Page 26 of A Lifetime in 30 Days
Whoa! What?
Vanna:First, last night wasn’t a date. It was coffee. To say thanks.
Ronni:That was a long ass coffee date. You home alone, or is he still there?
I can be there in 10
They couldn’t see her shaking her head, and she wasn’t about to typesmh. They’d know exactly how she was side-eyeing this conversation.
Vanna:No head. Just coffee. And now he wants to go bowling? I don’t think so.
Ronni:Well, it is a group outing.
Vanna:It is not! It’s my birthday outing.
Jamaica:Tell him to bring a gift.
Vanna: I don’t want no gifts from that man
Ronni:Technically, he already gave you one. The lawyer.
Now Vanna rolled her eyes. She shouldn’t have even told them this. She should’ve just answered Aden on her own.
Aden:You still there?
Oh, damn, she’d forgotten he was waiting for an answer. On a sigh, she got out of one text thread and opened the other.
Vanna:Yeah. Just got up. Had to go potty.
Well, that was definitely TMI. She groaned.
Jamaica:If you want him to come and don’t want it to feel awkward, I can bring Davon
Ronni:Yeah, I can bring Croy too. But you gotta let me know now so I can see if mama will babysit
She was just about to answer them with a resoundingnowhen Aden replied:
Aden:Bowling?
Now she closed her eyes and resisted the urge to scream. This wasn’t what she’d planned at all. It was just going to be the three of them, Granny, and maybe her neighbor Joanne, but she wasn’t sure about her because Joanne never remembered anything. Which was partially why Vanna had invited her. During one of the weirdest coincidences, Joanne had been in the party store when Vanna was picking up items for herdinner party later this month, so she’d had to tell her it was her birthday. Luckily for her, Joanne said she had plans most of the weekends, except this one, so she’d felt compelled to invite her. But that had been three weeks ago. Joanne hadn’t said a word about coming since then.
Jamaica:Davon is cool with coming. He wants to know if we need to bring our own drinks or is there a bar at the bowling alley
Ronni:Let me text Croy right now
Vanna groaned again. She hated feeling like things were spiraling out of control, and for the past two weeks that’s exactly how she’d felt. After another heavy sigh, she went back to the first text thread and replied.
Vanna:7pm Larabee Lanes on Canal
Aden:Cool. See ya then
And since that was how all this started, there was no way for her to know how great the night would turn out.
By their final game, the third one after they’d consumed two of those awful pizzas, a bucket of french fries, and a couple of pitchers of beer and fruit punch, she was relaxed and laughing. Even though her birthday celebration had turned into a triple date. Granny had canceled, preferring to stay at the senior center, where they were playing strip bingo. Vanna prayed her grandmother had just said the wrong thing and that wasn’t exactly what was happening at the high-rise building,where the minimum age of each tenant was sixty-five. And, as Vanna had expected she would, Joanne had forgotten.
So Aden, who had arrived dressed in a gray running suit, tennis shoes, and a smile, made Davon’s bright idea of boys against girls an even better-looking one now that they were even. And instead of being overwhelmed by the entire setup, what she probably should’ve been chanting was,Oh, hell yes, Aden showed up wearing gray sweatpants!
But she’d been able to remain focused enough to help her team beat the socks off the guys for the first two games.
