Chapter 6
Hours went by during the party and it was close to midnight. Tony and I decided
that it was time for us to leave. It looked like half of the guests had already
gone. We were standing at the front door looking inside of the
house.
“I’ll go back
in there and find Kenneth and tell him we’re leaving, okay?” I said
and patted Tony’s arm. I went back inside and left Tony standing at the
door. I walked around and found Kenneth trying to keep the dining room
tidy.
“Hello,
Kenneth?”
He looked up from what he was doing and smiled at me.
“Hello again,
Jennifer! What can I do for you?”
“I just came to say
goodbye. Tony and I are leaving now.”
“Oh, that’s a
shame. Well I must also bid Tony farewell. Come, I’ll walk you to the
door,” Kenneth said as he put his hand on my back and led me to the door.
We met up with Tony and he put his arm around me.
“I just came over
to say goodbye. It was great having you two come. It was a pleasure meeting you,
my dear.” He took my right hand and gave it a kiss.
“It was a pleasure
meeting you too, Mr. Branagh.”
“No, no. From now
on, it’s just Kenneth to you.” He smiled at me and then he and Tony
shook hands. “It was great seeing you again, Tony. Keep in touch,
okay?”
“Yes of course.
Goodbye!”
We all said our good-byes and Tony and I went out the door.
“Is there something
going on between you two?” Tony playfully asked as we descended the
stairs.
“Yes, Tony. I
don’t know how else to tell you this…Of course
not!”
We both laughed and climbed into the first available cab at the bottom of the
stairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
April went by in a breeze and so did the
first days of May. On Thursday, May 10th I planned not to go to school since it
was my birthday. I also had a feeling that Tony had a surprise planned for my
celebration. I awoke to the sound of knocking at my front door. I quickly got
out of bed and looked at the clock while I put on my robe. It was 9:45am. I hope
one of my teachers didn’t send somebody over just to see if I was well
enough to go to class. I looked through the peek hole and saw a man holding a
dozen roses. I immediately fixed my hair a little and opened the
door.
“Good morning. Are
you Jennifer Fri-uh…”
Frianela? Yep,
that’s me.”
“Okay. These are
for you.”
I took the roses from the man, thanked him and closed the door. It had to be
from Tony. I’m surprised he didn’t come and deliver it to me
himself. He must have been really busy. I took off the card that was attached to
the ribbons that held the roses together. It read:
“Hope you have a
wonderful birthday! Also, congratulations on your engagement! Your friend,
Kenneth Branagh.”
How sweet of him! But how did he know today was my birthday? I went to the
kitchen to fill a vase full of water and put the flowers in it. Then I went to
check the messages on my new answering machine. There was only one message and
it was from Tony.
“Morning, luv.
It’s only 9am and I know you’re not awake yet. I’ll be busy
for most of the day, so I might come over a little late. I’m very sorry
that I couldn’t spend the whole day with you! You can call me at the
office if you like. See you later!”
I was thinking of going up to the office for a visit, but I couldn’t do
that since I was skipping class. I went to my room, lay down on the bed and
picked up the phone. I dialed Tony’s number and waited for a
reply.
“Hello. Tony
Slattery speaking.”
“Guess
who.”
“Jen! You’re
actually awake! I wasn’t expecting a call until around
10:30!”
“Ten-thirty? Nah, I
don’t wake up that late unless I really don’t want to get up. I was
kinda expecting you to be over here this morning, that is, until I got your
message.”
“Yes, I’m
sorry I couldn’t be your wake-up call but I have a lot of things to do
over here. The school term is almost over and there’s already some
preparations for next year.”
“I understand. That
means I have all day to rest up for whatever comes tonight,
eh?”
“You know
it.”
“Oh hey, ya know
what just happened a while ago? I got a dozen roses from Kenneth! How did he
know today was my birthday?”
“Wow he actually
remembered. I chatted with him a while back, maybe around late April, and the
subject of your birthday came up somehow. I hope you don’t
mind.”
“Oh no, I
don’t mind. Why would I? More gifts for me! I need more friends than just
you and Theresa. I’m not even sure if my family is sending over anything.
We’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Uh-oh. Listen,
somebody’s knocking at my door. I’ll call you later on today,
alright?”
“Alright then. Talk
to you later! Love you!”
“Love you too.
Goodbye.”
I spent most of the day after that cleaning up the place and then getting myself
ready for whatever it was that Tony planned for us to do. I took a shower and
everything to look really nice for him. I wore my long sleeved blue shirt with a
long dark blue skirt that had grayish flowers on it.
It was 3:30pm and I was ready for anything. I was sitting at the dining table
and admiring the roses that Kenneth had sent over. I didn’t think too much
of it though. But I did wonder why he sent them in the first place. We
didn’t talk much at the party, and now we’re fast friends. I
don’t know what to think anymore; maybe he’s just like with
everybody he meets. Yes, he’s a very attractive man but I’m hoping
that he doesn’t take any interest in me besides being just friends.
Suddenly the phone rang and I went straight to the kitchen to answer it. Then
again, maybe I shouldn’t answer it. I stood there and waited for the
machine to go off.
“Hello Jen! I bet
you’re wondering who it is. I know you’re there listening, luv. Stop
making a fool out of me and—“
I picked up the phone and the machine turned off.
“Hi.”
“I knew you were
going to do that! Okay, I’m done with my work here. I’ll be over in
about 20 to 30 minutes. I hope you’re ready to go out!”
“Yup! I’ve
been ready for ya! See you soon, dahling.”
“You too,
Jen.”
The minutes passed by quickly and Tony was soon at my front door. I opened the
door and noticed that there was a limo parked out in the front.
“Oh gosh. Tony you
didn’t have to do that!” I gushed. He extended his arm out to me.
“Yes, I did. Ready to go?”
I nodded and took his arm after I locked the door and we both went inside the
limo. A few minutes later, we arrived at our destination. As we stepped out of
the limo I looked up at the building before me. It was a fancy Italian
restaurant!
“Ooh Tony! Italian!
My favorite!” I said and grabbed Tony’s hand. “I know.
That’s why I chose this place. Come on,” he said and led us inside
the restaurant. We stood by the front desk where an old man was standing
behind.
“Reservation for
two under Slattery,” said Tony as proper as he could. The man looked down
at the list in front of him and found Tony’s name. He motioned for an
available waiter to escort us to our table. We then followed the younger man who
was leading our way and arrived at our table. Tony came up behind me and pushed
the chair under me so that I could sit down.
“Thanks,
Tony.”
“You’re very
welcome, Jen,” he said and took his seat. After we settled in a bit, we
went through the menu to see what we were going to eat. Throughout the dinner we
talked about a lot of different things, mostly simple subjects, until marriage
was brought up.
“Tony, about the
wedding. Now I hope this doesn’t discourage you or anything but
there’s something that I’ve been thinking about
lately.”
“Go on and tell me.
What is it?”
“Well, I’ve
been thinking about postponing the wedding for a later date…” I
took a sip of my glass of water and waited for Tony to respond.
“I think I know
what it is. You don’t think you’re ready for marriage
yet.”
“Exactly.
That’s the reason. I mean, there’s no doubt that I love you very
much and I that I’ll still marry you. It’s just that I think
it’s probably too early to be jumping into marriage. Yes I know there
won’t be much of a difference once we’re married, I’ll just
have a different last name. But still, I would think it’s too much for me
to handle now. Like if we lived together. Would we live in a house, or an
apartment? See we would need more money for all that. I’ll have to find a
job first and get everything situated. I hope you
understand.”
“How long would you
estimate the postponement to be?”
“Maybe until
I’m 20, 21 at the most. What do you think?”
“That’s
another year or two…”
“I know it’s
a long time from now, and a lot of people get married at my age, it’s just
that I don’t want to be pushing it, you know?”
“Jen, I understand.
And don’t worry, I think I can hold off until next year or whenever you
wish.”
I reached over and put my hands on Tony’s hands. “Thank you,”
I said with a little smile. He responded with a nod and squeezed my hand.
Needless to say that when we got to my
place, I got the best birthday present a woman could ever
have…