Late Summer Rain

In A Red Dress

“But you know what wouldn’t look nice? A leg cast – which I will definitely have to wear for the next 6 weeks if I so much as attempt to walk in... those.”

Mrs. Proud raised her eyebrows. “But you do want to look pretty for Ryan, don’t you?” She asked before she broke into school girl giggles and started elbowing me. “Right? Right? You do want him to tell you you’re pretty right? Because you liiiiiiiiiiiiiiike him.”

My jaw just dropped. I couldn’t believe it! This whole time – was I really this obvious? First Christa and now Ryan’s mom? Did everybody in the world knew that I liked him besides me?!

“Please darling,” Mrs. Proud continued, looking at me with the same puppy sort of eyes Ryan always did. “It’s just this once alright? I’ll teach you how to walk in them before I let you off into the wild. You’ll be fine. I promise.”

In the end, I was coaxed into wearing the heels and Mrs. Proud did keep her word and helped me practice walking in them for at least a good thirty minutes. The results were expected of course. It was an epic fail and no matter how much I improved since putting them on, I still fell over every once in a while. Beauty really didn’t come without any pain.

When Mrs. Proud finally presented me in front of Ryan at the lobby of the hotel, he just stared at me in disbelief. It was such an awkward experience that I wanted to crawl into a ditch and get buried alive.

“Alrighty then,” she cheered, ignoring the silence between us. “I’m going off on a date with your father so you guys go out and have fun. Don’t come back too early, okay?”

After Mrs. Proud made a quick escape dragging her husband behind like a toy doll, Ryan and I left the hotel and started down the busy street. Although he didn’t say a word to me, he kept turning his head to stare at me while smiling at me like he knew a secret that I didn’t.

“What?” I eventually huffed out.

His head turned back onto the road ahead of us. “Nothing,” he said with a cheeky smile. “It’s just that you look cute. Like really cute.”

“I feel fat,” I told him, but even as I said that, I could feel my cheeks being enveloped in warmth, and my stomach being filled with jitters. I smiled. “But thanks.”

He chuckled a little, and then we both burst into laughter.

Ryan and I ended up having a blast. Instead of eating a proper breakfast and lunch like Mrs. Proud gave us money for, we ended up buying snacks and eating them all throughout the day. We explored the city, all kinds of shops, museums, until we stopped by a park bench in the late afternoon so I could rest my feet.

As luck turned out, the park happened to have a delicate waterfall that ran down from a mossy cliff side and right into the small lake that was in the middle of the open space. I wasn’t exactly sure if the waterfall was natural or not, but whatever the case, it didn’t stop Ryan from jumping at the chance. He immediately dragged me around the corner to a near by supermarket where he picked up a few necessities.