Page 9 of Beautiful Life
“Another step, Leigh. Your eye is healed, you smiled a lot yesterday, you laughed three times, and your cast is a gone. I know some things will never heal, but this is another step to getting you back to you. I’m just glad I get to be a part of it.”
“I don’t know.” She looks away. “I don’t know if I’ll ever remember who I was. I’m trying, but I can’t seem to get past the last few years to remember anything.”
I lean forward to kiss her forehead only to feel her turn to stone at my touch but keep on. “You will. I’ll make sure of it.” Because I still have her hand in mine, I take a chance and entwine our fingers while giving her a little tug. “Come on. Time to go.”
Surprised I’ve kept a good grip on her hand, she tries to back out of our plans. “It’s really early for dinner and I’m not hungry. You can take me back to Gabby’s. I appreciate you coming with me.”
I give her another tug and pull her toward the door. “I’m not taking you back to Gabby’s. And we aren’t going to dinner yet, but we will later. We’re going somewhere else.”
“Where are we going?”
I open the door with my free hand and hold it high so I can push her under without letting go of her other. “You’ll see.”
I hear her sigh. Smiling to myself, I lead her out of the doctor’s office to my car.
*****
Leigh
“I can’t believe you brought me here.” I look at the mass of people scurrying around, rushing, bumping into each other. I mean, today of all days.
Honestly.
“What?” Tony asks as he’s stuffing his mouth with caramel popcorn.
“Well, I’m pretty sure you’re a guy and I’m pretty sure all guys are allergic to shopping. Especially the day after Thanksgiving.”
“Sweetheart, we aren’t shopping. We’re people watching. And eating.” He dips his tortilla chip into fake cheese.
“I can tell we’re eating.” I juggle my diet and a cinnamon raisin soft pretzel with icing for dipping. Next to me, I have my own box of cheese popcorn, a small bag of Sweet Tarts, and a Ring Pop. Along with Tony’s caramel popcorn, drink, and fake cheese nachos, he’s got his own bag of Hot Tamales with his own Ring Pop.
We left the doctor’s office and Tony drove straight to the mall. Yes, the mall, on the day after Thanksgiving, the busiest shopping day of the year. After driving around forever, he found a parking spot and then we walked forever to get to the mall since it’s the busiest shopping day of the year.
Holding my old good hand tight not letting me shake him off, he led me straight to the food court and asked me what I wanted to eat. I reminded him I wasn’t hungry, but he said we were at the mall, we had to eat mall food. I told him to help himself, I was fine. He stood there staring at me before making a decision. He took my hand, a-gain, dragging me to Auntie Anne’s and ordered a pretzel with drinks. He then dragged me to the popcorn store where he ordered us both popcorn and him nachos. Balancing all of this junk food in our arms, he dragged me one more time to the candy store where he scooped our candy out of the candy bins and, while at the register, he threw in two Ring Pops. At that time, like a professional bench spotter, he spotted us a place to sit by the fountains. Dragging me to our current destination, he sat me down and arranged our junk food before plopping down next to me. He did all this without uttering a word through his strange junk-food shopping spree.
“Do you really like mall food?” I ask.
He turns to me as much as he can without disrupting the delicate balancing act of junk food. My eyes go straight to his hair—dark brown with those unruly, wavy locks dipping into his forehead again. It looks soft and perfectly-imperfect.
He pulls my attention away from his lush hair. “When you’re at the mall, you have to eat mall food. It’s a rule. You weren’t going to tell me what you wanted, so I had to take the liberty and make some choices for you. Next time you should speak up—there’s good stuff here. Remember, I have three sisters, a mother, not to mention Gabby. She’s such the queen of shopping, she created a profession out of it. I was basically raised at the mall until I was old enough to stay home by myself. But we’re here to people watch. There are stories to be told, Leigh. You just need to loosen up, sit back, relax, and let the mall food inspire you.”
I stare back at him as he digs into his Hot Tamales. He can’t be serious. “I don’t understand.”
“Pay attention. Look around. Pick someone and tell a story about them,” he explains.
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
I look around as I dunk my pretzel into icing. There are some really crazy people at the mall. I guess I should make an effort. He’s been really nice and he did buy me all these snacks. Although, I don’t like cheese popcorn because it makes my fingers yellow, so I’m thinking about asking him to trade because I love caramel popcorn.
“Okay,” I start. “See that old lady over there? Her name is Edith and she’s shopping for her five grandchildren.”
Tony looks to me as he raises a brow while kind of frowning at the same time.
“What?” I ask, now frustrated with him.
“That’s the most boring mall story I’ve ever heard. You’re not trying very hard.”
