Invited

It never fails. When you have nothing exciting planned, no one calls you. Have plans and a dozen people you haven't talked to in months will contact you wanting to connect later that day. “We never see you,” they plead, “come visit.” You may want to but something else has already been locked in place on the schedule. This is why I knew I should ignore the ringing phone. Logically I knew it would be an invite. How I'm not sure. Maybe I just knew answering the phone would take me away from Sarah Jean for too long. We had much yet to discuss. None of this logic was put to any use. When the phone rang, my hand immediately grabbed it to silence it. “Hello.”

“Ah! Patrick my friend!” boomed Dr. Castillo. “It is good to hear your voice again. How have you been?”

“Well,” I answered, not interested in going into detail. “I hope Ms. Romero and yourself can make a similar response.”

“Indeed we can,” he reported. “We have just returned from a trip to Spain in order to refresh our tans.” I could hear him smile. “Of course my good lady wife is keen to play 'find the tanline' with you.”

“Yes. Of course she is.”

“Not that you will find one as we spent our time at a nude beach,” Dr. Castillo informed.

Immediately unwanted pictures flashed into my head. I did not need that kind of input, especially today. I had no good response to that and simply said “Yes. Of course you did.”

Dr. Castillo focused. “The reason for my call was to see if you and your lovely lady friend were available to dine with us this evening? She is in town I hope.”

I'm not a good liar, especially when surprised. “Yeah, she's here.” My surprise at his call was compounded by Sarah Jean's appearance, walking up to me with a 'what was that?' type look on her face. I suspect that I may have broadcast those mental pictures a bit too strongly. “I'm not sure about dinner this evening.” Sarah Jean's look of curiosity only grew stronger. “I mean, I'd have to check with her.”

“Certainly you would. Is she available at the moment?”

Again, I was too confused to lie at the moment. “She is.”

“Might I speak with her?”

“Hang on.” I attempted to hand her the phone but, wisely, she refused to take it. I informed her who it was on the line. Despite giving me another look that read 'who?' she took the phone from me and began speaking.

Women have excellent telephone voices. They can be spitting mad at you, hopping up and down, calling you every name in the book as well as a few they've just made up. Two seconds later, they answer the phone and their voice is all sweetness and light. The person on the phone would never know that they were talking to an angry woman, one preparing to throw her shoe at you for something that wasn't even your fault. At all.

On the phone, Sarah Jean was no different. Her voice was light and friendly. She giggled a bit. A few minutes later, she hung up and returned the phone to its charger. “Well, now you need to buy me a dress. We need to be fancy for dinner.”

That certainly didn't take long.