“How much should I tip Tony?”
Jasmine asks with a smile, knowing Mindy’s reply, whatever it is, will be way
over her budget. “One hundred percent
would look like fawning,” Mindy replies.
“Could you give 50% if I throw in ten bucks?”
“Sure.” Jasmine casts a teasing smile to Mindy, pulls
out the pen, and lifts the bill out of the billfold. Beneath it, she finds something else: a small
envelop reading, “Happy Birthday!”
Jasmine passes it to Mindy, who pulls out a pair of tickets. “Tickets for Opening Night of South Pacific! Wanna join me?”
“Of course!”
On their way out, Tony calls out,
“Thank you! Have a too cool super great birthday,
Mindy!”
“Thank you, I sure am!” Holding up the tickets, she says, “We’ll be
there!”
“Great! I’ll be looking out for
you!”
Jasmine catches Mindy’s blush.
On their way out, Jasmine notices
the restaurant’s sign:
“Thank
you!
Have
a Too Cool Super Great Day!”
“Tony must have been quoting their
own sign!”
Mindy
chuckles, “He must have.”
“I
wonder if that sign is your ‘sign’?”
“What
do you mean?”
“You’ve
been looking for a ‘sign’ for how to answer Justin’s ‘Happy Birthday’
text. There’s your sign! How about copying it in your text reply?”
“Ah,”
Mindy smiles, “something like, ‘Thank you!
I’ve had a Too Cool Super Great Birthday’?”
“Yeah! Something like that. Then the ball’s really in his court. You’ll get to see if he pre-programmed his
birthday text, and even if he did, you’ve let him know you can have a ‘too cool
super great’ birthday without him.”
Mindy
takes a deep breath. “I hope he doesn’t
misinterpret this.”
“Remember,
the text thread will show up for him when he receives your reply. He’ll be reminded that he sent the text,
whether it was accidental or not.”
“All
right, here goes . . .”
Strolling
through the Mall, wondering whether her text will be answered, Mindy still can’t
thinking “around” her ex-boyfriend. “Now
that I’ve lost Justin, I feel that I’ve lost a part of myself.” She mumbles, “I think I gave him too much of
myself too.” She doesn’t expand, but
Jasmine gets it. Boys give love for
sex. Girls give sex for love. Jasmine knows Mindy’s mumble doesn’t
necessarily mean sex, and she knows not all relationships fit that cliché, but
it still ties into her latest fixation.
“A
piece of me, whisk! It’s gone away. My inner Maria has lost her place.”
“How about ditching Justin and
keeping your inner Maria?”
“Justin ditched me. Without him, I feel like
I’ve lost my inner Maria.”
“Who is your inner Maria?”
Mindy pauses, smiles, and lists those
West Side Story Maria qualities she
most admires: “She’s independent. Passionate. Courageous.
Filled with integrity. And she’s
willing to lose everything for the sake of love.”
“Sounds like a good friend of mine.”
Blushing, Mindy shifts her eyes back
and forth, as if to say, “You can’t be talking about me?”
“Anything else?”
“I love her Puerto Rican heritage,
with its exotic, Latin, romantic spirit.
Maybe I don’t have the Latin in my genes, but I’ve got it in my
soul. There you have it: my inner
Maria.”
“Why can’t he go and she stay?”
“Because Maria goes with Tony, and I
go with Justin.”
“You mean he completes you?”
“Yeah, he completes me.” Mindy sighs, with a slight, teasing roll of her
eyes. “All right, Jazzie. You’ve made
your point.”
Before Mindy has a chance to really
chide Jasmine over her obsession, she sees a digital billboard ad ahead of
them, featuring the Stalker Groom, his adoring bride, and the upcoming Bridal Show. “But that guy,” Mindy says,
pointing to the groom in the ad who’s eyeing not his bride, but, seemingly,
Mindy, “does not complete me.” Shaking
her head, she says, “He seems to want
to, though.”
“I know. Creepy, right?”
“Right?”
“You have to wonder, ‘What’s the
bride thinking?’
“She looks so stupidly in love, she
has no idea he’s looking off to other girls.”
“I
wonder how many people passing this Bridal Show ad analyze it like us?”
“None
of them!”
“Think
how much the romance industry could lose if we women actually started to
analyze their ads the way we are!”
“That’s
it.” Mindy agrees. “We need to put them
out of business!”
“I
have a confession,” Jasmine says, with a tone of teasing gravity.
“What’s
that?” Mindy looks a little worried.
“I
tried to keep you from seeing that sign.
I saw it when I first arrived, and I pulled you away into that toy
store. I was worried it was going to
ruin your day!”
Mindy
laughs. “No. No way could that sign ruin my ‘too cool
super great’ birthday!”
Jasmine
smiles, then tosses her head in the direction of the restaurant. “I noticed his name is Tony.”
“Yeah,
that was not lost on me.”
“What
day is Opening Night?”
“May 4th. A month. Can I wait that long?”
Mindy’s struck with a revelation. Of course Justin pre-programmed my birthday
into his phone. I pre-programmed his
too, and I don’t think I’ve taken it off yet!
He turns 30 on July 8, so I planned a special text to send at midnight
on his birthday. Mindy scrolls through
her texts. “Uh oh, here it is.”
Oh no,
I see-oh
You’re a Big 3-0
No worries, No
30s for teaching, for flying
To soar like a birdie
You will Love 30!
“Love
30.” There it is. The memory Jasmine is trying hardest to put
out of her mind. Did Mindy get the idea
to close her text that way from Davie’s “Love 30” birthday party? That party that changed everything?
© 2019 by karina. All rights reserved. Please use with permission or a citation that links to this blog.
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