A generous thank you goes out to Duke0467 for his editing assistance on this story. Many thanks for his guiding hand.
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Elena hums as she prepares a hearty breakfast for the four of them. She stirred the oatmeal, flipped the heart shaped pancakes, and then cracked open two more eggs, spilling them on the skillet before turning to face her family.
"Breakfast will be ready in a moment everyone. So does anyone have anything planned for tonight? It's Valentine's Day you know."
She starts preparing the plates as her question is met with apathetic silence. "Oh come on now. Someone must have something planned. I mean you two kids are both way too nice and sweet not to being enjoying Valentine's Day with a sweetheart?"
Twenty year old Ellie, the elder of the two kids, speaks up first. "I had plans and now I don't. Me and Tommy split up just about a week and half ago."
Jimmy, two years younger than his sister, chimes in cheerfully, "Yeah I heard he dumped your ass." The truth is, like many a little brother, Jimmy maybe always had a thing for his older sister, although he might have been loath to admit it. This naturally led to a bit of jealousy on his part over any guy lucky enough to date his beautiful sister.
"Yeah so. His loss right, Daddy?"
James peers over the Wall Street Journal at his lovely young daughter smiling. "Exactly sweetie. He will regret it someday."
The conversation dies down as all four of them dig into breakfast. Finally, after pushing her plate aside, Elena turns to Jimmy, "So what about you. Have a date for tonight, young man."
Before he can answer Ellie is all over the question. "Are you kidding? He hasn't had a date in like forever. He is still carrying a torch for that slut Lisa who dumped him . . ." She turns to Jimmy fixing him with an evil grin. "Like a year ago. You know what I heard--"
"That is enough Ellie!!" James interjects. "Help your grandma clean up the breakfast table."
"Oh yeah he can tease me about being dumped but I can't say a word back. I see how it is!!" She picks up her plate and with a loud bang tosses it into the kitchen sink.
James sighs loudly retreating to the den with a fresh glass of orange juice so he can finish reading his paper in peace.
Later on Elena has a chance to talk to Jimmy alone and finds out the sad truth. His sister was right. He hasn't dated at all since Lisa dumped him a year ago almost to the day.
Seeing the look of abject grief pass over his cute face is too much for his nana to endure. Of her five grandchildren, Jimmy by far, is her favorite.
While Jimmy may be relatively average in every way: five eleven, 185 pounds, sandy brown hair, a light complexion that burns too easy in the sun, he does have a couple things going for him that is exceptionally above average-- a super warm heart and generous caring personality. It is those two traits especially that his Nana Elena finds supremely irresistible in him.
"Look, Jimmy, don't feel bad. Your grandmother doesn't have plans for tonight either."
There it was; an opening you could drive a truck through. "So why don't we go out tonight and maybe do something."
"You mean like a date?" Elena says coyly while almost bursting with joy that Jimmy is showing the nerve to suggest such a thing.
"Sure." Jimmy fidgets nervously. He has only been in one relationship and that did not end well. The word "date" kind of scares him as it implies a whole lot of pressure on him to make a women happy.
His grandma, with a keen sense of women's intuition recognizes this. "Hmm, I can see by the way you are fidgeting the word date is probably not what we should call it. How about this . . . let's just hang out together. Maybe do something is all. No pressure just a young man and his nana spending some quality time together."
"Yeah, OK, but I have money so we can go out and do something. My treat."
"Sounds lovely my dear. What did you have in mind?"
"It's your treat. Maybe you pick Nana E."
"OK. I will think of something nice and surprise you."
"As long as you let me pay."
"Oh you will pay alright. Your nana is not a cheap date." She stands up brushing her fingers along the side of his face before leaving the room conveniently forgetting already they weren't supposed to be calling it a date.
Elena's annulment, in the works for almost two years, had just been finalized a few weeks ago back in the Philippines. Her husband, Mannie, had been cheating on her for some time, and finally Elena, despite her strong Catholic beliefs in the sanctity of marriage, had left him and come to America on a ninety day tourist visa in the mood to celebrate her new found freedom.
Arriving in America just in time for the holidays, Elena felt it finally time to live a little. In short order, she got several tattoos, colored her pretty black hair with blond streaks, and went to a noted plastic surgeon where she received several treatments of Botox along with having her boobs enlarged.
It cost a pretty penny, but Elena looked and felt great afterwards, especially after getting a gym membership. After dropping nearly fifteen pounds since joining the gym, Elena was now down to carrying 106 pounds on her small five foot one frame. She had already looked young for her fifty one years of age even before she had the Botox, but now, after the treatments her natural beauty really shines.
After she leaves the room Jimmy plops down on the couch relieved he would be able to keep his promise to his dad. Earlier in the week James had come to his son and explained how his grandmother was feeling a bit lonely lately, and was kind of experiencing what one might call a midlife crisis.
He suggests if he did not have plans for Valentine's Day he should invite his grandmother out and make her feel special. At first he thought he might have been joking but then he catches the deadly serious expression on his face as he begins to speak.
"Your nana has a dreamy heart full of romantic notions so being alone on Valentine's Day would be painful for her even if she wouldn't show it. So maybe you could do something extra special for her, be with her, hang out, and if you are feeling brave maybe do something a little bit romantic for her."
The five crisp one hundred dollars bills to help pay for whatever niceties he might want to do for his nana shows Jimmy just how serious his father was about entertaining his nana for the evening.
But James was doing a bit more than handing out suggestions and one hundred dollar bills to his son as he was playing both sides of the fence so to speak. Not only had he went to his son to suggest he ask his grandmother out, but he also secretly went to his mother-in-law, and told her that Jimmy had been feeling down as of late. It was coming up on the one year anniversary of when that little bitch Lisa broke his heart dumping him the day after Valentine's.
James suggested to Elena that she should maybe drop a hint about wanting to hang out on Valentine's Day. Elena, quite agreeable on the matter, promised she would try her best as she simply adored her youngest grandchild and would relish a chance to mend his broken heart.
That afternoon Jimmy takes the money his dad gave him, along with another two hundred dollars he had saved up himself, and uses it to buy her a nice diamond necklace.
Having a flash of inspiration he stops at a gift shop and buys a little cute brown teddy bear, and a single red rose. Back at home he sneaks off to his bedroom and slips the diamond necklace around the teddy bear's neck, and uses a piece of invisible tape to affix the rose to the bear's paw. He carefully places the bear back in the little pink stripped bag it came in from the gift shop ready to present it to her at some point in the evening with a grand flourish.
Driving to the restaurant in his dad's flashy silver Altima 3.5 SL, Jimmy feels absurdly good. His grandmother looks pretty in her usual understated way. She is dressed casual wearing a white loose fitting off the shoulder sweater and a pair of rather tight looking jeans. He would have never guessed she was fifty one years old.
At the restaurant, a casual Italian pizzeria, they enjoy a pleasant dinner that grows more interesting as Elena starts to get a bit tipsy. She downs two glasses of red wine with her veal Parmesan allowing the underage Jimmy to take furtive sips from her glass from time to time. The alcohol loosens up Jimmy just enough to where he is feeling quite charming and full of bravado as the night wears on.
After dinner, Elena suggests going on a little sightseeing tour of the old historic Maple Hill downtown section before heading home since it was such a pleasant evening with the temperature being an unusually warm 59 degrees.
After spending an hour window shopping and stopping at an ice cream parlor for a pair of cones they decide to head home. On the way home Elena suddenly has a whim. Although it's just starting to get cloudy she wants to go do a bit of star gazing. Jimmy thinks he knows just the spot . . . maybe, if he can find it again.
Lookout Point was a local landmark of sorts. It was actually nothing more than an old logging road that wound its way up through the pristine pine forests that surrounded Maple Hill and ended in a wide turnout that had a clear view of the surrounding countryside, and most especially of the small town.
It had once been a hot spot for teen lovers, back in the day long ago, but now it was mainly used by stargazers to watch the night skies over Maple Hill. Jimmy had been up there one time years ago with his family on their own star gazing adventure after his dad had spent about a thousand dollars on some fancy new telescope.
"Jimmy, hon, I think we are, maybe not on the right track here. Shouldn't we be climbing I mean to get to Lookout Point."
She is right. The narrow dirt lane they are on has been sloping downhill for at least a good two miles now. "Yeah I think I maybe should have went right at the fork a while ago. Like I said it's been a while since I was up here. Sorry, but I think I am kind of lost now."
Actually there is no "kind of" about it. He is lost. The fact it has started to rain adds to his growing discomfort. The once clear night skies started filling with dark rainclouds almost as soon as they started heading toward where he thought Lookout Point should be located.
Jimmy had suggested turning back, but Elena said she still wanted to see the famous Lookout Point even if it was becoming too cloudy to do any real stargazing.
He is starting to get more than a little worried although his Nana Elena seems rather unconcerned by the whole thing. Another ten minutes pass with the rain coming down harder. The narrow dirt lane they are on seems to have no end as it winds its way among the tall pines of Maple Hill. Maybe worse still, there has thus far been no decent spot to turn around the car and head back.
Jimmy curses and bangs his hand on the steering wheel; they have finally come to the end of the narrowing winding road. Unfortunately the end is a dead end. Despite there being precious little space to turn the car around he will be forced to try to do so anyway.
He eases the car to the right as far as he dares before turning the wheel sharply and then backing up. Forward again, another sharp turn of the wheel and then . . . more cursing as the back tires have slipped off the road and into a little trough of slick gravel.
"Shit!" I am going to have to get out and push while you give it some gas, Nana."
Elena slides across the seat. "Which one is the gas again hon?" she giggles.
