Ashley Ch. 06

Ashley raised an eyebrow. "I haven't bothered to check how much a job like that would pay. I might work as a waitress to help mom and dad pay for college. They said they have enough set aside for us and Nikky, but I still want to help out and show I'm deserving of their trust. I think they're the only parents who still gives their kids allowance at our age." She turned the questioning around to me. "How about you, your job search going well?"

"It's over with. I'm done searching for one."

"Really? So you're going to stay unemployed for another summer?"

"I'm done searching for a job because I have one. You are currently looking at the newest and best-dressed florist in town." She stared at me as if I was about to deliver the punch-line to a really bad joke. "Ash, I'm serious. I'm going to be working for Aunt Kim at her flower shop. It won't be a real nine-to-five job but it's a start, and it'll be a way for me to pay for all the dates I plan to take you on."

A bright smile heralded her reply. "You are really full of surprises tonight."

"Yep. I know." I liked where the conversation was heading, so I continued with the topic. "Now that we have a crystal ball image of your summer, what about beyond that? Say ten years from now?"

"Ten years? That's a while away." Ashley rested her chin in her palms and looked off to the side as if in deep meditation. "I haven't really thought that far ahead, but I can see myself with the finest implants money can buy, a tattoo above my butt that says 'Property of Big Brother', and a big diamond-studded tongue piercing. That sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?"

"Yeah... cool. That's one way of putting it." When I first saw our table situated so far from the other guests, I was a little disappointed I wouldn't be able to show off my beautiful date. Now I was somewhat grateful for the seating arrangement.

Again, I had tell her I was being serious. "Ash, I'm not kidding around. I'm really interested in what you have to say about this."

My change of tone seemed to have put her into real meditation. A minute passed before she came up with an outline of her future. "I see myself out of college with a degree and a successful high paying job to wake up to; a brand new car that'd make my friends green with envy; and a huge, state of the art home that'd make mom and dad proud of me."

"That's... pretty ambitious."

She sensed my melancholy. "What's wrong? Didn't I answer your question?"

"You did. But it sounded like you forgot something. Someone..." The blank stare on her face wasn't very inspiring. "Ashley, where do you see us in ten years?"

She confidently stated, "I see us together enjoying the ten-year anniversary of our first date. Maybe in this very same restaurant if it's still around."

"Is that all? You see us on a date as just brother and sister?"

"As more than that. Much, much more. If you feel the same way I do about it, we can be happily married parents with the most adorable baby girl waiting for us at home with the babysitter. Or we can be as we are now, two siblings in a relationship that has to be kept secret from everyone else. Take your pick."

It was an easy decision. "When you put it that way, there's no way I wouldn't want to pick the first choice."

"Then why are you so serious about it? Sounds to me like we both know what we want."

"Aren't you concerned with how we are going to make it happen? There are going to be a lot of obstacles in our way. Wanting things to end happily isn't enough. It's up to us to make it happen."

"You're awfully interested about something you have zero interest in. What happened to the wait and see approach? The 'what other people don't know can't hurt them' stuff? With the way you're talking, it's like you want to solve all our problems in a single dinner."

I wanted so badly to disclose what had been said to me in the past forty-eight hours. Instead, I had to pretend this was of my own concern. "I like having an idea of how we can make things work out, even if it's a small one. Yesterday and today, I learned some things that made me think about our lives together. I don't want to put this off until it's too late to have our fairy tale ending."

"So what do you propose we do to make our fairy tale ending a reality?"

"I was hoping you'd know the answer. You seem to know how to deal with everything else."

"Only for things I can predict the outcome of. There's just so much I can do before I have to let fate decide what's best for us."

I stared at her barren plate. "You don't seem too worried about this."

"When it comes to my future, I want to think about the destination. There's no point in fussing over the journey since there might be a hundred different paths to take. Some might be rougher than others, but they all lead to the same goal: us living happily ever after."

Her carefree thinking was such an endearing quality. "I'm envious of you. I see the cup as half empty but you always see it as completely full. It's like there's nothing that can change your outlook on life."

"Not knowing is bliss."

"I think you mean ignorance is bliss."

"Are you calling me ignorant?" She lightly laughed before taking the last sips of her cocktail drink. Her eyes settled on my plate. "I think this is the first time I ever finished dinner before you."

I poked my half-eaten fish. "It's not easy for me to eat and talk at the same time. Let me ask for your dessert. You can get started on that while I finish my dinner."

Asking wasn't necessary at a restaurant of that caliber. Our server was already on the way with two small plates of five-nut brownies topped with vanilla ice cream and caramel. The treat looked too good to put off for long, so I scarfed down the rest of my dinner and dug into the chocolate.

With dinner coming to a close, there was one thing left for me to take care of. I placed the bill booklet onto the table and skimmed past the pictures I had of Ashley in my wallet for my credit card. Something peculiar on the bill caught my eye and I waved over our maitre d'.

"Excuse me but I am wondering if what it says here is correct." I held the bill up and pointed at the string of zeros for where the total cost should have been.

"That is correct, Mr. Stafford. An important young lady to this restaurant personally tended to your care. She dropped by briefly to make sure everything was all right with your dinner. Just sign on this line right here." The line he pointed to already had a bright pink signature on in. The squiggly loop-de-loops and hearts that topped the i's were obviously handwritten by a teenage girl. I couldn't read the entire name but the capital A was enough for me to figure out who had signed it.

The dinner should have cost more than a month's worth of groceries, and somehow Alyson had arranged it so I wouldn't have to pay a single cent. Half off was already a very cordial offer; completely free was unheard of. I would need to find a way to repay her for her generosity.

After I signed the bill to conclude our dining festivities, Ashley and I thanked everyone for their service and were kindly escorted out the restaurant. The valet driver was already waiting for us with my car.

Ashley couldn't sit still as I drove to the next location. Her dress rode up her succulent thighs, teasing me with the possibility of a panty-shot. "That was so much fun, Bry. I can't wait until we do it again."

"Let's finish this date before we think about the next one. It's not even eight yet and I still have a couple more surprises for you."

"Are they here?"

The car came to a stop at the neighborhood park. "Sure are. Follow me, I want to show you something."

Ashley walked beside me to a tree overshadowing a bicycle rack. She gasped when she saw me doing the unthinkable. "Are you crazy?" she exclaimed. "Those aren't ours."

I struggled with the thin chain and lock holding down a pair of bikes. "Hmm, looks like I'll need a key to open this. I wonder," I reached into my back pocket, "if this key can do the trick." Knowing it would, I clicked the key into place and freed the bikes. "Well what do you know, it works after all."

Ashley stared in slack-jawed amazement. "You are really full of surprises."

"I know." I coolly rolled a bike up to my sister. "Here, you can use this one. I thought riding bikes would be a good way to unwind after a fancy dinner, so I got us a couple we could play with."

The two-wheeled vehicles belonged to none other than the sporty Lillian. Earlier in the day, when I called and asked if I could borrow her brothers' bikes, she agreed to drop by the park and leave them behind for Ashley and me to use. Fortunately the neighborhood was very safe, and a sturdy lock was all we needed to make sure the bikes didn't unexpectedly ride away.

"I... I don't know. I don't think I can ride a bike like this." Ashley pointed down at her high heels.

"I got that covered too. Here, you can wear these." I showed her the pair of black sneakers tied around one of the handlebars.

"Are those my old gym shoes?"

"Yup, found them in the garage. I spent most of this morning cleaning them off while you were jogging with your friends. I got you a pair of clean socks too." I pulled them out from within the shoes.

Ashley hesitated in taking the footwear.

"What's wrong, sis? You don't want to do this?"

"I do, but... I don't know if I can."

"Of course you can. Tonight is all about you and if there's anything you want to do, I'll do whatever it takes to make it possible."

"That's not what I meant," she retorted.

"Then what's the problem? Whatever it is can't be as bad as forgetting how to ride a bike."

For the first time that night, Ashley looked less than enthusiastic.

The shoes slipped from my fingers. I rushed to my nervous sibling and held her cold hands together. "Sis, something like how to ride a bike does not disappear from memory. It's just been a while since you've done it. Spend two minutes on a bike and I know you'll do fine."

Ashley didn't respond.

Oh man, what was I saying? I couldn't believe how insensitive I was being all of a sudden. The reason she didn't want to do this wasn't because she forgot how. It was because the bad memories of her bike accident from her childhood were coming back to haunt her. Yet there I was, shrugging it off as nothing, and urging her to do something she must have been scared of.

I held her hands up and gently kissed the back of them. "Ashley, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to pressure you. We can leave and find something else to do. Anything is okay with me as long as you're having fun."

She dissuaded, "No, I don't want to leave. You must have gone through a lot of trouble to arrange all this and I don't want to be unappreciative. I'll give it a shot, and if it turns out I can't do it, then we can go somewhere else."

I nodded. "Okay, have a seat and I'll help you into this stuff." I led my Cinderella to a bench and slid on her glass slippers. As inappropriate as it was, my eyes wandered from her feet to her dress hem. It took all my willpower not to peek any further while I tied her shoelaces. "All set. Let's give these bikes a spin, shall we?"

"Can you stay with me while I try to remember how to do this?"

"Sure thing, babe." Playing her knight in shining armor, I steadied her bike while she climbed on. I held her shoulders as we started off slow on the path circling the lake. "This is kind of ironic, isn't it? I'm teaching you how to ride a bike even though you learned before I did."

Ashley reminisced. "I was in kindergarten and you were in second grade. You complained to dad so much that you were never going to learn to ride without training wheels. Meanwhile mom had me on two wheels in under an hour. You told dad you wanted her to teach you, and a few hours after they switched spots, you still couldn't do it."

My embarrassing past brought a smile to her face. I loosened my grip, keeping only my palms on her shoulders. "Hey, that's not very funny. I was traumatized for life because of it."

"What's really funny is what it took to have you learn how to ride. While mom was bandaging you up like a mummy, I rode by you on my little pink bike and said, 'You can do it, big brother, I know you can. Just relax and do your best. It's really easy.' Next thing I remember we were riding side by side with mom and dad for the first time around the block."

As Ashley finished recalling her tale, I felt the pressure against my hands lessening. "I think you're ready to start pedaling."

The bike boosted to a little more than walking speed. "Like this?"

"Like this." My walk sped up to a mad dash.

She instantly panicked. "Ohmigod, ohmigod, don't let go! I'm going to fall!"

"I still got you, don't worry. I'm not going to let you get hurt."

"But you're going to run out of breath if you keep this up."

"I'm not letting go until you say you're ready."

"I'm ready, I'm ready!"

"I'm not letting go until you mean it."

"I mean it, I mean it! I'm ready!"

I took my hands off of her shoulders and stopped dead in my tracks, but Ashley and her bike kept rolling. Despite her shrill screaming, her body was perfectly balanced, her bike perfectly steady, as she rode further down the path.

I shouted after her. "Will you stop screaming and look at yourself? You're doing awesome."

Ashley didn't shout anything back. She was too busy laughing her cute butt off.

I found myself laughing aloud too. I did very little in helping her remember the life skill, but my sister was having a great time and that's all that mattered. When I reached my abandoned bike, she was already on the other side of the expansive lake. It was impossible to catch up to her without surpassing the speed of light, so I turned my bike around and went in the opposite direction of her.

Ashley saw me slowing down as I approached her headfirst. "You may have caught up to me but I'm still one lap ahead of you."

"Some things never change, do they?"

"Nope."

Pedaling side by side, we branched off from the main path on an unguided tour of the park, while reliving the days when our biggest concerns were multiplication tables and who went first in a game of kickball. Everything we passed, from the playground to the baseball field, was void of any souls. The nearest sign of life was a family in the picnic area having a barbeque. They looked like ants around a fire.

Ashley reached behind her head and unraveled the many loops of hair with a simple tug. The golden strands floated gently in the breeze like the world's most expensive bicycle streamers. "We look so out of place," she said amusingly. "This date is completely different than I how I envisioned it."

"What did you think I would do?"

"Either something cheesy like a night in the bowling lanes or something sophisticated like a stroll in an art gallery. With you it's one extreme or the other, never in between. But you really surprised me tonight. The park is a really neat middle ground, and the bikes are a nice touch. I'm glad you took me here." Ashley held her hand out to me, and smiled when I treasured it with a soft squeeze.

One leisurely lap around the park turned into many. Words were sparse between us, but being in each other's presence kept the mood merry.

As we headed back to the central area of the park, Ashley fanned herself with her right hand. "I'm getting a little tired. Can we take a break?"

I pointed up ahead to a lonely bench by the lake. "Does there look good?"

"Looks perfect."

We laid our bikes on the grass and moved onto the wooden seat. The moon shone brightly in the star-filled sky, illuminating the calm water and vast field in front of us.

Ashley stretched her arms and legs out. "Wow, that felt good. I think I know why I like to drive so much."

"To satisfy your need for speed?" I wasn't expecting her to say yes when she did.

"Ever since I first hopped onto a bike, I loved the sense of speed I got when the wind was in my hair. For a kid there's no greater thrill, no greater adrenaline rush. I missed that feeling, and it wasn't until I sat behind the steering wheel for the first time that it started to come back. It's not exactly the same as riding a bike, but it's close, and a part of me that had been closed off for so many years resurfaced. It's hard to believe I stopped in the first place."

"You stopped because mom and dad forced you to. I tried to convince them to give you a second chance but they wouldn't listen."

Ashley divulged, "It's not their fault. Mom and dad didn't want me to ride anymore, but they never actually forced me to stop. I stopped on my own."

"Why would you do that? The happiest I've ever seen you was when you were racing through the neighborhood with your friends. One accident shouldn't stop you from doing something you love."

There was a vulnerability in her eyes that made my sister so unlike her normally chipper self. "I stopped because when you carried me from the accident, for the first time I could ever remember, you cried. I'd seen you sad before, like the day your pet iguana died and the time Randall Carnes broke your favorite model plane, but never to the point you had tears in your eyes. To finally see you cry, and for me, made me realize how important I was to you. I didn't want you to ever have to deal with that again, so I decided, when I came home from the hospital, to give up that part of my life. I wanted to always be safe and sound, for your sake. It's a small price to pay to ensure your happiness."

I was appalled by her revelation. "Don't you think that's a little excessive? It was a once-in-a-lifetime accident. How could I be happy knowing you killed your childhood for me? If mom and dad let you ride again, don't you think I'd be okay with it too? One of the things we agreed on was to not sacrifice anything for each other."

"Please don't make a big deal out of this. I made that decision eight years ago. It's in the past now and the decision was mine to make. I didn't mean for it to be a burden for you. What matters to me is tonight, and I'm grateful you helped me feel like a kid again." Ashley scooted closer. Her fingers entwined around mine. "I might have to persuade dad to buy us our own bikes so we wouldn't have to borrow Lillian's."

"Lillian? Why would you think she—"

"I'm pretty sure you didn't buy these bikes just for tonight. I've seen them in Lillian's garage. They belong to her brothers, right? It's okay to admit you've had some help. I've seen enough clues to figure it out. The only people I've joked with, about me being a world-renowned physicist, were my friends, and Natalia was the only one who took me seriously. You couldn't have known about that because you and I never talked about my future before tonight, and I doubt you just had a lucky guess. As for dinner, Alyson helped you arrange it. I saw her name on the bill while you were searching through your wallet. There's no way I could have mistaken her signature. It's big enough to fit a billboard."

Each realization felt like a punch to the gut. Why did Ashley have to be so smart?

I choked on my admission. "Yeah... I did get some help. Your friends asked about our date. One thing led to another and they all ended up offering me advice. Their ideas sounded really good so I took them up on it."

"But it's not only my friends that helped with our date. Dad helped you pick your suit and mom helped me with my dress. Then Nikky added the finishing touches to make us picture perfect."

It wasn't her intention to kick a guy already on the ground, but that's what it felt like. "Ashley, I wanted to plan tonight on my own but I'm still new to this dating thing. I didn't want to disappoint you with something meaningless. When it comes to your likes and dislikes for a night like this, I don't know as much as I should."