Chapter 44: Lexicography

Saturday, January 23, 1982

I headed to the mall for our 1pm date. The plan was to meet in the food court. When I got there, I found, not Jasmine, but Lexi. Lexi, wearing a lacy, pale green top and a knee-length brown skirt. Looking very ... date-like.

I smiled to her. “Hey! Are you joining us for the date?” I wasn’t unhappy about it, just surprised.

She smiled and shook her head. “Nope. I am the date. For now, anyway. Jasmine’s not out of the picture, don’t worry, but this part is you and me. Consider it a blind date. I hope you don’t have to be blind to agree to it,” she said with a wink, and a flip of her ponytail.

“Not at all,” I chuckled. “So, lunch?”

“I’d love to. Anything you’d prefer?”

“Yes, but I’ll restrict myself to the food court, where I don’t have such a strong opinion.”

She giggled and winked. “Oh, good one! I like Vietnamese...” She winked and licked her lips. “ ... but since that’s not an option right now ... how about ... burgers?”

“Burgers are good.” I offered my arm; she smiled and took it.

“Ever the gentleman. I like that. Of course, there’s a good reason for you to behave, but still. Mutual benefit.”

I laughed. “Are we applying economics to dating?”

“Perrrrrhaps. It’d be an interesting thing to do. There might be some interesting paper topics there.”

“Is that something you’d like to study?”

She nodded. Just then we got up to the counter and ordered. She surprised me by wanting a double burger. Just a small fries, though. Diet soda. That very nearly matched my order.

She gave me a little wink. “I work out a lot. A lot. Put together running, dance, flexibility work, gymnastics, it’s a lot. I eat more than most people think I should.”

I shrugged. “You’re obviously doing just fine.”

“You noticed!” she said with a wink.

“Hard not to.”

“At one point I thought I was going to do cheer. I did, in junior high, along with drama. Especially during the times they banned me from theater. But then I went back to theater, and I love it a bunch more. That and some — not all, definitely not all — but some cheerleaders are ... well ... not the nicest people in the world.”

“I’d be curious to explore that more. Just, you know, who’s naughty and who’s nice.” She giggled. “I exercise a lot, now, too. I told you about the schedule Angie and I have for that. Well, except for jogging, which we do every day, but dance and karate.”

“It’s cool that you’re so close with your sister. I’m close with both of mine.”

I could kinda picture her older sister. “Danielle, right?”

“Dani. Yeah. And my younger sister is Sam. Samantha. We’re two years apart.”

“My cousins are all two years apart. And Angie and I are two months apart.”

She giggled. “Yeah, that’s pretty much impossible except the way you two did it.”

“Technically, only one of us had to be adopted.”

“Wait, you’re adopted too? I didn’t know that!”

“Yeah. As a baby.”

“Cool!”

Our orders were ready, so we took them and sat at a table apart from the crowd.

“I knew you exercised a lot. I mean, it’s obvious,” she laughed. “You’re in good shape and I don’t see you having trouble dancing. I mean, you need practice, but it’s not like you need to get in shape in order to practice.”

“Yeah. It was a big change right at the end of summer before freshman year, like we talked about. My growth spurt helped. I added height, and that redistributed some weight and made it easier to manage.”

“I still have trouble seeing you as the quiet, overweight nerd. No offense.”

I shrugged. “None taken. That was the goal, after all.”

“Good point,” she agreed, grinning. “So, switching subjects. Girlfriends. I’m pretty sure you won’t give up a lot of information, but I know about Candice and Nancy. And Jasmine, of course. Anyone else?”

“No other girlfriends, no.”

“Hmmm. I suspect you’re implying something.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny...”

She laughed. “I’m good with that. I mean, curious, but then I don’t want my name bandied around either, if there’s any reason for ... bandying.”

“I will say, plenty of friends that are girls, though. It’s surprising how gender-skewed Debate is this year.”

“Yeah, definitely. Maybe it’s Meg? I guess not. I hear it used to be mostly guys over there. You’ll pardon me if I like it this way better.”

“Nah, I like it, too. Not that it gets me more dates. Several people have recused themselves from my half of the population.”

She giggled. “I’m surprised about that, too. More, just, how open people are about it, more than that people have.”

“Many people don’t know about one girl, and some people allegedly miss Janet. How, I can’t imagine. And, we all keep it inside the team.”

“Yeah, that seems impossible.”

“I hear rumblings that I’m missing one, so far. But I don’t need to know; it’s up to her.”

“It’s all so dumb. People should just be able to be who they are.”

“Yeah. But we live in a world where parents can ship their kids off to get ‘fixed’ somewhere, as if they’re ‘broken’ because they love who they love.”

“It sucks. I was sheltered in junior high, so I never thought about it then, but once I did, well, it didn’t seem ‘wrong,’ just ‘different.’ Mom and dad aren’t super-conservative, though I think they’d have a problem with me doing anything with Jasmine’s boyfriend, much less Jasmine. Or with the idea that Jasmine doesn’t care. But then, I don’t need to tell them.”

“Same here. Mom and Dad know I’m seeing Jasmine. They don’t know it’s an open relationship, and I have no plans to tell them. Us not doing Sadie Hawkins will be a surprise, but that’s a while away, and I can explain that. A lot of couples aren’t couples that night.”

“Yeah. And I’ll tell you now — unless something changes, I’m not your date that night. There are plans, though.”

“That’s fine. You’re my date right now, that’s the important thing.”

She smiled. Nice dimples. “I like that.”

I switched gears. “So, you’re understudying Maggie?’

“Yeah. I like the character. There’s a big dance I have to learn. I’m probably one of the more likely understudies to do well. Caitlyn moves well, but not a lot better than I do. Say, Angie’s second understudy for Meg. Paige is first, and she’s good, but Mikayla kicks ass. Paige’ll get a shot. Angie? Maybe. Probably, I think, based on where I think Steffie is going with things. Whereas you’re second for Tommy. I haven’t really seen you move, but Glenn’s not spectacular. Alan, though, is really good. You’ve got a pretty solid chance at a shot if you work hard.”

I blinked. “I’m missing something.”

“Oh! I thought Jasmine had been over it. We try to coordinate performances. So, if we can get most of the understudy parents to the same performance, we’ll do one that stars understudies, with the leads in chorus. That way parents get to see their kids do something big. Also, I mean, Alan’s graduating. Next year you or Glenn would have a leg up on moving into a bigger role, which Steffie needs. If she’s not developing juniors and sophomores, things fall apart. And freshmen, when she can. Last year’s freshmen were a really strong group, if I do say so myself. This year? Penny’s the standout. Any of them might be great, though. Since there are only four, it’ll be tough on Steffie if she doesn’t get a big freshman class next year, or add some sophomores. Or juniors.” She gave me a pointed look.

“That makes sense. I hadn’t understood that there’s a real chance of us getting on stage in the understudy parts.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s fairly likely. Angie, too. She’d put you and Angie in the same one, I think, with Paige in another. I hear from Mikayla that both of you knocked your songs out of the park, especially given that it was your first audition and all. It was all just a lark, Jasmine pushing you to audition. I don’t think even she expected you to do that well, and she had no idea how Angie would do, of course.”

I laughed. “Angie had the same feeling about our blind date. I mean, Jasmine and me. She figured we’d have a good time and that’s it, not settle into a relationship.”

“Jasmine felt the same way. I think ... well, for me, too. It’s nice being with someone that’s not prone to drama. You’d think Jasmine would be, open relationships and all, but she’s ... I think she gets fed up with the breakups and makeups and musical chair relationships.”

I looked at the table. “Okay, we’ve demolished lunch. What’s next on the agenda?”

“You’re letting the girl, in the mall, decide the agenda? You must have a masochistic streak! Fine. Shopping!”

I laughed. “Lead on, Miss Myers.”

We tossed our trash, her hand found mine, and we were off. Clothing stores first. I’m pretty sure she was ... not exactly testing me, but there was an element of that. Between teasing and testing. Seeing if I’d complain or look bored or whatever. To be fair, I’d done that — some — with my ex-wife. At that time I was in terrible shape, and just standing in a store for an hour was torture. My wife knew it. When I could sit, I was just fine. Here? Now that I was in shape? Imagining Lexi in some of these outfits and imagining her getting into and out of them? Heck, yeah!

After a bit she realized I had opinions on what went with what, and that they weren’t nonsense. We discussed clothing and accessories.

As we left the fourth store, she giggled. “Are you sure you’re not gay? You actually have some fashion sense!”

I laughed. “I know that’s a stereotype — and not invalid, either. But I’ve never quite understood why guys who don’t really appreciate women that way are so concerned with how they look.”

“Huh. Point. Maybe it’s that women appreciate that they’re just trying to make us look good without an ulterior motive.”

“Maybe. But isn’t the ulterior motive the same if the woman’s straight? Guy wants to look at woman, woman wants guy to notice her? Win-win.”

She laughed a bit harder. “Huh. Another point. I think it’s all the guys that woman doesn’t want to notice her that are the issue, maybe.”

“You have a point there. The guys who notice the most might be the creepiest.”

“You haven’t talked to my boobs so far. That’s unusual. And I don’t even have that much, that way.”

“What you have is perfect for your body. How would you balance if you had, say, what Sheila has? Or Sara? You have the wrong frame for that. I mean, I love Candice, but she had the wrong frame for what she had. You wouldn’t have seen her trying ballet routines. Her back would’ve been outraged!”

She laughed. “I ... feel like it should upset me that you’ve mentioned three girls with bigger boobs. Except you led off with ‘perfect’.”

“You know I was with Nancy. And am with Jasmine. I’m obviously not lusting after the girls with more.”

“That helps, too. Okay, you’ve been a good sport. You get a reward.”

“Bookstore?”

“Nah. Underwear.” She grinned, dragging me into another store and making a beeline for the lingerie section, then picking out things she might want. Of course, I imagined them on her, and possibly on the floor next to her. I’m pretty sure that was the intent. She was grinning the entire time — but so was I.

She wound up buying a pale green bra and panty set I liked. “Too bad I can’t invite you into the changing room,” she giggled.

“It might upset the clerks.”

“Yeah. Stinks!”

We didn’t go to a bookstore. Music store, yes, where we browsed the musicals and discussed things we liked or wanted to hear. It surprised her that I knew, and could quote, ‘Cats’, it being less than a year old. Surprised and pleased; she loved the cast recording and was happy to share her love of it. Here, using my unfair advantage was ... fair enough.

She insisted on browsing some guys’ clothes, too, and picked out a shirt I liked. Forest green, short sleeve. I bought it.

By the time we got back to the food court we’d walked the entire mall, parts of it twice, and it was after 5pm. No Jasmine yet. We sat back down, then she took both my hands.

“Okay. So. Jasmine told me to level with you if I thought things were good, and I think things are good.”