GIRL TALK PART TWO （ELECTRIC BOOGALOO）
“You are such a sweetheart for this. You really didn’t have to do all this!”
I patted Angela’s hand where it was gripping my arm, the older woman using me for support rather than her cane. Mind you, I still had her mobility aid folded up and in my bag, but I got the impression that she was enjoying being able to blend in a bit more by not using it.
“Nonsense! I’ve been wanting to take you to a movie for months, but it was hard to justify it when the weather was so nice.”
It had been little over six months since I’d first made the offer.
We’d never actually made it to the cinema.
We had, however, gone on a couple of picnics with her son and dinner, but it was always the three of us.
Now, it was just her and I. Which, yeah, was a bit nerve-wracking, but long overdue.
Although Keith and her family dynamic was a lot different from my own, she was going to be my mother-in-law, and I wanted us to have a close bond.
Especially since, one of these days, I’d have to introduce her to my family.
“That’s true. Although, I really have to slather on the sunscreen now. I’ve found that if the sun’s out, I prefer to be out too.”
“I know what you mean,” I agreed. Ever since I stopped working full-time in my family’s warehouse office and started doing more freelance work, I discovered I preferred being outdoors rather than cooped up somewhere with recycled air and fluorescent lighting, no matter how many windows there were in the building.
“There are never enough hours in the day, so why waste them being all cooped up?”
“That’s what I mean. Indoors are for nighttime and rainy days.”
“Amen to that!”
The two of us chatted back and forth on our slow walk up to the cinema and inside.
It was nice to be so relaxed because I had been running non-stop in the weeks since Keith had met my family.
Despite all those dark, pessimistic thoughts whispering that it was impossible for me to keep up my ruse of pretending to be human, it was working out for me so far.
Maybe, just maybe, I could pull this off.
And maybe the guilt that I was hiding something so important to me from the man I loved would also fade.
Let’s hope so, because otherwise our divorce is going to take less time than preparing for the wedding did…
Thankfully, the period romance was engaging enough to quiet those thoughts down to the dull roar that was permanently stationed at the back of my mind.
“That certainly was a romp!” Miss Angela said as we exited, her hand once more gripping my arm with a familiarity that I quite appreciated.
“That’s a good word for it.”
“And that lead actor… He sure had soulful eyes, didn’t he?”
“It’s those thick lashes. And the fact that his shirt went see-through when he got wet didn’t hurt either.”
“You’re marrying my son, young lady. Leave the ogling after handsome actors to me, thank you very much!”
I laughed, feeling much more at ease than I had been at the beginning of our little girls day out.
“We made good time too. I’ll be back at the retirement home well before dinner.”
“Pardon? We’re not heading back there right now. We still have a whole lot more planned.”
She looked up at me, her wide eyes looking comically magnified behind her thick lenses. “We’re not?”
Keith, love of my life, wasn’t the best at relaying messages. I probably should have sent his mother the itinerary myself, but I didn’t have her email address.
“No, not unless you want to. We have an appointment to get our nails done, then a massage at the spa next door to the nail place.”
It was like I had announced Christmas arrived several months early. Miss Angela gripped my arm with both of her hands like she was afraid she might topple over from excitement.
“You’re kidding!”
“I would never kid about something as important as a spa day. But I understand if you don’t want to since Keith—”
“Keith? Who cares about him! He’s not the one having a spa day! Come on now, we don’t wanna be late.”
I tilted my head back and cackled the entire way back to the car. Miss Angela’s enthusiasm delighted me right down to my core. Luckily, it was a short drive to the nail salon, so I didn’t have to worry about the older woman vibrating out of her seat with her excitement.
Keith’s mother had given up a whole lot and worked very hard to keep him in a nice school and make sure he was properly fed, which couldn’t have been easy to do considering he had an appetite that could almost compete with us wolf shifters.
Since neither of them were really in the habit of indulging themselves now that they were financially secure, it was up to me to get them familiar with being spoiled.
And what better way to start with a brand new set of nails?
“What do you think?” Angela asked when she was done, showing off her hands like she was wearing priceless jewelry.
I’d gone with a regular manicure myself, as acrylics and shifting did not go hand in hand, but Miss Angela had chosen to get gel-x, because her nail beds were getting sensitive in her old age, so she wanted the extra protection.
“They look amazing,” I said. “I really like that magnetic cat’s eye effect.”
“Is that what they call it? What a fun name. I liked that it looked a bit like magic.”
“It really does, doesn’t it?”
Miss Angela was practically glowing, and I followed along in her joy. I knew she had a lot of fun at the retirement home and had become a popular figurehead there, but that was quite different from going out on the town and getting treated to all the classical female bonding activities.
“Now that your hands are all dressed up like they should be, would you like to get some smoothies? We’re a bit early for the massages.”
“Olivia, I already like you plenty. You don’t have to butter me up by taking me out on the town.”
“I know I don’t have to do anything, and I’m not trying to butter you up. I genuinely want to do this, Miss Angela. Not just because you deserve it, but because I’m having fun with you.”
The smile that spread across her wizened features warmed me all the way down to the soles of my feet.
With how hectic life got, it was so easy to forget our elders and think of them only as tasks that needed to be checked in on rather than living, breathing people who had their own desires, their bad days and their good days.
“My son really hit the jackpot with you, didn’t he?” she said softly, and goodness, if we weren’t in public I might have cried.
Somehow, I managed to maintain my composure and offered her my arm once more.
“I don’t know about jackpot. But he certainly makes me feel like a prize.”
“As he should, my dear. Because you are.”
Naturally, with that kind of exchange, the mood was quite positive as we walked into the massage place next door.
We checked in, then were escorted to a couple’s massage room and proceeded to have our knots worked out for ninety minutes, complete with aromatherapy oils for Miss Angela.
Not for me, however. When I was a teenager, I’d learned they were far too strong for me.
I could tolerate being in the same room as the oils, but when they were on my skin, the scent was strong enough to burn my nose.
Once we were done, we were guided to a relaxation room and given warm, delicious cups of tea along with a glass of champagne while we sat in plush recliners and listened to soothing music.
“This might be the most luxurious day I’ve ever had in my life.”
I would have grinned at her, but I was afraid of displacing the soothing cucumber slices on my eyes.
“I’m glad. You know, I had planned for us to go to an afternoon tea thing after this if you still have the energy, but since that’s kind of been taken care of here, is there anything else you’d like to do? ”
I could feel her anticipation simmering in the air. That in turn got me curious, because I would love to know what excited Miss Angela. From what Keith had told me, she had a rather eclectic list of hobbies that reminded me a lot of Amanda.
“No... it’s too silly. Ridiculous even.”
I took the cucumber slices off and sat up to look over at her. She must have sensed my eyes on her, because she did the same. “No, I want to know! Really!”
“Well...” she waffled a bit more before her next sentence came out so quickly it was like there wasn’t any space between the words. “I overheard one of the attendants talk about there being a drag show their nephew was doing. It sounds like such fun!”
I knew I was grinning like an absolute cheeseball, but I didn’t care one bit. “Now that sounds way better than afternoon tea!”
The drag show was every bit as fun as I thought it would be, especially when Miss Angela got a little bit tipsy and ended up with a drag queen sitting in her lap while twerking.
I’d stopped at an ATM before heading there, so we had plenty of cash to tip, and my goodness, did Keith’s mother know how to make it rain.
I figured she’d be completely wiped out after that, because I usually needed a nap after a good massage, but either alcohol or the thrill of new experiences was keeping Miss Angela’s energy levels up, because once the drag show concluded, we talked to some of the queens afterwards and ended up going with them to an actual drag race when the sun was setting.
And by drag race, I didn’t mean that the one that was televised and featured a dozen or so queens fighting for a crown. No, I meant a literal drag race with cars as well as women waving tiny flags for said cars to go vroom-vroom and peel out.
Maybe one of those women ended up being Miss Angela, and maybe one of those women ended up being me. But much like Vegas, what happened during girls day wasn’t talked about.