Part XI - Must Be Something in the Water
So we headed over to swim. It's about a 3 or 4 minute walk, cutting between houses and through alleys (this will be important, so remember it). Emily, her sister, me, Laura, and Jenny, my youngest sister, not quite 10 years old.
We swam and had fun and other such things as carefree American youth are wont to do on a summer Saturday. We frolicked and bantered and dunked some people underwater and whatever other conservative mischief we could concoct. And I think Emily was flirting with me. Well, I didn't quite think it at the time, but in retrospect she was. Trying to grab on to me and pull me to her, or dunk me, etc. But being spindly of frame and weasly of movement, I eluded her many essais at entrapment.
Then we got prune hands and the sun started setting and we decided to go home. We dried off and headed down the alley, and then Laura pulled me off one way to cut through some yards, while Jenny led Emily and her sister (alright, I admit, I can't remember her name!) the normal way home.
"Emily told me to ask you to ask her out on a date."
"Huh??!!??"
"
eah, while we were swimming. I think you should. She's pretty!"
Now, I love Laura with all my heart. She's a fantastic sister, a terrific woman, and now she's a wonderful wife, and she'll make a great mother. But I'll be damned if she wasn't inspired by Satan himself, Beelzebub, the Son of the Morning, Lucifer, the serpent which did deceive our first parents into sin, to say that last line. To this day she still tries to set me up on blind dates, but if I'm ever not in the mood or skeptical about any of her prospects for me, I retain the trump of all trump cards: Emily. But I was something of a pushover when it came to women (and I still am whipped today, sigh), and I let her talk me into it.
There was one hitch though. Angelica. Angelica. Oh, even today the very mention of the name sends a tingle down my spine and my heartbeat quickens. She was perfect. Face, hair, height, weight, athleticism (volleyball and track team), personality (she laughed at my jokes, a laugh like a mix between a trickle of water and a kindergartner's giggle), spirituality, emotionally (*very* mature for her age). My family had known her family for years, and her father was our orthodontist. I had danced with her at various large church youth socials (she lived about 30 to 40 minutes away from me).
About a week earlier, I had mustered the moxy to call her up for a date (I had months before asked her to my Junior Prom, but alas, she was busy). Her family would be out of town that week, but she told me to call her back the next weekend to see if we could set something up. It being Saturday, I had been psyching myself up ALL day to ask her out.
And there was NO WAY IN ALL OF CREATION that I was going to schedule something with Emily because sure enough it would end up being the only day for the next 16 months that Angelica was available! So I had to act quickly, and hope that fate was on my side, lest the situation escalate to "unpleasantries."
We got home (roughly at the same time, having met up with Jenny, Emily, and Sister again, and me noticing inquiring glances from Emily in Laura's direction), I headed straight for my room on the premise that I needed to change out of my swimming suit (partially true, as one wouldn't want to lounge about in wet cloths and chafe, no?)
I dialed Angelica's number (memorized long before), my heart racing and my mind amok. She was home! I worked my way through the how-are-you's and the how-was-your-vacation's and stopped just short of the being-in-your-presence-is-heavenly-bliss-in-moral-existence's. They I asked her out for the following Saturday and she said yes.
WHAT???!!!???
I had once been set up on a blind date with a girl some 8 months previous, and had failed in my attempt at a date (Junior Prom) with Angelica 3 months earlier, so this was to be my first official successful date! And it was with the woman who pervaded my thinking both day and night, who had for years and would for yet many more years.
Emily was insignificant. As I came back to a part of reality, I realized the easiest way out would just be to go out for a quick evening with Emily one time and be done with her, hopefully well on my way to an upgrade from my one-sided fantasy relationship with Angelica to something more...well...mutual.
I walked into the kitchen, pulled Emily aside, and rented out my soul for an evening. Wednesday night at 6:00 it would be.
