I woke up early for work this morning. I'm usually not an early riser and I'm not sure why I got up early today, it's not like I'm in a rush.
I sat up, reaching over to the coffee table to check the calendar on my phone.
"Tomorrow is thanksgiving already?"
I wondered what Amy was going to do tomorrow. I got off the couch to look for her. I could hear the shower running. After a few minutes, she came out with a towel wrapped around her.
"Hey Amy, I got a question for you."
"Yeah", she said as she dried her hair.
"What are you doing tomorrow?"
She shrugged.
"Not sure. Besides work that night, nothing really."
"The club will be closed tomorrow night."
"Oh, that's right, because of thanksgiving."
"Yeah. So I was thinking if you wanted to spend that time with me...well us. It's been sort of a tradition to have it at my mom's house. Tyler will be there too and I bet he'll bring Sarina. I just didn't want you to be alone."
She looked surprised at my invitation.
"Really? You sure your mom won't mind?"
"She would be super happy to have you over. She will be suspicious of me bringing a girl over but she will treat you kindly."
Her eyes shifted down to the floor.
"Hey, what's wrong? You don't have to go if you don't want to, I'll spend time with you."
She shook her head.
"It's just, I never had a family gathering before so I'm super happy about this...and nervous."
She threw her arms around me.
"Thank you so much Josh. This means so much to me!"
My hands came around her, lifting her up.
"Of course. Anything for you."
She parted a little to look at me, I was still holding her.
"What should I wear? What if she asks me about my job? Should I keep that a secret?"
"Whoa, don't worry. My mom is not judgemental. Just be yourself and be honest. As to what to wear, we can go shopping today."
"But you work today, don't you?"
"Yeah. If not, I can ask Sarina if she will go out shopping with you."
"Okay! I was hoping to spend some girl time."
"Perfect! I will let you know, okay?"
"Okay", she said cheerfully.
~
"Yo Tyler, look who's early", I exclaimed.
Tyler looked up from his computer.
"Why are you here early?"
"Huh? Okay, you always tell me I should come early because I'm either here on the dot or late."
"Yeah, that's your usual. You never listen to me so for you to come in early is odd."
"I don't know, I just got up early, that's all. Hey, guess what?"
"What?"
"I invited Amy over for thanksgiving."
I made my way to his desk and sat on the corner.
"That's good. She didn't have a family to spend it with?"
"Nah, unfortunately. Not good family."
"Well, your mom loves having guests over so Amy will be fine."
"Yeah, that's what I told her. She was worried mom wouldn't like her, especially with the work that she does."
"Isn't your mom going to ask if you have a thing for her? Bringing over a girl is a big deal."
"She's gonna ask the same thing about you bringing over Sarina for something like this."
"I never said I was bringing her over."
I raised my eyebrow.
"You are bringing her over. You can't tell me you pretty much confessed your feelings to her which you haven't done to any other woman in years and not invite her over for thanksgiving."
He leaned back in his chair.
"I didn't ask her yet so I don't know if she's coming. She has her family to spend thanksgiving with anyway"
"Call her up then or I will. I have to talk to her anyway to see if she's free to go shopping with Amy."
"You can call her", he said and then went back to work.
"Coward", I said under my breath.
I moved to sit on the couch before calling her.
"Hey beautiful, how's it going?"
Tyler's head snapped up when I said that and gave me a threatening look. I responded with a smirk.
"I'm good, I'm not doing much."
"Perfect! Would you mind taking Amy shopping, she wants to buy an outfit for thanksgiving. It will be at my mom's house, Tyler was too shy to ask you out so will you go with him?"
I looked at him again, he was still glaring at me.
"I really want to go but, I don't know what to say to my parents. We usually have it at my grandma's house with all my cousins and other family members."
"I understand if you can't make it. Just give Tyler a call if you can."
"Okay I will but I can go shopping today with Amy, can Grace come along too?"
"Of course, it will be good for you all to have a girl's day out."
"Thanks a lot Josh."
"No, thank you. Hopefully, I'll see you tomorrow."
"I hope so too", she said and then we hung up.
"I was too shy to ask her", Tyler repeated in a flat tone.
"Obviously you were, you don't have to be scared to say it."
"You know what Josh--"
"Make sure to keep your phone on if she calls you, okay? I have work to do", I cut him off to say.
I quickly left his office, I really did have work to do that I was not looking forward to.
"Hey Miles", I said as I spotted him.
He stopped walking when he heard me.
"Are you busy", I asked.
"No."
"I'm surprised, it seems like I never see you anymore."
"Yeah. Things are still busy with that mall case. It's going to stay like that for a while."
"It feels weird to have thanksgiving tomorrow when something like that happened not too long ago."
"I know. My family is having an early thanksgiving. I want to work tomorrow so we don't get behind on this case."
"That's smart. I wouldn't mind staying but the boss told Tyler to take off tomorrow and since we always have it at my mom's house, I'm off too. If anything though, we are just a phone call away. I wonder if Cosen celebrates thanksgiving."
"If things are quiet tomorrow then I would say yes."
I let out a sigh.
"Well, you take care and don't tire yourself out if I don't see you when I leave."
"Same to you and tell Tyler as well."
"Will do."
I grabbed a coffee before making it to my desk. I got started on the stack of files, trying to breeze through them since I'm off tomorrow.
I'm looking forward to enjoying myself tomorrow, that is if Cosen can keep quiet.