August 16-19, 2024
"Mr. Tort Oise and Mr. Rabb It stroll down the field..."
Thirty five year old Lisa sat on five year old Jake's bed reading him a story from whatever book he had picked from his bookshelf that night. Lisa was fully dressed in a stark grey suit, matte grey shirt, a red tie, and red suede brogue boots. Her back was against the wall but her body twists at a weird angle as a result of her trying to keep her shoes off the bed.
Jake's head rested against her chest while he bunched the center of Lisa's once perfectly ironed shirt in his hand.
Ever since he was a newborn Jake did this thing where he held on to Lisa or Jennie for dear life as he was dozing off. Jake was a sleepy clinger and he had to fall asleep with their shirts held tightly between his little fingers or he couldn't fall asleep at all. It had become another regular part of the nightly routine. Over the years Jake had stretched all of their favorite sleep shirts with the relentless way he pulled on them sometimes. Getting him to let go once he was asleep was just as difficult as it was trying to convince him not to cling in the first place.
"...discussing their adventure and their discovery of the indestructible shield."
The little boy's beryl eyes were glued on the detailed, hand drawn images surrounding the words Lisa was reading. His lids grew droopy with every word Lisa uttered out loud.
"They hopped and hopped across the land..."
Jennie strolls into the room. She's wearing a form fitting navy blue dress with a deep V cut on the front that more than assured she provided a severely distracting amount of cleavage. Jennie's makeup is done pristinely and she's wearing the highest and most uncomfortable yet incredibly sexy looking apple green heels that Lisa has ever seen her wear. Jennie is two months shy of turning thirty two and has had four kids, but Lisa swears Jennie has never looked this good before.
She endlessly insists there has to be something magical about her wife.
"...in search for the witch's magic wand."
"Honey, we're going to be late."
Jennie interrupts from the door and her two favorite sets of doe eyes look up at her.
"Bedtime isn't over mommy."
"I know baby..." Jennie walks over to the bed and sits next to Jake "...but I can ask grandma to finish the story for you if you want. Mama and I have to go or we're going to miss our dinner." Jennie kisses his head.
"I want mama to finish."
Lisa looks at Jennie pleading.
"If we wait until he's asleep we're not going to make our reservation."
"I was just getting to the good part though." Lisa almost whimpers at Jennie.
"Lisa... I had to basically bribe someone to get us into the books. I have a feeling you'll both survive without the full bedtime schedule tonight. Up. Come on."
Jennie aims to pull the book from Lisa's hand but Lisa resists. Both her and Jake look at Jennie and give her pathetic whines.
"One of the most coveted tables in the city has our name on it starting at 9pm. If we're not there by 9:20 it goes to someone else. It's 8:23 and we're forty minutes away with traffic. He should have been asleep twenty minutes ago anyway. We have to go."
"But..."
Jake and Lisa reply at the same time with their sad eyes looking at Jennie.
"No buts. We're not missing this dinner."
Jennie tells them with finality as she manages to free the book from Lisa's hand and places it on the short bedside table next to her. She yanks on Lisa's arm pulling her up to the edge of the bed.
"I'll send grandma in to finish reading it to you."
Jennie tells her son as she kisses his head before getting up. Jake looks up at Lisa with sad eyes.
"I'm sorry. We can read two stories tomorrow to make up for tonight."
Lisa leans down to kiss his head before extending her fist. Jake immediately responds and they proceed to do what Jake insisted was their "secret handshake" although there was very little mystery to it. The handshake was nothing more than three consecutive fist bumps followed by slapping their open palms twice. Jake had come up with it when he was four and Lisa guesses that, when put into context, this probably seemed complex enough to his young mind.
Once they were done with their handshake Lisa asks the question she asks him every night when she's putting him to sleep, or every morning when she leaves for work, or whenever they have to separate in general.
"Guess how much I love you?"
"Five!"
The little boy tells her suddenly more awake than he's ever been in the last hour. For some reason Jake always though the answer to that question was a number. Lisa was hoping one day he would grow old enough to discover it couldn't have been a number because her love for any of her kids couldn't be quantified.
"Nope. Two more tries."
Lisa smiles at him and the little boy thinks hard before his next answer. Jennie walks to the door looking at them impatiently as the bedtime routine she specifically told them they didn't have time for unfolds anyway.
"Lisa..." Jennie tries to rush it along.
"I gotta go Jay."
"Seven?"
"Not even close."
"Tenty bizillion trillion."
Lisa laughs and makes a sound that vaguely resembles a buzzer to let him know he got it wrong again.
"That sounds like a lot, but no. They were good guesses though. Maybe you'll get it tomorrow." Lisa kisses Jake's head and gets up from the bed.
"I love you."
"I love you more mama."
"Impossible."
Jennie rolls her eyes and moves up to pull Lisa by the hand.
"I'm not missing the foie gras. Let's go."
"Be good for grandma Jay."
Lisa manages to tell him from just outside his door as Jennie drags her down the hallway and towards the front door.
--
Jennie and Lisa rush into the restaurant with two minutes to spare before their reservation would've gone to someone else. The moment they step inside Jennie is taken aback by the decor. If the ambiance is any indication of how magnificent she's been told the food is, then she has no doubts this may be the best anniversary dinner they've had yet.
The space is covered in Manoban aged through the hundred or so years of history this building carries, but the open room doesn't feel unwelcoming. The palette is warm and ornate tiles with floral patterns and stained glass accents bring the room to life.