Boys Will Be Girls

Story Sent in by Melinda:

Larry messaged me online, and we had planned to go out for dinner and walk through town, but on the day of our date, it rained all day. He asked me, "Want to bring our walk inside? We can go to the mall." I felt like a teenager, but quality time was quality time, and so I told him that I'd be up for it.

Before dinner, we walked all around the mall. When we neared a toy store, he made a bee line into it. I followed him in, all the way to the girls' aisle. He froze as if he was beholding El Dorado.

He said, "When I was younger, I always wanted to go into this aisle. Now, I can!"

He strode boldly into the land of Barbies, doll houses, and plastic fashion accessories. "Holy crap," he said, swiveling his head in every direction, "This is awesome."

I accompanied him up and down the aisle until he stopped at a small jewelry box set. He grabbed it off the shelf and looked around, as if a mob of people hoped to fight him for the prize.

"Jewels!" he said, "Do you know how hard it is to find jewels in a boys' section?"

"I'd imagine it as pretty hard," I agreed, "You going to get that?"

He nodded as if to say, "Well, duh." He looked at the shelf above and grabbed another manufacturer's jewelry box set, and carried that one with him, too. After walking up and down the aisle a few more times, he led me to the cashier, where he paid for his gems and jewelry. He was so very happy.

When we left the store, I asked him, "Ready for dinner?"

He said, "Oh yeah. Dinner. I think I don't have much money left."

"We can stop at an ATM."

"I don't pay ATM fees."

"That's a problem."

"Yeah."

There was no way I was going to offer to spot him. I suggested, "You can take a ride out to your bank, grab some cash, and meet me back here. I'll wait," and I would have.

He said, "I need to bring these back to my car. Come with?"

I followed him to his car. He packed his jewels within, and told me, "Let's raincheck dinner. That okay?"

"Uh… sure."

"Okay!" he said a bit too excitedly, then kissed my cheek, hopped into his car, made a hand motion as if to say, "call me," and drove off.

I was in no hurry to leave, so I returned to the stores to walk around a bit more. A good friend of mine had a daughter whose birthday was in the following month, so I figured that it was as good a time as any to pick up her present. I returned to the toy store to browse.

Not too long after I arrived there, Larry himself returned with his boxes of jewels. He didn't see me, but I saw him return both sets and leave the store.

I didn't call him, although he texted me a couple of times during the following week.