Ch85 Huge Score

In quick order the kitchen was once again spotless and Wendy had only to put the cooled bread in bags and store them away while Donny looked through his mail.

“Anything in there for me?” Wendy asked, hanging up the damp kitchen towel.

“Pretty sure there isn’t. Sorry,” he said, smirking. 

“Better take a second look. According to Janet I’m Occupant. So….”

He laughed. “That so? Wish I had known that years ago. I’ve tossed away tons of your mail then. My bad. Here, you can have that and this, and heck, you can even have that,” he said tossing her a circular for a craft store, a card offering a free first visit from a new dentists’ office and a thick envelope with calligraphy-type writing on it.

“This is addressed to you,” she said.

“Yes, but I won’t be answering it.”

“So you know what it is?”

“Yep, an invite to my college reunion,” Donny said carelessly.

“What! You’re not going?” she shrieked, taking the envelope, ripping it open and reading the invitation. “Oh, Donny, you really ought to go. Think of the fun you’ll have. Meeting old friends, reliving zany college days, frat parties and whatever else you crazy college kids did back in the day.”

“I can’t.” 

“But why?”

“Because…because if you go to your college reunion and you’re  divorced or widowed, everyone assumes you’re there to reclaim your youth and to rekindle past romances,” he said.

“Didn’t you just say you were going to try to do that? To get out there?”

“Did I?” he said gazing at her.

“Yes, and this would be the perfect place to start, with an old flame.”

“Wendy, my college girlfriend, my past romance was Maggie.”

“Oh,” Wendy said, biting her lip. “That’s why you don’t want to go.”

“Exactly. I won’t find her there anymore, will I?” he said, taking the invitation out of her hands and glancing at it briefly. “Still…it had been fun seeing my old buddies and it’d be nice to see them again. See who lost the most hair, who gained the most weight.” 

“It still can be,” Wendy persisted. “There’s going to be a party with dancing and dinner at night and a fancy brunch and outings and touristy things to do during the day. I’m sure you’ll have fun with your buddies just like you used to.”

“But that was with Maggie, too. I can’t go alone. I won’t go alone,” he said emphatically.

“Well, then just get someone to go with you. Ask your sister-in-law to get someone for you, ask Wes, ask…oh, I don’t know. Just asked someone yourself.”

“I don’t want to go with someone I don’t even know.”

Wendy frowned. “No, I guess not,” she said, looking at the invitation. Then she sighed. “I wish I had a college reunion to go to. Sounds like so much fun.”

Donny stared at her and he dropped his mail onto the counter. “Wendy, would… would you consider coming with me?”

Wendy gaped at him. “Me? Seriously?”

“Why not? We get along well, Wendy. It’ll be a mini vacation for the both of us. My treat. You’ll be doing me a favor. I won’t go alone, but I will if you’ll come.”

Her heart beat a bit too quickly as she stared at him. Part of her wanted to, very much wanted to go, but the other half… the cautious half…

 “Donny, the kids, both our kids, will think we’re…they’ll think, you know, that we’re…dating if we go away together.”

“Yeah, I can see that being a problem,” he mumbled. “You are still married.”

“Where is the reunion?” she asked looking at the invitation for some clue.

“Boston.”

“Boston?” she shrieked. “Gees, that isn’t around the block, is it?”

He shook his head sadly. “It was just a thought, Wendy. Don’t worry about it. There’s always… next time,” he said, tossing the invitation into the newspaper recycle bin. “I’ll be back in a minute. I want to change and then we can go see the apartment, okay?”

“Okay,” she mumbled, staring at the invitation sitting on top of the other junk mail. She licked her bottom lip and bent down. She grabbed it up and read it over again.

“He really ought to go and see his friends and I’d like to go. Never been to Boston. We can go without freaking everybody, can’t we? We’re just friends, after all. It would be fine.”

“You talking to yourself?” Donny said, coming back with a fresh shirt on and straightening his tie.

“Donny, let’s go,” Wendy said, holding up the invitation. “Let’s go to Boston to your college reunion.”

He gaped at her. “What…what about the kids?”

“Well,” she said, slapping the invitation against the palm of her hand, her eyes focused on nothing in particular. “They don’t have to know, do they?”

“And how would we keep it from them when we’re traveling to the airport together, going to the same place in Boston and…”

“We won’t.”

“We won’t what?” Donny said, utterly confused.

“Listen, I’ll say I have a friend to visit in…oh, New York, which I do, so that won’t be a stretch, and you can just say you’re really going to your reunion which you are. You’re allowed.”

“But you won’t be going to New York? You’ll meet me in Boston?”

“Exactly.”

 Donny stared at her, liking this idea very much, but then a disturbing thought occurred to him. “What about your work? You only just started, there’s no way Alec would let you go… unless… you convinced him.”

“Actually, the date for the reunion fits almost perfectly with the restaurateur’s convention Alec is going to take me to. He says he’s willing to close the Picadillo the entire week cuz he wants me to meet some of his friends in the business.”

“Where is this?” Donny asked.

She smiled. “New York, of course,” she said. “I could go there for the convention then hop a flight on over to Boston just in time to meet you there. What do you think?”

“I think we have a plan,” he said with a smirk.

“But, there’s one condition, Donny, and it’s very serious,” she said.

“Okay?” he said, grimacing before he even heard what it could be.

“You have to promise to dance with me. I love dancing!”

He burst out laughing mostly from relief. “Well, if I must.”

Wendy's inner cheerleader suddenly came out. She clapped her hands and bounced on her toes, just like she had done at Wes’ game when he scored.

Donny couldn’t help thinking that he’d just scored, too. A weekend away with Wendy? Hell, yeah! That was a huge score.