about it right now, there’s way too many factors to consider, not to mention we just got to the one year mark today.”
“Yeah, another time then. Remember, change the note at the massage parlor, and the salon.”
“It would help if I knew what salon I was going to…”
“Oh yeah, that might be important. It’s called Bordeaux, it’s in the retail district downtown on LaSalle street off of Coventry, you can’t miss it. I already called ahead and let them know you were coming, so just show up with the note, explain what to do and you’re all set.”
“Ok. Looks like I have the rest of my day planned out, I better get moving.”
“Yeah you might wanna do that. I’ll talk to you at the next checkpoint.”
“Haha sounds like a plan, talk to you later Ash.”
I hung up and plotted out the rest of my day in my head. I didn’t have to rush but I didn’t wanna take my time on anything either. As long as the girls kept up with their end I’d be ok, that is if Chris ever gets out of the shower so I can get in. “Chris! Come on man I gotta get in too!”
(Rita)
“My nails look great! You deserve an extra tip for this,” I said.
“No no that’s not necessary, we’ve already been taken care of,” the technician said.
“Oh, ok then, well thanks, they look really good, and shiny. I hope it lasts for a long time.”
“It will, we used all the best supplies. I’ll go get Diana and let her know you’re done.”
She went to the back and Ashley walked over to my station, her being done as well. “Wow, yours looks really good Rita, mine came out just like I thought it
would, see.”
“That does look good, I might try something like that next time.”
“I’m gonna coin this an Ashley original, I’ll pay them to add it to their book.”
“It’s not that good,” I joked. “I’m just playing. I’m not used to you with all that color though.”
“That’s why I did it, it’s a nice change. Here comes that Diana lady.”
“I trust that your mani/pedi came out to your liking?” Diana asked as she approached us.
“Yes it did, I love it. I’ll definitely be coming back for another,” I said.
“I’m glad to hear you say that, always nice to get a new customer. Since everything is in order here, I’m to give you this and you’re to be on your way. Have a
nice rest of your day Rita.”
I thanked her and opened the note she gave me which I assumed was from Randy again.
“Now that your hands and feet are taken care of, it’s time to find a dress to go along with them. Take Stephanie and Ashley with you, their difference in taste might come in handy. Go to the fashion district with all the clothes stores in a row, I’m sure Ashley knows where it is.”
“Hey Ashley, is Stephanie done with her mani/pedi?” I asked.
“She’s just about finished up now, you want us to come with you?”
“Yeah Randy put it in the note. What are we gonna tell everyone else though?”
“I can take care of it. After they’re finished with their mani/pedis I can have them get facials, and then I’ll have them all sent off to somewhere else to distract
them from us leaving.”
“Ok sounds like a plan. He wants us to go to the fashion district…?”
“I know it, just follow behind me, I’ll have us there in no time.”
Ashley set up the facials for everyone and Stephanie and I followed her to the part of town where only the rich people shop. I knew now for sure that Randy called in a favor from Mr. Jennings. There was no way we could afford to shop there on our own, the lowest I heard of a dress costing in one of these stores was a thousand dollars, that’s the lowest. You know what I could do with a thousand dollars? Not buy a dress that’s for damn sure, but since he went through the trouble and it’s most likely already paid for, I’ll see if anything catches my eye. We got out and went to the first of the stores on the strip, Vido, and went inside to look around.
“Yeah I don’t think I can afford to even stand in here,” Stephanie joked.
“You get that feeling too? I feel seriously underdressed being in here,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it, we’re paying customers, or already paid in advance customers I should say haha. Let’s see if we can find something in here for you Rita,” Ashley said.
We walked all the way in and a middle aged lady in a white business suit walked towards us.
“Hi, welcome to Vido, I’m LeAnn, if you see anything you like or need any help with anything just let me or any of the other sales associates know and they’ll help you.”
We went through the racks looking for something that was A… not too expensive, I still didn’t feel right spending a lot of money regardless, B… that was dressy but not too dressy, I didn’t wanna look like I was dressing for the red carpet to eat at Burger King, and C… that I looked good in, that one isn’t as easy as it seems. We went from rack to rack in the store and I couldn’t find anything that met all three criteria, so we left and went to the next store in line, Frenchie’s. just like in Vido, we couldn’t find anything that fit the criteria, even though a couple of them came close, but that wasn’t good enough, I wanted to look beautiful for Randy. He deserved the best, especially after all he was doing for me, and I would give him no less than that. We ran through the next few stores, Christie’s, Town Avenue, and Posh Company, but in all those stores nothing stood out to me. We got to the last one on the strip, P.T.E., and by this point I was feeling like I wouldn’t find a dress that I liked.
“I saved the best for last, this is my favorite of all the stores here,” Ashley said.
“And my last hope. I didn’t see anything I liked in any of the other stores,” I said.
“You will here, I guarantee it. If you don’t then your favorite dress doesn’t exist.”
“I hope this wasn’t timed, we’ve been here for a while now.”
“Not really, only thirty minutes actually, you never got past looking at everything so we never tried anything on, and these aren’t exactly department stores,” Stephanie said.
“I guess that’s a good thing then. Well let’s go see what’s in here,” I said.
We walked in and at first glance it looked just like all the other stores, like it was too expensive for our tastes, but for the hell of it we went in anyway. There were a good chunk of customers in there with us, unlike the other stores that only had maybe a few people, so maybe this was the better out of all the stores in the area. Just like all the other stores, there was a lady who came up to greet us as we made our way in, this lady was younger than the others though.
“Hi ladies, my name is Rebecca, is there anything specific you’re looking for today?”
“Umm, yeah,” I said. “Something that is elegant, but not too dressy, that would look good against my skin tone and blonde hair. I don’t know if I got specific enough.”
“No you did fine, more than usual actually. Most people that come in here don’t know what they want. I think we can find you something Ms…”
“Rita, I’m Rita. This is Stephanie and A… well we had another girl with us a second ago.”
“Rita? It’s nice to meet you Rita. If you need anything just let me know.”
“Will do. Thanks Rebecca. I’m banking on this store to come through for me.”
“I’m sure we’re up to the challenge, happy hunting ladies.”
She went off and Stephanie went to look at one rack on one side and I went to an area in the back. Ashley was back there talking to someone, and then started looking at dresses on the rack that was near her. Every few seconds they both yelled my name and showed me a few they liked from different sides of the store and nothing they showed me appealed to me. Randy was right, they had totally opposite taste when it came to dresses. I decided to search the middle racks between the areas they were looking in since some of the other customers had left the area. I was beginning to think I was just way too picky when I saw it, a gorgeous black floor length dress with spaghetti straps and a spade pattern design in the cloth that resembled my nails with the same pattern. It was silky and smooth, and everything I wanted in a dress, and it was just about my size.
“Guys, I found it!” I shouted in the room so Ashley and Stephanie could hear me.
“You did? Let me see. Oooh Rita that is beautiful!” Stephanie said.
“Yeah Rita that’s gonna look really good on you! You should try it on,” Ashley said.
“I’m going to. I hope there’s no change in size or it looks smaller than it really is.”
“Well this is a store for anorexic girls so it just might be,” Stephanie laughed.
“It’s a good thing we didn’t bring Dana and her huge tits then,” Ashley laughed.
“Or Rita’s mom and aunt, they’d never pack their tits into these small dresses.”
I laughed as I went back to the dressing room. I stripped down to my bra and panties and stepped into the dress, and to my absolute delight it slid on me like a glove. The material it was made of made it so it slid right up my body without any issue, and I was able to zip it up without a problem. It had a slit on the leg that stopped just under mid-thigh and it angled at the bottom but would drag across the floor, it was perfect. I walked out to show Stephanie and Ashley and the looks on their faces showed they thought the same thing I did.
“I… love this dress,” I said. “This is definitely the one.”
“You look so beautiful in that Rita! Randy’s gonna love it!” Stephanie said.
“That looks really good Rita. That fits you perfect in almost every way,” Ashley said.
“I know right! I love this! This is definitely the one, I don’t need to look at anything else.”
“How much is it? That material makes me think it’s hella expensive,” Stephanie asked.
I was caught up in how perfect the dress was I didn’t even think to check the price tag. I checked the tag on the side of the dress and instantly my heart sank.
“I can’t get this, it’s way too much. This dress is $4000,” I said.
“So what? If Randy told you to come here then it’s already paid for,” Ashley said.
“But how did he know I’d get a dress from this store? We were in like four others, how’d he know which one I’d get one from, and how’d he know how much the dress would cost?”
“I don’t know, but he does. You have to get that dress Rita, you have to.”
“I want it so bad, but what if he has to do oddwork or something? This is a lot of money.”
“He definitely set this up with my dad. It’s covered Rita, I promise.”
I looked at myself in the full length mirror. Ashley was right, Randy has been ahead of us all day, and if I didn’t get this when I had the perfect chance to I’d never forgive myself. “Ok, I’ll get it.”
“Good! I was gonna say! That dress is way too beautiful to pass up,” Stephanie said.
“I just threw out all the rules I had for shopping for a dress, but I guess I can make an exception this one time. I mean look at this, I can give Jennifer Lawrence a run for her money in this!”
“Yeah you can, now take it off before you put a run in that before Randy sees you in it.”
I went back to the back and put back on my clothes, which felt so plain after being in that dress. Even the hanger it was on looked like it cost a lot of money. I was careful not to drag the bottom of the dress on the ground or fold it against its creases as I carried it out of the dressing room and up to Rebecca at the cashier, who was smiling at me as I made my way to her.
“I see we’ve made a choice, oh and a very good choice at that,” Rebecca said.
“Yeah I really like this one, even though it’s four thousand dollars,” I said.
“No worries there, it’s already been paid for. It’s yours as soon as I wrap it up.”
“But how did they know what dress I’d pick? What if it was too much?”
“They gave me the price of the most expensive dress in the store, so whatever you picked would be covered, then I’d just refund the difference.”
“I went to like four other stores before this one. I guess they knew I’d get a dress from here.”
“My guess is they did the same thing in the other stores just in case. Ok, you’re all set! You’re now the proud owner of a beautiful one of a kind designer dress.
You’ll turn plenty of heads wearing this. Oh, and before I forget, I’m to give you this card before you leave.”
She handed me another card that Randy has been giving everyone who helped me today.
“Now that you picked out your dream dress, go grab yourself something to eat. I’m sure you know what place to go to. Sit at the table we always sit at, and when you’re done, accidentally drop your fork under the table. Your food should be ready for you upon your arrival.”
I put the card in my pocket with all the other ones. I wanted to keep everything about this day, from the cards, to food receipts, to price tags, this was all going in my memory book.
“Thanks Rebecca, I guess I’m off to my next stop now,” I said.
“Thank you Rita, stop in anytime. I’ll talk to the mystery person to see about leaving the money there for a tab so you come back and pick another dress out,
maybe two or three more.”
“Geez how much does your most expensive dress cost?”
“Just over fifteen thousand, so you’d have a little over eleven thousand in store credit.”
“Wow. Well I’m gonna enjoy this dress for now. thanks again.”
I met up with Ashley and Stephanie at the door. They were talking and laughing amongst each other. To my relief they kept on as I approached them. I always got paranoid when I saw someone laughing and looking at me, but they waved me over, which eased my tension.
“So what the card say? Where we going to now?” Stephanie asked.
“To eat at Café Stratos. Randy said our food will be ready when we get there,” I said.
“I don’t know how he’s gonna pull that off, but ok. Hey we were talking, before we do that let’s stop in Victoria’s Secret first. You have a brand new dress and new heels, you might as well have new underwear for tonight too, be completely decked out,” Ashley said.
“That would be nice. Wait, I don’t have new heels…”
“You do now,” Ashley said as she picked the box up from behind her. “Two inch, silk. The best.”
“Is that why you ran off when we came in? Finding me some shoes?”
“That and other things. Ok let’s go, if he says our food is gonna be ready when we get there then we better get in and out fast, even though I don’t see that
happening.”
“Haha I was just about to say that. No way we’re in and out of Victoria’s Secret,” Steph said.
“Well it’s close so let’s hurry up, we have to go back to the other side of town,” I said. “I don’t wanna mess up Randy’s schedule. He’s probably working real hard on it right this second.”
(Randy)
I don’t know why I felt the need to rush while I was flipping notes, I had plenty of time, but it felt necessary so that’s what I did. My day was nowhere near as full as Rita’s, so I had plenty of spare time, just as long as I didn’t get too carried away. I sent Rita to Café Stratos and Chris and I went to the Applebee’s next door so I could stalk her, friendly stalk. I just wanted to catch a peek of her before I’d see her tonight, even though the waiting was building all kinds of anticipation. We sat as close as we could by the window facing Café Stratos’ parking lot so we could see them get out, my idea, not Chris’ of course.
“Yeah that doesn’t look stalkerish at all man,” Chris joked.
“Yeah whatever, I just wanna see how her day is going that’s all,” I said.
“With all the stuff you packed in it for her I’m sure she’s hella busy.”
“I left some leeway time in there just in case they went a little overboard on the time.”
“Did you leave some improvise time in there? Because you know they’re gonna add some stuff in there you didn’t plan for. A couple side trips here and there, it adds up man.”
“No I didn’t think of that, I just expected Ashley to keep Rita on the schedule.”
“Haha you what! Come on man you know better than that. Women shop. If you didn’t cover all the bases, and I mean all the bases, then she definitely added it in somewhere.”
“I don’t think so, she knows she has to stick to the time, everything is time crucial.”
“Randy Randy Randy… I see my work with women isn’t finished with you yet. You’ll learn man. If all your bases aren’t covered then you best believe she’ll do it
for you. She already did once today with the salon, what else did you miss, makeup? Shoes? A pony?”
“You got jokes. Hey the foods here. I’m not worried one bit.”
“Ok man, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Hey let me get one of those sliders…”
“Only if you trade one of your mozzarella sticks, AND some marinara sauce too.”
“I only got five man, these things are little. I’ll give you half of one.”
“I got these little ass sliders too! One for one, or no deal.”
“Fine. The rest of the food should be coming out soon anyway, I’m starving.”
“Me too, but I don’t wanna get too full and not be able to eat tonight.”
“Yeah that makes sense I guess. Don’t get full then, I’ll finish it for you.”
“You would you fat ass. Can I at least eat one first before you snatch my plate?”
“Yeah I’ll be nice. One. We can paper rock scissors for the rest to be fair.”
We sat and ate our appetizers as we waited for the rest of our food to come out. I kept looking out the window across the parking lot waiting for Rita to pop up, but she didn’t come. I should’ve known not to put a time limit on a shopping trip. They’re probably still in the second store right now trying everything on. The only positive is that mom, Aunt Lisa and the other girls aren’t with them, because then they’d never leave that street. The rest of our food came a little while later and we sat and ate, me still looking out the window, waiting for a familiar car to pull up, but it never showing up.
“I’m telling you man, they went somewhere else, or they’re still shopping,” Chris said.
“Nope, Ashley knows it’s a tight schedule, she wouldn’t steer from it without telling me.”
“It probably happened so fast she didn’t even think about it. Come on man, you’re talking about giving girls free stuff, they’re gonna exploit that every way possible.”
“Yeah. I still think it’s under control though. Ashley knows how important this is.”
“Ok. Then where are they? How long have we been sitting here with no sign of them? Tell you what, at least call her so you know what’s happening, and if I’m right, which I know I am, you have to buy my food for the next month, and vice versa if I’m wrong, deal?”
I paused for a second, and then smiled. “You know what? Deal. No way I’m wrong.”
I pulled up Ashley’s call log and hit redial. It took a few rings to answer, but when she did, she wasn’t whispering or anything, she was giggling with Stephanie I think.
“Hey Randy, checking in again so soon are we?” Ashley teased.
“Where are you guys? Why haven’t you made it to Café Stratos yet?” I asked.
“We made a little pit stop at Victoria’s Secret. Wait, how’d you know we aren’t there yet?”
“Me and Chris are in the Applebee’s across the street waiting for you.”
“Yeah that’s not creepy at all. You’re not supposed to see her until tonight.”
“I know, I just wanted to catch a little glimpse of her, that’s all.”
“Now I’m glad we made another stop. Stop being sneaky. You can’t see her until she’s all prettied up, stop trying to be James Bond and catch a sneak peek!”
“James Bond? He doesn’t fit in that reference, you should’ve said somebody like…”
“You know what I’m trying to say! Stay away! No more sneaky crap!”
“You’re gonna fall behind schedule if you start making side trips!”
“Check you watch, we’re actually ahead five minutes, and we’re pretty much leaving now, she picked out some sexy stuff, and a lot faster than it took to find her a dress.”
“Well as long as she’s walking up to the place on time, I guess it’s fine.”
“So I take it I was right then? I knew it. Can’t believe you doubted me man,” Chris gloated.
“Can’t even wait for me to get off the phone huh? She’ll be there on time right Ash?”
“She’ll be there on time, stop worrying, just make sure you’re there on time.”
“I have no reason not to be, I got like two things to do before I gotta be there.”
“Well make sure you do them. Your end is more important than hers.”
“I’m on top of it. I’ll call back sometime after your lunch to check in again.”
“Of course you will. Just hope we’re not near any water because I can’t answer then.”
“Then I’ll keep calling until you do. Don’t make me be annoying, I can be annoying.”
“I’ll just take your word for it. Ok she’s coming, we’re going to eat, talk to you later.”
She hung up and I put my phone back on the table and tried to avoid eye contact with Chris. I could just feel him grinning knowing he won the bet and he couldn’t wait to gloat.
“So uh, I’ll start my month now, you got this, and you know what? I think I want dessert now! Two slices of Hershey’s crème pie and a brownie ice cream sundae coming right up!”
“Asshole. Go right ahead, I’m not paying for it anyway. Everything we do today has already been taken care of ahead of time, so you can stuff your fat little face all you want.”
“Everything? Dude we need to go to a Mercedes or BMW dealership right now then!”
“Yeah everything but stuff like that. Mr. Jennings is grateful, but I don’t think he’s buy a brand new expensive ass car for me and a friend grateful.”
“Hey man you never know until you try. Look at everything else he’s doing.”
“I just don’t wanna keep asking for stuff, you know? This is already beyond enough. Even though he’s the one that keeps offering, I don’t wanna keep taking.
There’s a line between being grateful and taking advantage and I’m getting close to it.”
“How can you be when none of it was your idea? I mean yeah you came up with the ideas, but they’re the ones who decided to slap a million dollars on it and make everything gold plated and tie it up with a diamond. They’re offering to pay man, so let them, it’ll feel like an insult if you don’t, and you never wanna insult a rich person, it never ends well.”
“Yeah, but still, I don’t wanna just accept it right away, gotta act like I don’t want it…”
My phone rang with mom calling in, so I answered it on the third ring. “Hey mom.”
“Hi honey. How’s things going so far?”
“Pretty good. Everything’s still on track despite a couple sidetracks on Rita’s end.”
“It’s not anything bad is it? We don’t want anything bad to happen today.”
“No it’s nothing bad, Ashley just added in some extra stops that’s all.”
“Oh. Are you comfortable letting her take the lead on this? I’m not trying to start any trouble or anything, but given her past I’m always gonna be a little skeptical of her.”
“I don’t blame you. Yeah I am. She came a long way mom. She picked up trash on the freeway because one of the people she apologized to asked her to do it.
She has a shady past but she’s going above and beyond to try and put it behind her.”
“Ok. If you trust her, then I trust her. A change in her has been pretty obvious since that whole incident, and you know me, I pick up on everything.”
“No one caught on to anything at the manicure place did they?”
“Nope. I’m as good an actress as I am at deciphering people. It’s a natural talent.”
“A talent that doesn’t seem to pass down to the next generation all the way…”
“Some stuff you have to pick up on your own. If it were easy everyone could do it.”
“Yeah I guess. Is Aunt Lisa still with you? Where are you guys at now?”
“We’re still at the salon. So far we’ve all gotten a manicure, pedicure, facial, and a skin treatment. I think they might even do bikini waxes here. I’m not doing that.”
“So all in all you had a full body day? That doesn’t happen a lot.”
“Yeah pretty much, we haven’t had anything to do with massages or like I said the wax, but other than that yeah full body day. These girls haven’t stopped bickering yet.”
“It’s like that all the time. Imagine dealing with that on a daily basis.”
“I’d wanna rip my ears off. Becky’s voice starts to get squeaky after a while.”
“HEY! I HEARD THAT MRS. STEVENS!” I heard Becky yell through the phone.
“NOT YOU BECKY, ANOTHER BECKY! I gotta be a little more quiet with my insults.”
“Well at least you’re having fun. How’s Aunt Lisa and Marie doing?”
“Lisa is finishing up her skin treatment and Marie decided to put some color on her nails after all. She went with baby blue, which actually kinda works with her because of her pale skin.”
“Sounds like you have the whole scoop. You should give that wax thing a try mom.”
“I’ll pass. Even if I was to consider it, I’d have to be in an actual massage parlor.”
“Yeah, not like you have much of anything to wax anyway haha.”
“There’s always that. I’m not really a fan of too much hair on me, except my head.”
“Ok mom, I should get back at it, I don’t wanna fall behind schedule.”
“Ok honey. I’m so proud of you, sticking through it when everything almost fell apart.”
“Rita is very much worth it mom. And remember, she can’t know that you know about this.”
“I know I know I won’t say anything. Keep giving me stuff like this to do and I won’t have time to say anything to her. It would’ve been nice to go shopping with her.”
“We don’t have that kind of time mom, you’d be in there all day with her and you know it.”
“All that means is more mother daughter bonding time. That’s not such a bad thing.”
“It is when we’re on a schedule. You can go shopping with her tomorrow, or the day after.”
“I’m gonna hold you to that. Remember I don’t forget anything, especially shopping.”
“I remember. I wouldn’t offer it unless I was serious.”
“Just making sure we’re on the same page. Oh and before I forget, you should fit in a talk with your father before you meet up with Rita, a get his thoughts kind of thing.”
“Yeah I was thinking about that, I just might. Ok, gotta go mom, love you.”
“I love you too honey, and good luck tonight, even though you don’t need it.”
I hung up the phone and grabbed for some food off my plate only to see that most of it had been eaten already. “Really? You couldn’t wait until I got off the phone?”
“It would’ve been cold by then, besides, I’m helping you, you don’t need to get full anyway.”
“I’d like to eat SOMETHING though. I don’t want my stomach making those weird noises.”
“I left you enough to go on, you’ll be fine. We have to get going in a few minutes anyway.”
“They’ll probably be showing up in… damn they’re already there, I missed them.”
“You mean you were too busy being normal to stalk them and didn’t see them pull in?”
“If that’s the way you wanna word it then yeah. I guess it’s for the best. It probably would take away from tonight if I saw her before it was time.”
“Exactly. Now you can focus on you, because you still have some things you need to do.”
“I’m aware, apparently eating isn’t one of them. I can eat this on the way out, let’s go.”
“You pay the bill and I’ll leave the tip, I won’t be a complete douche. And don’t think I didn’t notice you didn’t get my ice cream and brownie, I’ll just save it for another time.”
“We were at your house entirely too long, you’re getting fat just like us.”
“I’m not proud of it, but hey, I like food, what are you gonna do. Ok man let’s go, we got an appointment and we don’t even know where this place is so let’s get a move on.”
I finished the little bit of food Chris left for me, paid the bill and headed outside. I walked to his car and looked over to the other parking lot at our car. Knowing she was in there made me wanna go in and say hi, but I didn’t wanna take away from tonight, plus it would be completely lame running in there without a reason and making it unnecessarily awkward. Chris honked his horn and I opened the car door and got in as he drove away. This was as close as I had been to her all day, and I still had a few more hours to get through. Maybe she knew I was there. In any case, I still had things to do on my end and couldn’t let any more time pass, so I would just have to settle for maybe she did see me. I couldn’t wait until tonight.
(Rita)
I could’ve sworn I thought I saw Chris car parked in the Applebee’s next door. It has that bumper sticker on it from when it was his dad’s car, but I didn’t get a good look at it, and by the time I went to look again the car was gone. If Chris was there then Randy was definitely with him. It would’ve been nice to see Randy. I’m enjoying everything he’s doing for me today but I really just wanna see him, even if he just bursts in here for just a second and leaves, that would be enough. I’ll just have to wait to see him tonight I guess.
“RITA! You in there!” Denise said as she waved her hand in front of my face giggling.
“Oh! Sorry Denise, I had one of my daydream moments again,” I laughed.
“I noticed. You’ve been scooping the salad for about five minutes now.”
“Yeah, I guess I’m pretty distracted, I’ve got a big day going on right now.”
“I’d say so, we had a call ahead order to have food ready to go at a certain time, which never happens here. Once I heard Mr. Jennings voice I knew it had to do
with you guys. So are you gonna fill me in, what’s the big occasion?”
“It’s mine and Randy’s birthday today, he’s sort of doing a scavenger hunt thing today.”
“Oh that sounds fun! I wish someone would do that with me. I’m good at scavenger hunts.”
“Well its kinda hard to say actually, it’s not a scavenger hunt really because I’m not looking for anything, more like I’m getting sent to places through notes. I read it and it has my next stop on it. It has the same effect though, I’m excited for the next note I have to read.”
“And Randy’s doing it? it must be awesome having a twin like that!”
“It really is, but I don’t think he’s doing it on his own. A few places I’ve been to I can’t even afford to walk by let alone shop in.”
“Mr. Jennings is helping him. He called to set up the food to be ready at this time.”
“I thought so. At first I thought it was Ashley, but she’s been with me the whole day.”
“Yeah. Well don’t let me hold you up from getting your star treatment. Your food should be coming out any second now. You probably wanna read another one
of those notes and see where you end up next right?”
“Wait he didn’t give you a note? He usually gave them to the store owners.”
“Uhhh there wasn’t one near the register at all, and no one gave me anything today. Maybe ha gave it to my father, I’ll ask him when I go get your food.”
“Ok, I’ll go back to the table then. I need to eat something.”
I walked back to our table to see Ashley and Stephanie laughing with each other. They looked up at me and waved me over without breaking their cycle of laughter.
“Hey we were just saying, do you think we should tell Denise about, you know?” Steph asked.
“ABOUT ME…” I started before I realized I was talking too loud. “About me and Randy? Nooo! We don’t know how she’d react to that, and I like eating here,” I whispered.
“To be honest I don’t think she’d care, she seems cool with everything,” Ashley said.
“Did you care when you first found out? Because it sure seemed like you did.”
“I was completely different. For one, I was a serious bitch, and two, she’s nothing like I was. Even when she was pissed at me about her brother she was calm.”
I sat for a minute. “I still don’t know. I think it’s too soon.”
“Ok, say we don’t tell her now, then we go through this whole day that she was a part of, and we tell her like a month down the line, you think she’d be upset she wasn’t in on it? Or would the fact that you’re brother and sister cancel that whole thing out?” Stephanie asked.
“I don’t know, see that’s why I don’t wanna say anything, not at least until we find out how she feels on the subject. Right now she thinks it’s just a birthday thing
Randy is doing for me, so let’s just keep it at that. Here she comes, change the subject!”
“Ok everybody, they never specified who was getting what, so I’m just gonna sit this down on the table and hope everybody likes something that’s here,” Denise said.
“Well you know what I’m eating,” I said. “Pass me the chicken parmesan.”
“That leaves the Greek pork chops and spaghetti and meatballs, anyone?”
“I’ll take either or, whatever Steph doesn’t pick I’ll take the other,” Ashley said.
“In that case I’ll get the pork chops, they look good with the green beans,” Steph said.
“Ok. I have orange Fanta, Cola, and Sprite, I’m guessing it’s the same thing with that too?”
“Nope I want the Sprite, Steph can get the Cola or the Fanta,” Ashley said.
“Steph can get the Cola, the Fanta is mine,” I laughed as I snatched it.
“Bunch of heathens. I’ll take the Cola, but only because I wanted to,” Steph said.
“It’s always fun when you guys come in here. Oh, Rita, I checked to see if a note came at all, nothing did. Maybe someone threw it away on accident or something.”
“I don’t know, it would’ve had my name on it like all the other ones…”
“Maybe he didn’t leave a note here. Maybe you’re supposed to wing it?” Steph said.
“Then how would I know where to go next? He’s been leading me all day,” I said.
“Let’s figure that out when we get to it. If we have to call him to find out what’s going on we will. Did Randy pay you already?” Ashley asked.
“It wasn’t Randy, it was your dad Ashley. He called and set up the whole thing. He paid over the phone, too much actually, but he insisted I kept it.”
“Knowing dad he probably gave you a thousand dollars for a fifty dollar meal,” Ashley said.
“Basically yeah. It came out to bout thirty dollars and he said charge his card for a thousand. I tried to tell him he’s done enough be he kept insisting until I gave in.”
“Yep, that’s dad. It’s a wonder I turned out how I did, you know before the thing.”
“Well at least you aren’t like that anymore. I’ll go call him to see if he was supposed to leave a message, while you guys eat, I don’t wanna mess up your day in any kind of way Rita.”
“It wouldn’t be your fault Denise, but if you wanna check that’s ok with me.”
She took the tray and went to the back and we started eating. I knew I shouldn’t eat the whole thing because Randy probably had dinner planned for us and I didn’t wanna be too full to eat, plus whatever else he had planned for me leading up to the dinner I wanted to be able to move around for. I would just play it as I went. I knew I could eat a lot of food but I didn’t wanna chance it today. The second I felt like I was getting full I was gonna stop. It would be a shame to find the perfect dress and not be able to fit into it five hours later haha.
“So what do you think Randy has planned for the rest of the day?” Stephanie asked.
“I don’t know, what else can he possibly do? A massage, tickets to a concert, pretty soon we’ll run out of daylight so it can’t be that much more planned,” I said.
“Girl you better enjoy whatever else he planned. If he sent you to the zoo you better enjoy the hell outta those animals, monkeys and all, even those spitting llama things.”
“Ew, I’ll pass on the llamas. I wouldn’t mind going to the zoo though, we haven’t been in a long time. There’s a lot of places we haven’t been in a long time.”
“We can do all that stuff when we get to Seattle. I heard they have one of the best aquariums in the U.S. it’s supposed to put the one we have here to shame.”
“I haven’t been reading up on any of the sights, I’ve mostly been looking for places to stay and jobs so we can all maybe try to work at the same place, or same hours at least.”
“I still can’t believe you’re all going to Seattle without me. What am I supposed to do here with Becky, Dana, and Carina? It’s gonna be non-stop cat fighting,” Ashley said.
“If you set up a pool with Jell-O in it I bet you can make a good buck off of it,” I laughed.
“Yeah but then where’s the fun in it for me? I’m sure as hell not doing it.”
“You can be the Don King of it all, the catfight in the limelight, the double D’s vs the A’s and B’s, the showdown in rich town, the triply tally down in the valley…”
“Haha are you done! Some of those actually sound pretty good though,” Ashley laughed.
“I’d come back to see that. Ashley you’re more than welcome to come visit us once were there, and we’ll come back here too, and with your father having a helicopter we can exchange trips more often than we could than if we had to drive twelve hours,” I said.
“Yeah I don’t even like planes and helicopters and stuff, but that hour ride sounds a lot better than being in a car for half the day. As long as I had a parachute in the helicopter with me I think I’d be ok. I’m not taking any chances on a box with wings,” Stephanie said.
“Really? Whose scared to fly in this day and age?” Ashley asked.
“I am! Planes crash Ashley! I don’t like being in situations where I have no control, and if a plane starts going down there’s nothing you can do about it, so I’ll pass on that. A helicopter at least I can open the door and jump out with the parachute on. I’m kinda on the fence about boats, I’ve seen the Titanic and Poseidon and every other boat and plane movie like that, I don’t wanna end up like Tom Hanks on an island talking to a ball for four years.”
“So is it just planes and boats or you won’t do any thrill seeking things?” I asked.
“I won’t scuba dive, I won’t bungee jump, I won’t skydive, I won’t go mountain climbing…”
“So basically you won’t do anything that’s fun? That’s how you feel alive!”
“Yeah exactly, I wanna feel alive, all those things increases my chances of being dead.”
“Well since you said that now we’re gonna have to do one of those things,” I smiled.
“Well you’re gonna be doing it without me because I’m not going.”
“If you had to pick one of those, just one, which one would you pick?”
“They’re all stupid! Scuba diving your air tanks could mess up, bungee jumping your cord could break, skydiving your parachute could not open, mountain climbing you can lose your grip and fall off, there’s no safe thing! If I had to pick one, I’d do the bungee jumping, but only at the place here because they have that big pillow thing if the cord breaks.”
“Then that’s the one we’re gonna do. Ok I’m kinda getting full so I’m gonna stop eating now. I don’t know what else he has planned so I don’t know how much time until we eat again,” I said.
“We never got a note so where are we supposed to go from here?” Stephanie asked.
“I’ll check with Denise one more time when she comes out, and if there’s still no note we’ll just have to call Randy, but one of you will do it, I don’t wanna
interfere with the mystery isolation theme he has going on today. I’ll see if I can go get her.”
“Here she comes now, and it doesn’t look like she has a note with her,” Ashley said.
“Sorry Rita, no note or anything, Mr. Jennings just called to make reservations,” Denise said.
“Ok. He must’ve forgot then. We’ll just have to call him and find out where to go next.”
“Ok. If everybody’s done I can clear off the table then. Did anyone want any dessert or anything? They didn’t say anything about it but we could whip up something real quick.”
“No we’re ok, we don’t wanna eat too much, who knows what else we have for the day.”
“Ok then, I’ll be back in a little bit, don’t leave yet, I wanna know what’s next.”
“Alright I guess I’ll call him, I can yell at him for missing a crucial clue,” Ashley said.
“Did the last note say there wasn’t gonna be a note here or something? It seems like an awful lot of planning to slip up and miss a note like that,” Stephanie said.
When she said that it reminded me of something the last note said, something about dropping a fork under the table. I got down and looked under the table, and bam, a note with my name taped under it. I laughed to myself as I pulled it off and flashed it to Steph and Ashley.
“That sneaky little… was it under there the whole time?” Steph asked.
“Yep. That’s why Denise never knew about it, he snuck it in here.”
“Well he gets points for creativity, but what if someone else sat at this table?”
“I don’t know, but we got it now so let’s see what it says.”
“By now you probably asked Denise a million times about a note. Sorry about that, but I didn’t tell her because I didn’t want her to get suspicious about anything, it’s too soon for her to know, but don’t you get stressed about it, instead I set up an appointment for you to relieve all your stress at the Heavenly Hands massage parlor. I heard the give the best massages in town, so I want you to get the best rub down possible, preferably by a woman 🙂 ”
“We’re going to Heavenly Hands massage parlor,” I smiled.
“Heavenly Hands, I heard there are lesbians there who can’t wait to get their hands on another female body, happy ending and all,” Stephanie laughed.
“Well what are we waiting for then, let’s go! I need touching!” Ashley said grinning.
“Hold on let’s wait for Denise to come back, I told her I’d wait for her,” I said.
“Ok but we can’t wait too long, like you said who knows what else Randy has planned, we gotta keep on his imaginary schedule if we’re gonna stay on track,” Stephanie said.
We waited for about a minute or two before Denise came back to where we were. As she walked over I waved the note in the air at her to let her know I found it.
“You had it on you the whole time? Where was it?” Denise asked.
“Under the table, Randy came in and taped it under the table sometime today.”
“But when? I was here all day, I didn’t see Randy come in at all… unless he was watching whenever I went to the back and came in then, haha that’s pretty sneaky!”
“Yep, now were off to get massaged at the Heavenly Hands massage parlor.”
“I wish I could get a massage, but my dad would never go for it. He’d probably think it was some grown man trying to touch me or something. It’d still be nice though.”
“You’ll have to come with us sometime. I could convince your dad to let you, we can pass it off as a girls day out. He’s seen us enough to know who we are, not
to mention the business your dad and my dad are about to enter into. He shouldn’t have a problem with it,” Ashley said.
“If you could do that I’d really appreciate it. I know you have to get going so I won’t hold you up, just save me a spot next time if you can.”
“Sure thing Denise, we’ll see you later. Don’t work too hard,” I said.
“No chance of that happening here haha, enjoy the rest of your day, and happy birthday!”
We left out and got in the car headed to the massage parlor. Randy was clever enough to sneak the note in without anyone noticing, but I could swear I saw him when we first got to the restaurant. I don’t know, maybe it was all the excitement or something, I didn’t get a good look, but I’d see him soon enough, after I got all pretty for him. I couldn’t wait.
