Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
For the next four hours or so,
I forgot all about being broke or being a shrewd business woman and was
initiated into the clan. That’s the only description I could come up with, The
clan. The five of them had grown up together and had known each other right
from kindergarten. Through the years, they’d stuck together even when they had
all gone off to different universities and lived in different cities. Matt had
gone off to McGill, Bella to Toronto and Raj all the way to Houston while Liam
and Adele had stayed behind in Edmonton. After Uni, they had all found their
way back to Edmonton and the clan had been re-united.
You couldn’t have found a more
interesting group of people and watching them all evening was a pleasurable
experience. I couldn’t find any two people in that group that were of similar
characters yet each person seemed to compliment the others in just the right
places. It was like having pieces of a very complicated puzzle with no two
pieces similar, yet each one fitting nicely in place to create a well, very
colourful picture! I liked each one of them instantly, from the very eccentric
Bella, to cool, calm and collected Adele. Matt was the heart of the clan,
witty, sweet and unflappable. Raj was the voice of reason, the grown-up who
kept everyone in line. At least he tried to. He was such an English man, all
prim and proper and polite. It was a shock to know he’d never been to England,
he would have fit in so well.
After the show, we headed to Café
Sorrentino and of course Raj held the door open for the ladies to go in first.
He was so adorable it was hard to take him seriously sometimes and he reminded
me so much of Timmy Patel. Inside we were lucky to snag a table just big enough
to fit us all in and Matt brought an extra chair over from another table and squeezed
it in.
“What’s
everyone having?” Matt asked.
“Ladies?” of course Raj asked the ladies
first.
“Can’t
make up my mind yet.” Adele said. “I’ll come with you.”
“Bells?” Matt asked.
“The
usual.” She said and made her way towards the rest rooms. “And a muffin.” She
called out above the noise.
“Lemon and ginger tea please.” I said.
“Just a coffee for me.” Liam said looking at
me across the tiny round table and I wanted to disappear from sight! “With milk
please!”
“Come on, give me a break!” I hissed
immediately the others were out of ear-shot.
“What?” He asked with false innocence.
“They’ll think I’m a dolt! What a great first
impression!”
“Of course not, they love you!”
“Pretty please, don’t ever tell anyone about
the Cheerios!” I implored.
“Come on, they’ll think it’s really cute.”
“Serious, promise you’ll never bring it up!”
“Bring
what up?” Bells asked taking the seat beside me.
“Nothing!” I said much too quickly, shooting
Liam a warning look.
“Just something that…”
“You promised!” I hissed slapping his hand
across the table.
“No
I didn’t!”
“Hmmnnn, interesting.” Bells said, leaning in
to get the gist. “What’s our Chezza been up to?”
“So one day, Frankie invites me up for
coffee.” Liam started and I covered my face in embarrassment. I’m going to kill
him, Mark Petersburg or not!
Then Bells’ phone rang. Who would
have thought, saved by the bell, both puns intended!
“Hold
that thought.” she said getting up. “Be right back.” With that she made her way
towards the entrance to answer the call outside.
“Please, please, please don’t tell them, I
feel so embarrassed already!”
“Hey, don’t be.” he said squeezing my hand.
“We can invite them all over for breakfast, get through the Cheerios quickly
and get rid of the evidence!”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed out
loud at that.
“Yeah right! We’ll feed them Cheerios without
milk.” I said.
“Or sugar!” He added.
We both dissolved in laughter.
“Thank you.” I said when our laughter
subsided.
He smiled warmly at me. “What for?”
He asked.
It was my turn to squeeze his hand.
“For everything. Sharing your wonderful friends with me, helping me fit in, for
a great night…” I trailed off and smiled.
He smiled back at me, and then he
leaned forward slightly and kissed me. When he pulled back from me, I just
stared at him. I was speechless and even if my life had depended on it, I
wouldn’t have been able to say a single word.
“I wasn’t sure you guys wanted crisps or not.”
Adele said from behind me and I practically jumped out of my skin. I had
totally forgotten all about the others, and everything else for that matter.
Oh God, what just happened?!
“You
alright?” she asked and I tore my eyes away from him and forced a smile at her.
“Yes,
I’m fine!” I only just kissed your Boyfriend, everything’s peachy!
“I
am so stuffed, I’m sure I won’t get even one drop of my smoothie in!” She
continued seemingly oblivious to the charged atmosphere at the table. Here we
were, hands still clasped, both of us still leaning slightly towards each
other, and she still went on chatting like the sky was blue and the birds were
singing! Ha! She came around and dropped the tray she was carrying on the table
and resumed her seat between us. Liam was forced to scuttle his seat back to
make room for her and only then did he let go of my hand. Matt, Raj and
Bella followed soon after and the conversation started up around the
table.
“…it was the courteous thing to do!”
“I was carrying half a dozen drinks, it was
physically impossible to hold the door for her!”
“Chezza, don’t you just love our Raj?”
I laughed and to me it sounded loud
and ridiculous, more like cackling.
Babbity Rabbity and the Cackling
Stump. Yeah, that was me.
“We totally should go bungee jumping next.”
“Seriously?!”
“Or abseiling.”
“Where do you get your crazy ideas from?”
“Come on, don’t be such a kill joy!”
“Opera.”
“Say what?!”
“Or a West-end Musical…”
For the rest of the night, I talked
too much, laughed uproariously, told dumb jokes, I couldn’t seem to stop.
Somewhere at the back of my mind, I wondered how I was managing all that
because underneath it all, my mind was totally and stupidly blank.
Liam was the only quiet one at the
table and I could feel his gaze on me like laser beams but I couldn’t bring
myself to look at him. Oh dear God, what just happened?!!!