Page 46 of This Love
I reached over to wake up the laptop again. “Let’s show you right now.” I quickly scanned the files in the sequence folder and double-clicked one titled “Pruning roses with Ava’s mom.”
She sat next to me, closer this time.
The video started. I had filmed this one on my phone, sideways, before vertical videos became popular with TikTok and Reels.
Ava and Geneva kneeled in the dirt in front of the Wimberley house. Ava wore shorts and a T-shirt. Geneva had on one of her loose dresses. Their hair matched, long and brown and straight.
The front porch sagged beside them, and the paint on the exterior was peeling. But the rose bushes were vibrant in pink, white, and red.
“You have to deadhead them,” Geneva said, popping a bloom off a branch. “That signals the plant to create a new bud.”
Ava reached for a white one and tugged. White petals scattered on the ground. “Ouch!”
“Oh!” Geneva scooted closer and took Ava’s hand. “Watch out for the thorns!”
Ava in the video looked at the camera, at me, in concern.
“It’s not bleeding,” Geneva said. “You’ll be all right.”
“You’re okay,” my voice said.
They returned to the plants.
Ava peered closely at the screen. “She looks like me.”
“You always favored each other.”
Ava pointed at Geneva’s frown. “She doesn’t seem very happy.”
“I don’t know everything about her life, but it seems she had a hard time growing up.”
The video ended. “And then she made mine hard for me.”
“It can be that way.”
Ava closed the laptop. “That’s enough.”
I agreed. This had not set the stage for our first outing like I wanted. “I have some ideas for our date.”
“Oh, right. That.”
For a moment, I thought she’d try to get out of it, but she added, “You’re dressed up. I should probably change.” She gestured to her shorts and a T-shirt that read, “I shoot first and print the images later.”
“Not necessarily. I wanted to cover my bases. Do you want to hear the list?”
“Sure.” She kicked off her tennis shoes and sat cross-legged on the cushion.
“First, there are two traditional options. A movie or dinner. Or both. There is a new Superman film everyone says is good. Or since you like Schitt’s Creek, you might like the Naked Gun remake.”
“I haven’t been to a movie theater yet. Joseph said Superman was good.”
“For a movie, you can be dressed as you are. I wore this in case we went to a fancy restaurant.”
“Did we used to do that? Eat fancy meals?”
I shook my head. “Only with your father. We have to budget for that sort of thing. Bills always came first.”
“Oh, right.” She jumped up. “There were some envelopes with your name on them.”
