Even though my son Brandon was nineteen and in his second year of college, he still liked to alternate the years he spent holidays with me and his dad. This year was my year for Thanksgiving, and since my parents were in Sarasota for the winter, Brandon and I were left to fend for ourselves.
Or so I thought.
"Hey, Mom," Brandon said to me when he came in for the holidays. "I know we have plans for Turkey Day this year, but Kellie invited me to her dad's house, and ..."
I knew this day would eventually come.
Brandon and Kellie had been seeing each other since they met in a sociology class last winter term. She was a cute girl with a bubbly personality, and Brandon was totally smitten with her. Since both of her parents lived nearby, they saw lot of each other over the summer break. In fact, I liked having Kellie around as often as she was here. She was a sweet girl. Cute and bubby, too. She and Brandon weren't just boyfriend and girlfriend, they were best friends. I couldn't have picked out a nicer girl for him myself.
"... anyway, Kellie's dad said it would be all right if you came, too," Brandon continued. "It's just going to be him, her grandparents, and her aunts, uncles and cousins. I told Kellie you make the best pumpkin pies. Could you bring some?"
It sounded as if my plans were already made. Besides, how could I turn down a chance to be with my son on Thanksgiving?
I drove by myself since Brandon said he and Kellie had plans to go out after dinner. At least I could duck out early, too. Hanging out with a family I didn't know on Thanksgiving would be awkward.
I just didn't know how awkward it would be until the front door opened.
"Uh ... Patty?" said a familiar man at the door.
That familiar man was Kellie's father and Rick, a mistake of a date I had back in July.
Rick and I met over an online personal ad site, and after a couple of emails and a phone call, we decided to meet for a drink and walk down to the town square for a fireworks show. It was the Fourth of July and neither of us had plans.
I thought he was gorgeous, and from first sight he had this dazzling smile that didn't quit all night. I could tell by the way walked, moved and the way his clothes fit that he worked out and had a body that was sculpted, right down to his fingers that reached out every once in a while to toy with my fingers. He had these waves in his dark chestnut hair I thought a time or two about wanting to run my fingers through.
We talked for hours and found things that we were really into immediately β red wines from California, the same favorite players on our hometown baseball team, an equal talent for impromptu and hilarious color commentary over the people watching we did from the sidewalk cafΓ©.