Chapter 63: Big Night, Big Kiss

Thursday, February 14, 1985

The day started with flowers and cards, as Valentine’s Day should (at least, in my opinion). In my case, it was me giving Jas flowers. I was pretty sure the others had bought flowers for each other. The whole ‘gender role’ thing was overblown, after all. Both of them could be ‘the girl’ and ‘the guy’ at the same time (to the extent they thought that way at all). In this case, rules were made to be rewritten.

Lindsay hip-bumped me on the way out of Math 166.

“I’m jealous, you know,” she said.

“Oh?”

“You all have dates for Valentine’s Day! I’m all alone! Not to mention, you’re doing that Big Kiss thing!”

“Jas and me, anyway. Just how obvious the others are about kissing remains to be seen,” I said. “Any which way, I hope you meet someone special soon.”

She shrugged.

“The lesbian dating scene in Bryan / College Station isn’t the greatest. It’s not dead, but it’s pretty lame. I haven’t met anyone in GSS that I really like that way, either. Well ... I take that back. There are a couple, but they already have girlfriends. Sucks!”

About five seconds after she said that, she turned red and quickly said, “I don’t mean anyone you know! I’m happy for them!”

“Good!” I said, chuckling. “I think they’re all pretty solid.”

She sighed.

“Yeah. I mean, really, I know that. Both couples are perfect for each other, and I hope they make it all the way. You too, I mean. You and Jasmine. I was just meaning the lezzies before.”

“I figured that,” I said, chuckling a bit.

“Thanks, Steve,” she said. “It’s really nice that I can talk to you about this, and it’s nice that you’re a guy. If you were a girl, even if it was totally platonic, there’d be a tiny bit of tension, like maybe I was hinting at asking you out or something, even if I wasn’t. Guy friends are a good thing when you know they’ll stay ‘just friends.’”

“I don’t have the same problem...” I said.

She giggled at that and nodded.

“But I see it, and I’m very glad we’re friends,” I added.

“Me, too! So ... big plans for tonight? Besides hugely public kissing?”

“Actually ... sort of, but also not,” I said.

“Disappointed girlfriends are not good! Believe me, I know!”

“Don’t worry. No one’s going to be disappointed, or at least not about Valentine’s stuff. Hopefully not at all.”

“Explain!”

I chuckled, and said, “We’re doing some fancy food — which I actually need to race off and cook — and champagne and the like. But, we all have an appointment to be in front of the TV by seven-thirty. Then we have to race to Kyle Field by eight-thirty.”

“Sitcoms on Valentine’s Day?! What gives?!”

“Our friend Jessica Lively — she was in drama with Jas, Ang, Paige, and me, and on the student council with Ang, Mel, Cammie, and me, plus she was the head cheerleader at my school — anyway, she’s going to be on ‘Family Ties’ tonight.”

“No way! So cool! Okay, that’s a perfectly good excuse to be watching TV on Valentine’s Day.”

“We thought so!”

“I’ll have to watch,” she said. “Not like I have anything else to do!”

“Hopefully, that’ll change.”

“Hopefully!” she said. Then she gave me a hug and took off for her dorm.

My dinner specialty tonight was the individual-sized Beef Wellington I’d made for Mother’s Day years ago. I’d made it many times in my first life but seldom in this one. It was time to change that.

Ang, Mel, and I decided to modify the recipe. Instead of one for each person, as I’d always done, we made double-sized portions. Each used two petite filet mignons, so they were, practically speaking, still already divided, but they were in a single pastry shell and cooked together.

Angie and Mel were put in charge of the letters on top, too. Both of them were a bit better at shaping the puff pastry dough than I was.

Angie roasted some Brussels sprouts and Mel roasted asparagus. Just like that, we had a pretty fancy Valentine’s dinner for six without spending a ridiculous amount.

Jas had picked the champagne (actually from Champagne, too — no ‘sparkling wine’ tonight!), while I was in charge of opening the bottle and pouring. We all stuck to one glass. No point in being plastered for Jess’s small-screen debut!

Dinner was the right balance of mushy and friendly. We said ‘I love you’ more often than usual, there was a fair bit of smooching and hugging and the like, and all three couples spent time holding hands, feeding each other, and other very sweet touches.

We had catered to the evening by making it a candlelight dinner. Fortunately, in February, we could do that and be done by seven-fifteen. That wouldn’t be possible much of the time!

We gathered in front of the TV a bit early. Unfortunately, that meant ‘The Cosby Show’ was on. I hadn’t explained to the others why I now found it distasteful, and I wasn’t about to right now, but ... yeah. This was the first time I’d seen it since so many things came out about Bill Cosby and his misdeeds.

Of course, it was at least possible that this universe’s Bill Cosby wasn’t a creep. That might be the case. Unfortunately, we’d never know if he was until it was much too late.

Once ‘Family Ties’ started, we waited with bated breath until Jess appeared, which wasn’t too long into the episode. The episode was simple enough: Alex (Michael J. Fox) and his ‘frenemy’ (not a word they used, of course!) James start a tutoring business. The first guy they get is in desperate need of tutoring, but is also beyond help. After a bit, in walks Robin Green (Jess!) whose looks have James and Alex at each other’s throats. James invites Robin out, Alex interrupts the date (and looks like a fool doing so), and Robin is disgusted with them both.

Having seen Jess play ‘disgusted,’ she let them off easy!

It really was a terrific episode for her. Her character has to be so attractive it’ll make both characters act like fools for her, which was a no-brainer for her. More importantly, she’d managed to look like she needed tutoring without also making herself look stupid. That’s not a small task. She wasn’t playing the ‘dumb blonde,’ she was playing a smart girl who’d gotten behind in a subject and needed a study group, pretty much.

She owned the screen every second she was on. I couldn’t spot any flaws, nor could any of the others. She had her lines down cold, she hit her marks, her eyes were looking in the right direction, and all of those other little acting things one needs to get right.

The other thing she had going for her was age. Sure, she was a year past high school, but she looked exactly the right age for her character. Sometimes shows like ‘Family Times’ blow that, putting an actress in her late twenties into a role that was written for a teenager. I had to wonder if first-life ‘Family Ties’ had done that.

Angie couldn’t answer that. She vaguely remembered the episode, but not the specifics of it nor who had played Robin.

After the closing credits, the phone rang. Immediately. I figured I’d tell them we had to run.

When I answered, I was surprised to find out it was Dad on the phone.

“We just watched ‘Family Ties’ and recorded it...” he said.

Then he paused.

“You must have known Jessica Lively was going to be on it!” he said.

“We did,” I said. “She swore us to silence, though. Asking you to tape it was okay, though.”

“She was so good!” Mom said. I guessed she was on the other phone.

“Thank you for the heads-up! We might have skipped it — it being Valentine’s Day and all,” she added, with just a little giggle.

Angie heard that and rolled her eyes just a bit, but she was grinning, too.

“She was wonderful!” Dad said. “Such a great actress! I hope we’ll see more of her!”

“We do, too!” I said.

“We’re going to bed,” Dad said, “but I couldn’t wait to call! That was quite something! Now I’ve got a story to tell!”

“And you know he’ll tell it!” Mom said, chuckling.

“I will!” he said.

“Night, Mom and Dad. I love you,” I said.

“And I love you, too!” Angie shouted from next to me.

“We love you, too!” Dad said.

“Both of you! Very much!” Mom said.

Then they hung up, and I passed along their ‘I love you’ to Angie.

She knew. Of course.

We rushed off to Kyle Field right after I got off the phone with Dad. It was under a ten-minute drive to the nearest parking lot, so we made it onto the field by eight-twenty. I’d never been on the field before and doubted I would be again anytime soon, so that alone made it somewhat special.

On our way in, we each tossed money into the donation bin. Couldn’t hurt, and this was a good cause. One of our many goals was to not be stingy about good works, either with our time or our treasure. We’d probably failed more than succeeded thus far in college (we’d certainly missed enough opportunities, anyway!) — though our work with both Houstonians For Equality and GSS likely qualified — but there were always ways to do better. This was a good opportunity, and we took it.

Angie, Paige, Jas, and I had agreed on twenty dollars, but I was pretty sure Cammie and Mel were giving less. That was fine — right now, Cammie was on a shoestring budget (left to her own devices, anyway — we usually ‘helped’) and Mel wasn’t as well off as we were (though her parents were becoming more generous over time).

It took us five minutes of searching to find the SWAMP contingent, with Marco and David at the center of the crowd. I had to explain who I was twice, but having the girls with me helped. Marco introduced me to David and we shook hands quickly.

Angie and Paige seemed to come to a decision right then. They hugged, then exchanged a quick kiss.

“We’re in,” Angie said.

“Definitely!” Paige said.

“I need to warn you,” Marco said. “There’s a yearbook photographer who’s going to get a shot of David and me. If you’re here...”