Surprise

Lauren twists the top of a pickle jar well she tries anyway. No matter how much she tries it won’t budge until she finally gives up and takes it to her boyfriend Paul.

“Can you open this for me?” She offers the jar over to him.

“Sure,” he gets a grip around it and twists hard. It pops and the faint smell of pickles fills the space. He hands the jar carefully back to her.

“Thanks babe,” she kisses the air at him then turns and returns to the kitchen. She continues to make sandwiches for the both of them. Turkey and lettuce for her and corned beef on rye for him, both with a touch of pickle on the plate of course. She takes the plates and they sit on the couch together; channel surfing until they both agree on a movie while relaxing into each other. The weekends were the best because they didn’t have to stress about work or anything work related.

After there were only crumbs on the plates and the movie was over Lauren looked up at Paul, “what do you want to do today?”

He thought about it for a few seconds then pulled her closer, “can’t I have this just a little while longer?”

Lauren giggled, “but we have the rest of the day to do this. Don’t you want to go outside?”

He puts his hand over his eyes, “no, outside bad.”

Laughing more she stands and grabs his other hand, “come on you big oaf! Lets go outside and soak up some sun.” She tugs at his arm to get him up.

“No,” he announces like a toddler.

“Come on, it will be fun. We could have a picnic…”

He uncovers his eyes, “and you thought that would get me outside?”

She groans and lets go of his arm. Then she comes up with a plan while going into the bedroom. In the closet she grabs two gloves and goes back to the living room.

“Wanna have a catch,” she asks as she tosses a baseball up and catches it.

He springs from the couch, “now you’re taking.”

Packing up some things you both leave the apartment and head for the park. Holding hands and smiling the whole way they see it is practically abandoned.

“I don’t get it,” Lauren looked around, “it’s a nice day why aren’t people outside?”

“More park for us,” Paul tosses her a glove.

Putting on the glove and a hat she squares up, “ready.”

Taking the ball he nods to her and lobs one that nearly makes it.

“A little out of practice aren’t you,” she chuckles back. Tossing it right back to him and he catches it. He throws it this time and it makes it and she takes her hand out to shake it.

“That one had a little heat on it.”

“Sorry honey,” he yells back.

“You’re going to be,” she whispers under her breath. Throwing it back to him twice as hard as he did and made a loud crack into his glove. He slides his hand out of the glove and waves it around in the air and shaking it vigorously.

“Good lord that was hard babe. You sure you weren’t in the majors?”

“Sorry babe,” she yells back.

Throwing a few more they stop for a snack. Finding a nice shaded spot under a tree they rehydrate and relax. A few more people in the park now, maybe they missed the memo earlier saying it was a beautiful day.

“You know what sounds good?” Paul nearly whispered out as he wrapped his arms around Lauren.

“What’s that?”

“Eating some of your famous chicken fajitas for dinner,” he coos.

Lauren sighs, “it has been a while since we’ve had those. Unfortunately that means I have to run to the store for a few items.”

“I’ll go with you if you want?”

“Nah, you can stay home and start chopping the ingredients,” she slaps his knee as she gets up.

“Lucky me,” he gets up with a groan.

They pick up the gloves and head for home. “Got your keys,” Lauren asks Paul.

“Yep!”

She pats his back, “good then you can go up and get started while I go to the store. Be back in a few,” she kisses his cheek and is off to the corner market. Once there she picks up a basket and skims the walkways. A short list of what she needs and knows exactly where things are. Grabbing the cheese she passes a stack of oranges, not needed for dinner but they looked so good. Picking up a couple she makes her way to checkout. The cashier scans the items and you could tell she was getting hungry from it.

“Looks like you’re making something good.”

“Chicken fajitas,” Lauren answers back.

“That does sound good. Also looks like you forgot the chicken.”

“That’s the one thing I had.”

They share a little laugh then she reads the total. After paying Lauren picks up the bag and thanks the cashier. Heading back home she mentally goes through the recipe to make sure she didn’t forget anything. While listing in her head she steps on a rock and makes her ankle go a little sideways. Catching herself so she doesn’t twist her ankle she jerks back the other direction causing her grocery bag to go the other way. An orange lands out of the bag and rolls not far under the nearest car.

She walks over to it and puts the bag down. Looking around before getting on her hands and knees she sees the orange ball just out of arms reach. With her right arm she gently puts it under the frame of the car and lifts up. The tires on one side leave the pavement and with her right hand she grabs the orange. Tossing it back in the bag she puts her other hand on the car to gracefully return it to the pavement.

Getting back up she dusts herself off and picks up the bag. As she straightens up she sees a mother with her girl at the crosswalk across the street. The mother has her hand but isn’t paying attention as she gabs away on her phone. Lauren looks at the little girl who is staring and puts her pointer to her lips. The little girl smiles then Lauren turns on her heal and heads for home.

THE END