Chapter 42

She was never going to get the hang of these ridiculous American holidays.

Apparently it was St. Valentine’s day.

Now, saints’ days she got. She was from Spain. There were a lot of saints, and most of them had their own days.

But only in America would they celebrate a beheading by giving roses and chocolate to each other. And maybe a stuffed animal.

Well, she supposed it made as much sense as anything.

Nate wanted to do something, of course. Why not? They’d been dating for almost five months. Celebrating Valentine’s Day seemed to be one of those things any self-respecting couple did in the middle of February. Mom said that she should feel lucky to actually have somebody to spend it with.

Mom had never had a date on Valentine’s Day until she met Papá, but he thought the holiday was just as silly as Aleda did.

She wondered what Ryan would think of the whole thing.

Probably call it nothing but an excuse to get people to spend money on pointless trinkets. She had the feeling he had as much use for organized holidays as he did for organized religion and organized bureaucracy. Of course, that didn’t seem to stop Papá for making the most of it. He and Mom were going out to some restaurant on Friday—at least that’s what they’d told Aleda—and would be gone for most of the night.

Nate had something planned, too, although he refused to tell her what. He’d started acting weird on Monday, just after she’d told him her parents’ plan. Evasive. But in a cute way. He obviously had something planned for the two of them, even though he insisted on not ruining the surprise. All he would tell her was to pick out something pretty to wear. The good news was, after a great deal of begging, pleading, and intervention from her mother, Papá had finally agreed that Valentine’s Day was too big of a couple’s holiday to make her stay home.

Mara and Val thought it was the most romantic thing ever. To have your guy plan some secret outing for Valentine’s Day? Please! It was what every girl hoped for, like something straight out of a Hollywood movie script. If she were honest with herself, she’d have to admit that she was a little excited about what he might have planned. A night on the town? A trip to some fancy club in the city? Given the circumstances, it wasn’t completely out of the question for him to have gotten fresh ID cards from his uncle, naming them both twenty-one. Or maybe he had thought of something even more exciting.

Well, she’d find out tonight. For now she still had to deal with a history test and a drawing project due on Monday. Nine detailed still-lifes, all on the same paper and all following a theme. And she only had six done.

She dropped her backpack next to the drawing stool and set up the board and paper in front of her. The still life for today was a bowl of fruit with a plastic flower in front. She’d figure out how that fit into a theme later. There weren’t exactly that many options for drawing in the art room that she hadn’t already exhausted, and she had already drawn everything in her own house that was remotely interesting. Flowers in vases figured largely. Thanks, Papá, for that. After a few minutes of trying to sketch she frowned. The 2H pencil wasn’t doing the trick for these shadows. She rooted around in her backpack for something with a thicker lead, and her fingers brushed against something soft.

That was weird.

She only kept pens and pencils in that pocket.

She pulled it out curiously and found a folded scrap of paper, a little grubby from sharing a backpack pocket with a year’s worth of residue, but still in good condition. Looked new, even. She furrowed her eyebrows and unfolded it.

She grinned when she saw that it was a note, from Nate. He must have slipped it into her backpack in homeroom, or even English. Now that he had finally started sitting behind her in that class.

“My Lovely Leda,

The reservations are all set. I’ll pick you up at six tonight.

~Nate”

She smirked and tucked the note back into her backpack. Very cute. Although it was a good thing she had found the note. If he’d put that in her backpack, he clearly wasn’t planning on actually saying anything to her about that night, and she couldn’t imagine how upset she would have been otherwise.

Now where would he have reservations?

Aleda smiled to herself just thinking about it. Someplace really exclusive, then? That they had to get reservations? Oh, no, how fancy was she going to have to dress? Darn him for not telling her anything! What if it was really fancy and she ended up going way too casual? He might show up in a suit and tie and her only in nice pants. But what if it wasn’t so fancy? She could end up at an ice rink wearing heels and Mom’s pearls.

But you didn’t need reservations for an ice rink. So it was bound to be some place really fancy. She got excited again. How much money did he have to spend on this thing? He didn’t have a job at the moment, but he had worked at a local grocery store for the past few summers. He could have something saved from that.

She tried to focus on her drawing.

They had been dating for four and a half months, after all. At three months, he had taken her out for a really nice dinner and gave her a pretty necklace. He had said that three months was a big landmark, and meant they were obviously in it for the long run. Four and a half months probably wasn’t as big a deal, but Valentine’s Day might be.

She practically ran to Chorus from the art room when the bell rang. He walked through the door a minute later, and went to her immediately.

“Did you get my note?” he asked.

Aleda nodded. He smiled.

“Good,” he said. “See you tonight.”

With that, he walked to the tenor section and found his seat. Aleda stared after him in consternation. He could be very infuriating when he put his mind to it. She turned resolutely forward and flipped through her music. If that’s how he was going to play, then so be it. She was determined not to give him the triumph of seeing her lose composure.

She made it all the way through Chorus. She even managed to get done at her locker and out of the school with only a small smile at Nate that, hopefully, conveyed a nice ‘can’t wait—it better be worth it’ to him. Mom always said make the boys chase you, and not the other way around. They liked it, for some reason.

Crazy boys.

 

 

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She had a few hours to kill after she got home from school. Homework was an option, but she had a feeling she’d never be able to concentrate on it long enough to get anything done. Instead she opted for taking a shower and spending the rest of the remaining time standing in front of her closet and wondering what on earth to wear. Mom and Papá left some time while she was in the shower. If nothing else it saved her the grief of Mom hovering and obsessing over her date.

It was always better to dress a little too nice, than a little too casual. Right? Better not to look like a slob. So, nice it was. She found a black skirt and fancy sweater, then raided Mom’s jewelry box. She didn’t have many real jewels, but her stuff was definitely nicer than Aleda’s. She eventually found a string of what might have been pearls. Perfect.

She had barely finished pulling on a pair of heels when she heard the doorbell ring. She practically skipped down the stairs.

“Hi,” she said, mentally kicking herself for sounding so breathless. “You’re right on time.”

Nate grinned. His hands were full of a bouquet. “Here,” he said, “These are for you. You look really nice.”

“Thanks,” she said, blushing. She took the flowers—some sort of mix involving an awful lot of pink—and found an empty vase for them. Not an easy task, in this house, but there was one next to the sink that had just been emptied. They smelled wonderful.

Nate was wearing a nice sweater too, and slacks. Aleda smiled to herself. Wherever they were going, she had definitely dressed right. They couldn’t have matched better if they’d planned it.

“So where are we going?” she asked while he was driving.

“Tsk, I told you. It’s a surprise!”

“Well, does it at least involve food? I had no idea whether I should eat dinner first, and I didn’t.”

Nate laughed. “Yeah, it definitely involves food. And it’s not too far away, either, so you’re not going to starve to death.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t blindfold me for the ride there,” she teased. “Since you’re so intent on keeping your secret.”

“You’re still not going to know until we’re there,” he pointed out. “That works for me.”

“Oh, fine,” she said, sighing dramatically. “I guess I have no choice.”

Well, she knew one thing. They were going north. That meant it would probably be Newark or Wilmington. More likely Newark, since he said it wasn’t far. She got her answer a little over half an hour after they left her house. Nate finally pulled into a parking lot, and Aleda looked out the window. He had brought her to the Olive Garden in Newark. She should have known. They had driven past it a few times on their way someplace else, and had suggested trying there once. He had always said it was for special occasions.

She supposed the reservations were necessary, though. Everybody wanted to go to the Olive Garden for Valentine’s Day. There were at least a dozen people standing around in the lobby when they walked in, and the rest of the place was packed. Aleda cringed a little. One of the people waiting was wearing jeans.

Maybe this place wasn’t as fancy as she had thought.

At least they got seated right away. It felt nice to pass by all those people waiting for a free table and just sit right down.

“What do you think?” he asked when they sat down. “Nice, huh?”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Really nice. But aren’t we a little overdressed?”

“What are you talking about? You look nice.”

“I’m wearing pearls,” she pointed out.

“They’re really nice pearls.”

She smiled wryly. “Thanks.”

The waitress came by after a few minutes and took their orders. A little while later, she brought them their drinks, and then later still brought them their meals. They passed the time by talking about nothing in particular. Weather, movies, that sort of thing. Aside from the location, this was looking like every other dinner date they had been on since October.

But she was wearing pearls.

“So what’s after this?” she asked during a lull. Nate looked up from his pasta alfredo.

“I was thinking we could go see that new movie,” he said. “The chick flick, with the blonde girl?”

Aleda’s eyes widened and she raised her eyebrows. “You’re really going to put up with a ‘chick flick’?” she asked incredulously. “It’s Kate Hudson, right? And that cute one, Matt McConaughey?”

“That’s the one! What do you think?”

“Yeah! Okay. But…”

Nate frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, it’s just… seems like we always end up at dinner and a movie,” she admitted, a touch of sadness in her voice.

“But I took you to Olive Garden tonight. And we’re seeing a girly movie. That’s pretty special, right?”

“Well, yeah. I guess.” She laughed. “I’m surprised you don’t want to go see that Ben Affleck action flick.”

“We’ll see that one another time,” he promised. “We’ve got plenty of time.” His face went serious all of a sudden. “Look, Leda. I like you. I really like you. We’ve been together for months now—way longer than I’ve ever dated anybody. And, we’re both hunterborn, you know? It makes sense. And I know we’ve got plenty of time. That’s the whole point, but I want to do something now.”

He paused and dug in his pocket for a second. Aleda stared at him in shock. What on earth was he…?

He pulled out a small box, done up with a little pink ribbon. Aleda took it from him with slightly shaking hands and looked up at him.

“Nate, what… what is this?”

“Just open it,” he prompted.

She did so, apprehensively. Inside was a ring. A ring with a big sparkly stone on it on a bed of cotton. She took it out and held it in front of her.

“Nate, I…”

“It’s not real,” he said quickly. “I found it at some girly store in the mall. But I figure, why not make it symbolic? We’re still a bit too young now, but soon we won’t be, and you know we’re going to be together. So let’s promise, right now, that we will. What do you think?”

He was sitting across the table from her looking like the cat that ate the canary. Promise to be together? He meant engaged! But… not yet? What did that even mean?

Together, forever, with Nate?

Sure, it was romantic.

But, forever? She was seventeen! She had no idea what she’d be doing a year from now, let alone for the rest of her life!

It was too much.

Too much, too soon.

Too stuffy in the restaurant.

“I-I… I have to go t-to the bathroom,” she said, and stood so quickly that the table rattled. She snatched up her purse and ran for the restrooms before he could even protest.

She locked the door and paced across the small lady’s room. She couldn’t stay. It was too much to think about. Too much to try and explain to Nate, cute though he was.

There had been a payphone, in the hallway to the restrooms.

She fumbled in her purse and found a quarter.

The line rang. She almost hung up.

Just as she was about to lose her nerve, she heard a familiar, deep-toned voice.

“Hello?” it asked, groggily.

“Ryan? I need a favor…”