Synopsis:

Adventures in babysitting and first dates.

Story:

Karma part8
By Amanda D.

Saturday morning 9:35am. The beginning of what I believe will be the most uncomfortable day of my life. I just lay there in my bed dreading the beginning of the day. Tonight I was supposed to go out with Mike. I don’t think mere words can explain how much the thought of going on a date with a guy grossed me out. But I was committed. So I was going to do my best to keep my word and behave.

However, just to add to my misery, first I was doomed to spend a few hours baby sitting Anita’s son Charlie. She supposedly needed to go out and buy a new outfit to wear for the evening. I was committed to this also.

Though our agreement, in my opinion should be nullified because she hadn’t held up her end. She’d left Rita alone the night she was supposed to watch her for me, so I didn’t think I needed to hold up my end.

When I’d brought up this point, I was immediately shot down by Rita, who argued that she was the one that had sent Anita home that night. So then I broached the subject of her holding up my part of the bargain, since she had caused the bone of contention (I thought it was a reasonable argument.) but again she shot me down again. She told me she was going with Anita, so there would be no way for her to watch Charlie.

So there I was watching the clock move inexorably closer to the appointed time of my nephew’s arrival. I wondered what I was going to do to entertain him and if he would survive the day. While I’ll admit the little guy had grown on me some, I still wasn’t ready for a solo mission with him. Like I said at the beginning, this was going to be a tough day.

As the clock approached 10am, I dragged myself out of bed. I glumly headed for the shower, cursing my situation the entire time. Once I was ready, I went down stairs to grab, what I hoped would be a nice peaceful breakfast.

Rita was in the kitchen, cleaning the counter when I arrived.

“Well, good morning, sleepy head. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to wake you up this morning. If you want to eat before Charlie gets here, you’d better hurry. They should be here in about half an hour,” she added cheerfully.

I grimaced, but said nothing to her as I grabbed a cereal bowl. Catching my look, Rita scowled at me.

“My goodness, Amanda, I certainly hope your attitude is going to improve before he gets here. He’s just a little boy, after all. The way you’re acting, you’d think you didn’t want to watch him.”
(Bingo!)
Sighing to myself, I said “Don’t worry about it, Mom. Everything will be fine. I’m just a little crampy today.”

She gave me an understanding nod and went to the medicine cabinet to grab the bottle of Midol.

“Here, Make sure you take some before he gets here.” she told me.

With a big sarcastic smile on my face, I said “Thanks, Ma.”

She stuck her tongue out at me and said “I’m going up stairs to get ready.”

Alone at last, I munched my corn flakes as I read the news paper. I had my nose buried in an article about a murder investigation in the Midwest when I heard Anita come in the front door.

She came into the kitchen alone and said, “Hey Sis! Where’s Ma?”

“She’s upstairs.” I answered. “Where’s the rug rat?”

“Jack’s getting him out of the car,” she responded.

Jack was going shopping with the two of them? That poor bastard, maybe I was getting the better deal here.

“Jack’s going with you?” I asked trying to confirm my suspicion.

“He’s going to drop us off, but he has some errands of his own to run.” she replied. “Oh.” I said deflatedly.

(It just wasn’t fair.)

I was about to ask why Jack couldn’t take Charlie with him, when a three foot tall tornado blew into the house.

“Auntie Manda.” he screeched as he flew over and gave me a big hug and a wet kiss.

“Hi, Honey.” I said with a smile and squeezed him back.

Rita came into the room and just that quickly he bolted off of me and was running up to her. She picked him up, gave him a big hug and began tickling him. Charlie squealed with delight.

(I gotta admit he is a cute kid.)

I looked up at Anita and asked “Any idea how long you’ll be?”

“I’d say a couple hours, give or take (a month).” She answered. “I had him bring some toys. So if you set up his garage in the living room, he’ll probably play and watch the tube the whole time we’re gone.”

“Okay. Sounds good.” I replied.

After Anita and Jack went out to the car, Rita pulled me aside and said “I hope you’re not planning on leaving him in front of the television all afternoon. He’s a little boy that needs to be paid attention to. Make sure you play with him, and make sure he eats. There are plenty of snacks in the kitchen. Give him fruit, not junk. If he’s thirsty, give him some juice. He likes the apple better than the grape. His little cup is in the cabinet above the sink. Remember to play with him and…”

Anita honked the horn at Rita.

(Saved at last!)

Rita gave an annoyed look out the door, then grabbed Charlie, gave him a kiss and told him to be good for me. Then finally she went out the door.

(Jeesh you’d think I’d never watched a kid before.)

With them finally gone, I turned to Charlie and said “So, Kiddo, what ya want to do?”

“I wanna play cars. You wanna play wit me?” he asked.

“Sure.” I told him “let’s get your garage set up.”

I took him by the hand and we went to the living room. We played cars for about an hour before he started to loose interest. It was a lot of fun. It brought back a lot of memories from when I was young. When he was done with that we sat and watched cartoons for a bit. Then he asked me to read to him. I looked around to find something age appropriate, coming up with a copy of Green Eggs and Ham.

I sat down and started to read it to him. Before long though, he fell asleep on me. I mean, literally, on me. He looked so peaceful; I just couldn’t bring myself to move him. So I sat there and finished reading the book to myself.

(Let me tell you, it was riveting!)

But alas, I finished all too quickly. It was then that I realized that the remote control was beyond my reach.

(ARRGGG!!!)

What was I to do? I didn’t realty want to chance waking him up, but another round of ham and eggs didn’t exactly light my fire either. What to do? What to do? Just as I was about to take the plunge and chance waking him, he squirmed around and settled off of me.

(SAVED!!!)
I carefully worked the rest of the way out from under him and quietly went into the kitchen. Once there, I poured myself something to drink and sat back down to finish reading the paper. I was just getting back into it when the phone rang. I looked at it indecisively for a moment before getting up to answer it.

“Hello.” I said

“Hi. Amanda? This is Mike. The guy you’re supposed to be going out with tonight.” He stammered nervously.

His nervousness made me smile.

(No I won’t say it was cute…Oh shit I just did didn’t I? Back to them issues I guess.)

“I know who you are, silly,” I said back to him.

(Silly??!! I didn’t really say that to him, did I? ...Yeah I did. Shit! Friggen estrogen again.)

“How are you?” I asked

“I’m alright, I guess.” he replied. “The reason I called is, I was talking to Jack a few minutes ago, and he told me the plan was for you and I to meet him and Anita at the restaurant. So I was wondering what time I should come by to pick you up.”
(Meet them at…Aw no! I gotta ride in a car alone with him??? ANITA!!! I’m gonna kill you for this!)

I swallowed hard. “Um…I don’t know. What time are we supposed to be there?” I stammered.

“He said around 8pPM,” Mike replied.

“Well then how about 7:00?”

“Sounds good to me.” he replied.

“Okay, I’ll see you then.” I said getting ready to hang up.

“Alright, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” Mike concluded

“Bye.” I replied and hung up. “Just wait until Anita gets here” I thought to myself.

I sat there thinking of all the ways I could painfully kill Anita. Charlie came into the room.

“Hey little man, you have a good nap?” I inquired.

“Yep.” he said sleepily.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yep.” He gave me an irritated look as I rubbed the top of his head and got to make him a sandwich. One PB&J later he was contentedly munching away when the wandering trio returned from their expedition.

As soon as Anita walked through the door, I grabbed her and pulled her up the stairs into my room.

“What are you two trying to pull?” I asked her

“What are you talking about?” she responded.

“I’m talking about having Jack tell Mike to pick me up so we can meet you guys at the restaurant.” I replied angrily.

She gave me a look of utter confusion. “I didn’t tell Jack to say tell him that…JACK!!!” she hollered.

A few moments later Jack came into the room. “What’s up?” he inquired.

“Did you tell Mike to pick Mandy up here tonight?” Anita asked him.

The guilty look on his face gave him away before he said a word. “I…Well ya see…I…Uh…Yeah I did.” he stammered.

At that moment I could have killed him. “Why would you do that?” I asked angrily.

“Well…I…I just thought you two would like some time to get to know each other a little before you got there.” he replied nervously. “Not a good idea?” he asked sheepishly.

“AH, No!” I said, trying not to totally freak out on him.

“Honey” Anita interjected. “I know you were just trying to help, but Mandy’s nervous enough about meeting him with us around, never mind alone.”

“But I…I…Aw shit, I’m sorry Amanda.” he said sheepishly

“Too late to worry about it now. We’ll just have to make the best out of the situation.” Anita said.

(Don’t worry? Make the best??? Easy for her to say.)

“So now what?” I asked, flabbergasted that they could be so calm about this.

“We go ahead with things the way they are. Mike will come here and we’ll meet you at Antonio’s.” Anita replied.

Did she not understand the situation here? I wondered to myself, then quietly pleaded, “Anita!”

“What?” she snapped “Look if you don’t want him to pick you up here, call him and tell him. This is your issue, not ours. As a matter of fact, I’m not really sure why you’re so upset to begin with. I mean, if you didn’t want to go out with him, why did you agree to?”

(Why did I agree???? How about you and Ma did everything but put a gun to my head!)

There was no way I was going to win here, so I might a well get ready.

“Okay, fine!” I said glumly. “I guess we’ll meet you there. Just…you’re sure he’s not like a rapist or anything, right?”

Jack laughed,“Yeah, I’m sure.”

As they went downstairs to get Charlie ready to go home, I sat on my bed dreading the coming evening. True, babysitting hadn’t been quite as bad as I’d thought it was going to be, but that didn’t mean I was very hopeful the evening would turn better than I had imagined.

Rita knocked on my door and came into the room. “How was the shopping trip?” I asked her.

“It was fun. You should see the cute outfit Anita got for tonight.” she replied. “How was baby sitting?”

“It was fine. We played cars and I read to him, and then he fell asleep on me.”

“Good I’m glad things went well. So what are you going to wear tonight?

I looked around my room and said “Ya know, I really haven’t given it much thought.”

“Well let’s see what you’ve got,” Rita stated as she got up and walked over to my closet.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon looking through my cloths, comparing outfits and such. We were having so much fun, before I knew it; it was 5:30pm and really time to get ready, (according to Rita anyhow.)

For the second time of the day, I was off to the shower. As I washed myself, I thought about everything that had happened to me since my “resurrection”. It had certainly been a strange few months. The obvious physical changes aside, I’d really been through a lot. And now, here I was getting ready to go out with a guy. On the surface, it gave me the heebie jeebies. But I had to admit that there was a part of me that was curious. I wasn’t excited to admit it to myself, but there it was.

I finished cleaning up and stepped out and watched myself as I dried off. I turned this way and that, checking myself out from all angles. I had to admit, I looked good.

(The part of me that was still Jake really enjoyed the show.)

This led me to my biggest problem with going out with Mike. I just wasn’t completely positive that I could trust myself to behave. It bothered me that from time to time, I’d catch myself feeling attracted to men. I’d been doing my best to ignore these urges, but it made me wonder.

My introspection continued as I started getting dressed. I, with Rita’s help, had decided to wear an above the knee red dress with matching red shoes and hand bag.

(Okay Rita picked it out.)

I was just finishing putting on my makeup when I heard the door bell ring. I looked over at my clock and saw it was 7pm already.

(I can’t believe how long it takes me to get ready nowadays.)

I heard the front door open and the sound of Rita talking to someone. I was trying to get finished when Rita came into the room and announced that Mike had arrived. I told her I was aware of that, but I still wasn’t quite ready. She gave me a knowing smile, and said “I’ll tell him you’ll be down in a minute.”

I thanked her and scrambled to find my brush. As I was combing my hair, I wondered why I was hurrying so much if I didn’t really want to go. The only possible answer made me smile nervously. I fluffed my hair and rolled my eyes at myself. ‘Dork!’ I thought to myself and laughed at my nervousness.

When I finished my hair and couldn’t think of any other reason to avoid going downstairs, I made myself leave the room. I was so shaky going down the steps I almost tripped and broke my neck.

(Just what I need, another trip to a hospital!)

I stopped, took a couple deep breaths and tried to collect myself. When I was reasonably sure I was all set, I continued toward the living room, and there he was, sitting patiently talking with Rita while I stumbled around like a fool.

He looked over as I walked in and stood up and said “Wow! You look terrific! I guess Jack wasn’t kidding when he said you were beautiful.

I blushed, “Why thank you. You look very nice yourself.” And I’ll have to say that was not an exaggeration. He was very handsome, about 6’ 1”, trim, with brown hair and hazel eyes. As a matter of fact he was so good looking it made me wonder why he needed to be set up to get a date.

He kept me from following that line of thought any further when he said “So, are you ready?”

“Let me get my coat and I will be.”

We walked out to his car, where he held the door for while I got in. On the way to Antonio’s, we chitchatted about nothing much. I learned he was from Wisconsin and that he’d only been living here for about six months. He was a big Packers fan (Well, anyone that was a football fan couldn’t be all bad, even if it was the Packers.) and he liked to ski.

“So what brought you to Boston?” I asked.

“I did IT work in Wisconsin, but it didn’t pay well. So I looked around and wound up getting offered a job out here doing the same thing, but for twice the money.” he said. “Of course everything here costs twice as much, too, so I guess that I’m not really all that much better off.”

“Well at least you’re not in Wisconsin,” I joked.

We arrived at Antonio’s about five minutes of eight. Anita and Jack were waiting inside at the bar. They told us that the table would ready soon. So we sat down and ordered a couple of drinks. A few minutes later a woman came to where we were seated and told us our table was ready. We followed her, drinks in hand, and took our seats. As we studied the menu, I finished my first drink and flagged down the waitress to order another. Anita gave me a surprised look, but said nothing. To tell the truth, I was surprised I’d finished it as fast as I did myself. Anyway she delivered my drink and at that time we ordered our meals.

The food was absolutely delicious. I had vegetable lasagna with garlic bread and a salad. We also had a bottle of wine to drink. (I finished most of it.) By the time we were done eating, I was feeling pretty buzzed. I must have been acting it, too, because Anita got up and insisted that I go to the ladies room with her. I didn’t need to go, but like I said, she insisted

Once we were through the door she stared in on me, “What is wrong with you? Are you purposely trying to make a fool out of your self?” she asked angrily

“What do you mean, what wrong with me?” I slurred. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m just having some fun…and a couple of drinks.”

“Well you’re the only one having “fun”. And you’ve had more than a couple drinks. As a matter of fact, I’d say that you’re about half in the bag!” she growled.

“I am not!” I insisted as I turned to lean on a sink and then proved myself to be a liar by missing it and landing on my ass. I sat there stupidly laughing at myself. Anita came over and helped me up.

She gave me a withering glare and said sternly “Grow up, Amanda! You’re embarrassing the shit out of me and making a fool of yourself.” With that, she turned and stormed out of the room, leaving me there alone.

“Fool my ass!” I drunkenly shouted at her as the door slammed shut. I struggled up to my feet and looked in the mirror. I was definitely drunk and I need to pee. I staggered to the nearest stall and took a seat. When I was finished, I got up and stumbled into the stall door, banging my head in the process. After fumbling with the lock for several minutes I finally escaped. I took one more look in the mirror and giggled at myself and then I headed out the door myself.

I stared at the floor as I walked, concentrating hard, trying not to stagger too much. When I finally got back to our table, I plopped back down into my seat. The waitress was there and I ordered another drink.

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?” Anita asked me.

“No. I think I need to have some more.” I answered defiantly. She gave me a stern look and I returned it by sticking my tongue out at her and giggling loudly.

“You’re making a scene!” she complained. “Get a hold of yourself!”

“Go fuck yourself!” I replied. “I’m your older sister, so don’t tell me what to do. Besides I told you I didn’t want to do this. But no! You and Mom force me to go out with this guy I don’t even know. When I tried to get out of it, the two of you made me feel like such an ass, that I gave in and tried to make the best of it,” I drunkenly rambled.

Anita looked mortified. “You are such an asshole sometimes.” she said to me. To Mike she said “I’m so sorry. I don’t know why she’s acting like this.” Mike just sat there looking very uncomfortable.

The waitress arrived at our table moments later, saying that she had been told that she couldn’t serve me any more alcohol.

“Why the fuck not?” I shouted indignantly.

Before she could answer, Anita jumped up and pulled me out of my chair. For obvious reasons, my coordination wasn’t what it normally was, so I lost my balance and landed on my knees. Mike came over and tried to help me up.

“Get your hands off of me!” I told him.

He backed off as I struggled to my feet. Once I was erect, Anita again tried to pull me along as she headed towards the rest rooms again. I pulled my arm away and said “Leave me alone. Stop pulling on my arm.”

“Come with me!” she demanded.

“Kiss my ass!” I told her. “I’m outta here.” I said, as I grabbed my purse and coat.

I unsteadily moved towards the entrance and, just because I hadn’t made a big enough fool out of myself by that point, I stumbled into a waiter and knocked him and his tray full of food over. The tray spilled all over me and half dozen others in the immediate area. A nearby employee helped me to my feet. I look down at my ruined dress and wanted to cry. Anita came up from behind me and put her hand on my shoulder. I pulled away from her without a word and stormed out the door. Once outside, I took off down the street before the rest of them could follow.

As I walked, I became acutely aware of being alone. I passed a group of young men and received several suggestive comments. I quickened my pace. This was the first time I had been alone outside the house at night and it made me realize how vulnerable I was at that moment. Ahead of me I could see the Copley Plaza Hotel. I went into the lobby looking around for a pay phone so I could call a cab. As I walked over towards the desk to ask where the phones were, I received several disapproving looks from other people in the lobby. I got to the desk and managed to get the attention of one of the girls working there.

“Can ya tell me where da phones are?” I slurred.

She looked at me like she had just found me under a rock, and said as she pointed “They’re right over there, by the entrance to the dining room.” I thanked her and tried to walk in a straight line towards where she had pointed.

I walked by a large mirror heading for the phones and saw what a mess I was. I had the remains of the food tray all over me. “No wonder everyone is staring at me,” I thought to myself as I detoured to the ladies room. Once inside, I tried to clean myself up a bit, but it was kinda hopeless. My dress was stained beyond repair, and my make up was a mess. I was beyond pitiful. I let out a loud sigh and went back out to the lobby and called a cab.

Once it arrived I climbed in and told the driver to take me home. When I arrived, I got out, paid the driver and stole myself for the encounter to come. I walked up to the door

Anita came bursting out. “Where the hell have you been?” she demanded. I tried to push past her, but she stopped me. “I asked you a question,” she said, like she was my mother or something.

“I heard you. And I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

“I don’t care what you want or don’t want; we’re going to discuss your behavior tonight!”

“What are you my mother?” I asked her hotly.

“No, she isn’t your mother, but I am. “Rita interjected as she came in from the other room.
“Oh. So you went and told ma on me huh?” I asked Anita, my voice dripping with venom. “What’s the matter couldn’t wait til morning to call her? Just had to run right over her and wake her up so you could tell what a bad girl I’ve been?”

“You’re a friggen asshole,” Anita said. “I came here because you stormed out of the restaurant and when we followed you were gone. I was worried about you. So I came here to see if you had made it home alright. When I got here, you weren’t here, so Ma asked me where you were and I had to tell her I didn’t know. So we’ve been sitting here worried as hell about you.”

“Well, I’m fine; as you can tell so you can go home now and leave me alone!” I shouted.

Rita came over and slapped me. “What’s gotten into you? Your sister was nice enough to set you up with a nice man and to take you out with her and Jack and you behave like some sort of drunken fool.” she scolded.

I put my hand to my cheek and complained “Ma! What the hell did you hit me for? Christ, I told you both I didn’t want to go out on any dates. But do either of you listen? No! You two ignore me and act like I have no clue what I’m saying and set the date up anyhow. And then you wonder why it didn’t work out the way you wanted. I drank tonight because I was so nervous I couldn’t think straight. I made a fool out of myself, trying to please the two of you. And you come off like I’m the asshole. Well fine I am an asshole! Happy?”

With that, I stormed up the stairs and went into my room, slamming the door. I threw myself down on the bed and just started to cry. It was like all the stress I’d been through over the last couple weeks was coming out all at once.

After a while, Rita knocked on the door.

“What?!” I half screamed half cried.

“Amanda? Are you alright, Honey?” she asked as she came in.

“Do I look alright to you?” I blubbered.

“Honey, I’m sorry if I pressured you into going out with Mike. Anita’s sorry, too. We just thought that you would have a good time despite your initial resistance to going. But I guess we were wrong.” she said as she sat down next to me and pulled me close.
I hugged her fiercely as tears continued to fall. “I’m sorry, too.” I told her when I had gained some sort of control over my emotions. “I’m sorry I embarrassed Anita and Jack. I’m sorry I got drunk and made a fool of myself. I guess I’ll have to call them in the morning and apologize for my behavior.”

“That would be nice of you,” Rita replied.

I hugged her again and said “I think I’m gonna clean up and go to bed. It’s certainly been a long day.”

Notes:

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