“Take a left at the light and keep going until you make it to the railroad tracks.”
I was starting to get an idea to where Justin was leading me, and I was getting excited.
“Turn right at the railroad tracks and repeat at the first corner to get to your surprise destination.”
Yep, I was correct. When I turned into the parking lot I immediately became hungry. My surprise destination was my favorite Italian restaurant called Shelby’s. It’s one of the few private businesses that completely thrive down in this city. It’s most popular dish was their lasagna. It’s the most delicious piece of lasagna I’ve tasted in my entire life.
As soon as I walked in the front entrance, I saw Justin and my stomach started making Olympic back flips. I felt a little foolish because I was still dressed in my street clothes and everyone, including Justin, had much nicer clothes on, as if they were going to church.
“M’ lady,” Justin kissed my hand.
I could feel the color come up to my cheeks as I said, “I feel underdressed.”
He took a look at me, “Preposterous! You look as beautiful and classy as Audrey Hepburn.”
“Justin, I’m in jeans and an American Eagle t-shirt.”
“It’s the twenty-first century! That’s class nowadays,” he winked at me.
I shrugged and decided to let the subject go. There was no point in arguing with him about the way I look.
The waiter took us to our seats and we didn’t even need to look at the menu to know what we wanted.
“Two lasagnas and lemonade por favor,” Justin ordered for me. We’ve been here so many times in the years we’ve dated we even know most of the employees.
“So you know today was my birthday and you didn’t say anything all day?” I criticized playfully.
He put a guilty look on his face, “Maybe…”
I squeezed the lemon into my complementary water, “It’s okay. You made up for it by taking me here.”
“So speaking about your birthday,” he stated. “Have you gotten anything special?”
The only thing I can think of is a ring from you, I almost told him. Instead I just simply answered, “Not really.”
“Hmm…” he pondered. “Then that means I don’t have any competition for my gift.”
“Oh, and what is your gift?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.”
I sighed, I had known that he was going to say something like that. Some of it was okay though, because I loved surprises.
Our beautiful dinner finally arrived and it wasn’t until then when I realized just how hungry I was. As soon as the waitress put the plate of lasagna down in front of me, my mouth started to water. It took every ounce of my strength to not dive into the amazing creation that was lying in front of me, at least, until Justin had his plate and the waitress was gone.
“Ladies first,” he said, motioning for me to take a bite.
I fell into heaven. That’s what it felt like when I started eating. The meat, the sauce, noodles, everything was just pure perfection.
“So you know this week is supposedly ‘Promise Week’ on the calendar right?” Justin snapped me back to reality, and I remembered his goofy calendar that had a theme for each week. Last week was something bizarre like “Popcorn Week” or something similar.
“Oh is that what this week is called now?” I joked.
“Yes, so I wanted to know if you had any idea what you were going to make for your promise?”
“My, just put me on the spot there why don’t you?” I said while trying to think of an answer. “How about you? What’s your big promise of the week?”
He sat up and answered, “I promise, to you, and my roommate, to always wear clean socks.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, almost spitting out the bite of food I had just put in my mouth, “THAT’S your big promise?” I teased.
“No not really,” he chuckled to himself. “But you still haven’t told me yours.”
“Way to dodge the question,” I told him, still thinking. “How about I promise to make small promises to you every day?”
“My that puts my promise to the dust,” Justin drank a sip of lemonade. “I’ll just have to think of one and tell you later.”
“Fair enough,” I took the final bite of my piece of heaven. The waiter came, took our plates, and offered us some dessert. I couldn’t have possibly had dessert after all of the meat so we both politely declined the offer.
On our way out I questioned, “So is this where we part?”
“The bus doesn’t stop here my lady,” he had his English accent again. “For I have one more surprise destination para ti.”
“I love how you said some Spanish in a British accent,” I giggled and leaned in for a kiss. He returned the favor and I took his arm to be lead to his truck.
“Come with me,” he said. “We’ll come to get your car later.”
