Waltz of Her Life

"Well then call him!"

"He'll think I'm being a nag."

"A nag?" her mother sneered, stretching out the word to two syllables in an ugly-sounding way. "A nag? You'd rather have him inconvenience you than risk being a nag?"

"Mom, it's not like it was when you and dad were dating." Her mother often proudly reminisced about how she required her father to call her no later than Tuesday night to ask for a date for the following Saturday. She'd said he went along with it like a trooper.

"Get his number," her mother said. "Call him. We're not going to waste a day waiting on pins and needles."

Linda knew it was an argument she couldn't win. To end her mother's prodding, she searched in her purse for Seth's business card. When she found it, she dialed the number, fighting back a queasy feeling. "Yo, you've reached Tony's," Seth said from the other end of the line. "What can I do you for?"

Linda laughed. It reminded her of the wacky ways Tom would answer the phone and annoy his mother: "Butcher shop. You can beat our prices but you can't beat our meat," or "City morgue. You stab 'em, we slab 'em."

"Hi Seth," she said.

"Hey! Hey!" he said jovially. "Pretty girl. Is everything okay?"

"I was hoping you could give me an idea of when you'll be leaving." Her mother patted her on the arm, as if to say "Good girl."

"I told you. Whenever Mike gets here and we get all of our shit together with the shop. Could be an hour. Could be five hours."

She knew her mother wouldn't accept that type of a noncommittal response. At the same time, she searched for a "non-naggy" sort of way to narrow things down more. "Well my mother wants to give you and your friends a bite to eat while you're here, and she doesn't know whether to fix lunch or dinner."

Seth sighed. "Tell her to make something for dinner."

That, at least gave her something to work with. "Does that mean you'll be here around five-ish?"

"Something like that."

"Okay. See you then." They said their goodbyes and she hung up the phone. She turned to her mother. "Around five."

"Good. I'm proud of you."

Late in the afternoon they finished making vegetable soup and a plateful of the chicken salad sandwiches. Her mother made a large pitcher of ice tea with lots of ice cubes. "Those guys are going to appreciate this after riding in the hot sun," she said.