Bed of Roses (Watty Awards)

Chapter 30:

Chapter 30:

     Winter was approaching and so was the thanksgiving banquet at church.  Mrs. Cummings had told me about it a couple of weeks ago and since then I haven’t been able to push it out of my mind.  I so hated dressing up for church much less for a banquet. When Mrs. Cummings told me that her and I were going dress shopping I inwardly groaned.  Something I hated as much as dressing up was shopping to dress up.

      This afternoon Mrs. Cummings and I were going to drive an hour to the nearest mall to see if we could find a formal gown for each of us.  I laughed as I grabbed the pitch fork and laid down fresh hay in the clean stall. One minute I’m mucking out stalls and the next I’m dress shopping.

      “Ready for you big shopping trip?” Travis asked as he grabbed another pitch fork and started helping me.

      “One: No I don’t want to go and two: I can do this myself.”

      “One: I know that and two; I was told to help you so that you can get ready.”

      I grinned, “One: I am semi ready and two; I plan on postponing this trip and taking my sweet time with this barn.”

      Travis smiled that handsome Cummings smile. 

      “I know this is random, but why don’t you have a girl friend?” I stopped moving the pitch fork and looked at Travis’s face to see his reaction.

       “I don’t know. Don’t really want one.” He shrugged and continued working.

      “Why not?” I asked. As I waited for Travis’s reply I stood wondering why the late delay on a reply.

      Travis stood up and stretched his back out and then came and stood by me while he leaned on his pitchfork.

      “Look one thing about me and Jonathan is we have honestly never thought much about girls. No offense but you girls are so dramatic and we always knew we were to young to even think about dating so we just basically put them out of our minds for most of our life. Besides I just haven’t found a good girl to take the time to think about. I mean this ranch does keep me pretty busy.”  He smiled and grabbed another fork full of hay.

      “Hmm…” Was all I said. I grabbed the pitch fork and jammed it into the hay pile in the wheel barrel.  Why did Travis include Jonathan in this topic? And what guy doesn’t think about girls twenty-four-seven? 

       We worked for several minutes moving from one stall to the next without saying anything.  I was deep in thought and it seemed like Travis was too.

       “Wait isn’t the banquet a chance for dating couples to dress up and all?” I asked as Mrs. Cummings words came to mind.

        “Yeah so.”

        “Well you have to ask somebody to go with you.”

         “Well I’d ask you if you weren’t already taken,” He winked at me and walked out of the barn.

        I stood there dump founded for several seconds. What did he mean by that?

         “Wait! What do you mean?” I asked as I ran up to Travis and stood in front of him blocking his path.

         “I’d ask you as a friend to go with me if you didn’t already have a date. Simple as that.”

         “What? I don’t have a date.”

         “Not yet,”

         “I doubt it. I mean who would ask me?” My mind was screaming Jonathans name over and over, but I wanted to play innocent with Travis.