"What do you mean you're not sure?" Owen demanded to know. "You can't change your mind in a split second. Why don't you not want to go to Northwestern, anymore?"
"Because of how you acted yesterday," Cristina said, pouting. "You said some things that were not just nice."
"I was drunk!" he said. "I can't even remember what I said. You can't hold that against me. Anyway, what the hell did I say to make you change your mind? Whatever it was, I take it back. Right here, right now."
"Well, you told me that Garrett and Holly broke up and that if they broke up, we were going to break up and I was going to date some other guys because that is what I do. And then you brought up Jordan and Dewey as examples of me doing this," she said.
He stayed silent for a bit. "I was just relaying my fears about us. If Garrett and Holly couldn't make it, then it could be possible that we won't make it, if you go to school somewhere, other than Northwestern. The distance broke their relationship. I don't want that to happen to us. Do you know they are both dating other people, now? I always thought that they were going to make it," he said, looking down at his large hands. "I don't want to lose you. It would be the worst thing to happen to me, if it did. That's why I drank. I was kinda drowning my sorrows in alcohol. But the way I feel this morning is probably going to keep me off the sauce. The hangover is tremendously awful."
"Okay, I understand why you did it but I still don't have to like the way you handled it," she said. "You could have just talked to me about it. Here I am, trying to make one of the most important decisions of my life and there you were, drinking to drown your sorrows."
"I know, I am sorry about that and I want to apologize for anything I may have said, when I was drunk," he said. "I didn't mean it. Sorry, that's not true. It may have come out a little harsh but I did tell you my fears." She came to him and touched him on his cheek. "Oh, Owen, when I dated Jordan and stupid Dewey, we weren't a couple. But even if I went to school far away from home, we would still be a couple, even though we are in different states."
"So what does this mean?" he asked. "That you have decided to go somewhere else?" His heart had dropped to the pit of his stomach. Even if they were going to remain a couple, he still wanted a situation where he could see and touch her every day.
"No," she said. "I am going to Northwestern." He picked her up and kissed her. "Oh, you have made me so happy. It was the right choice."
"Well, my parents think so, too. They were devastated when Garrett went to California because they missed him, so much. Now they know that I am just a car ride away, they are really happy about it. They even said I could come home for Sunday lunch, whenever I want," she said.
"I can't wait for us to be together in school," he said, as he hugged her. "Yeah, me too," she said, giving him a huge smile.
With the tensions of Cristina finally choosing her school, the next month was rather blissful. Owen came every weekend to take her out on dates. Sometimes, they would go back to his apartment and make love, sometimes, they went out to the movies, and sometimes, they went out to dinner. However, there was one major event that was occupying Cristina's mind. It was the upcoming senior prom. Owen waited patiently for her to mention it. He knew there could be no other person, who could be her date, so why wasn't she saying anything about it. He already had his suit; all he needed to know was what color dress she was wearing, so he could match his tie and get the right flowers.
On one of their dates, he asked, "Is there anything you need to ask me?" She knew exactly to what he was inferring. She decided that she was going to make any suffer. She pretended to think before she answered. "No, no, I don't think so," she said, with a sweet smile.
He wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. He was going to pursue it further, for the moment, but she better darn well ensure that he was the one she was going to ask to her senior prom. Little did he know that Cristina was trying to think about a special way to ask him to the prom. It was tradition at their school that you just couldn't ask someone, it had to be done in style. For his senior prom, Owen had asked his dad's friend to fly a banner from the tail of his plane, while he flew over Cristina's house. Cristina couldn't afford anything like that. Most of her presents to Owen were made by her, except for that one time, when she saved up all of her allowance to buy that watch for him. He looked at her and wondered what she was thinking. She caught his look and reached over to take his face in her hands and kissed him. She knew that would distract him for the while, so she could give herself time to think of what she could do.
She was sitting at the kitchen table while her mom was making sugar cookies. "Mom, why are you making so many cookies?" Cristina asked, as she bit into a cookie from one of the finished batches.
"Hey, hey, why are you eating my cookies?" her mother asked. Cristina finished off the cookie, before she answered, "What's the matter? Aren't they for us?"
"Well, no. I am doing it for the church's bake sale. I promised to make 12 dozen sugar cookies to sell," Cristina said. She watched her mother cut out the cookie dough into shapes, like triangles, leaves, hearts, stars and even alphabet letters. It was when she saw the letters that she had the idea. She knew what she was going to do to ask him to the prom. She told her mother her idea. Helen smiled and said she would help her.
The next day, Helen made a special trip to Evanston to deliver a silver tin of cookies, wrapped in ribbon and a huge bow. She left the tin right outside of Owen's apartment door. When he came home that afternoon, he was surprised to see the tin, there. He picked it up and carried it into the apartment. He untied the ribbon and the bow to release the card that was attached to the top of the tin. He knew that handwriting on the envelope. It belonged to his girl.
He opened the envelope and read the message. "Owen, in this tin is some letter-shaped cookies. Figure out what it says and give me a call with your answer. The clues are (a) there are eight words and (b) the words have 4, 3, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2 letters in that order. Cristina."
He figured out that this was her way to ask him to the prom. It was such a cute idea and he knew exactly what the words should be. He spilled out the cookies on to his table and started putting together the message, which read, "Will you go to the prom with me." He was gratified to find that she had also included a question mark cookie to put at the end of the sentence. She was so thorough, he thought. He grinned. She had taken long enough to ask him, especially since the prom was next week.
He picked up the phone and dialed her number. "I got your message," he said. "What should my answer be?" He laughed. "I especially loved the question mark cookie."
"Stop laughing and answer the question," she said, in what she hoped was a stern voice. She was just kidding him, of course.
"Well, you took so long to ask me. I am going to take my cool time to answer you," he said, teasingly. "The prom is next week and I am now getting my invitation. I do have to plan my wardrobe and such."
"Well, if you are going to be this way, I might as well just ask Jordan if he wants to go with me," she said. She knew that would get him all riled up. Two can play this game, she thought. She knew exactly what button to push.
"Cristina, don't you dare say something like that to me," he said, the hurt in his voice was evident. "You know that just upsets me."
"Well, answer the question," she said, recognizing she may have taken this a little too far.
"Now, I don't feel like it," he said. "It makes me feel that you could easily replace me with Jordan."
"Okay, I apologize. I should not have mentioned Jordan's name. You know there is no one else I rather go to the prom with," she said, softly.
"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath. "If I had letter cookies to reply to you, the answer would be Y-E-S."
"I figured that," she said. "Just wanted to hear the words from your mouth."
"So what color is your dress?" he asked. "I am sure you and your mom have bought it already. Your mom is always more excited than you to buy the dress."
"Emerald green," Cristina said. "The lady in the prom dress shop always thinks that jewel tones look best on me."
"She is right," Owen said. "You always look beautiful. Now I know what tie to get with my suit. Now where the heck am I going to get flowers for an emerald green dress," he said. "Now that is a doozy."
"You'll figure it out," she said. "I am sorry about what I said, just now. I didn't really mean it."
"It's okay," he said. "I know that you love me."
"Yeah, I do," she replied. "I love you very much. Okay, bye."
"Bye, baby," he replied. "Love you so much."
The next week, he showed up on time for their prom date. When she came down the stairs in her emerald green dress, he gasped. "You look so beautiful," he said. Cristina blushed a little. "Thank you. It is just a nice dress and make-up."
"No," he said. "It's you." He handed her the corsage of green orchids. "Oh, my God," she said, on seeing the corsage. "You actually got green flowers." He nodded. "The lady in the flower shop recommended them."
"Come on, kids, let's take that photo. In front of the fireplace, now," Helen said. Both she and Stanley took so many pictures, that Cristina started seeing stars from all of the flash. "Mom, Dad, that is enough," she said. "Owen and I have to go." Her parents watched as she and Owen walked out to the limo, that he hired. They then went out to dinner at their favorite restaurant and then the hotel, where the prom was being held. They took their obligatory prom picture and had to endure some of the teachers fussing over Owen, as they welcomed back into their midst. When he finally disentangled himself from their grasp, he found her a seat and asked if she wanted something to drink. She nodded and watched him disappear into the crowd to the bar. She was staring at her green orchids corsage, when she heard a familiar voice.
"Hey, Cristina, you look amazing," Jordan said, giving her an appreciative look. She looked up at him. "Thanks, Jordan, you clean up nicely, yourself, too. By the way, congratulations on the prom king nomination."
"I should be congratulating you, too on your prom queen nomination," he said. She laughed. "I don't think that there is any chance of me winning that. Besides, didn't your junior prom date, Naomi, win junior prom queen last year? She is probably going to win senior prom queen, too."
"You shouldn't count your chances out," he said. "I voted for you."
"You're kidding?" she said. "Thanks, but as I said, I am probably not going to win. I didn't even vote for anybody. I am sorry. If I had known that you voted for me, I would have given you my vote."
"That's okay," he said. "I am not holding my breath, either, on winning this thing. Cristina, seeing that we are graduating in a couple of weeks and we probably are not going to see each other after that, I just wanted to say something to you."
"Okay," she responded. What did Jordan want to say to her?
"It's about last year and about how we broke up. I realize I behaved like an idiot because you didn't want to sleep with me. I am so sorry about that," he said. "I want to chalk it up to immaturity but I really don't want to give myself an excuse. We had a good thing going and I totally messed it up."
"Thanks, Jordan, it is big of you to say this," she replied. "I just wasn't ready. But it is okay, now. All water under the bridge."
"Thanks, Cristina, it means a lot to me," Jordan said, with a smile. "Where is your date?"
"Oh, he is coming back from getting me a drink," Cristina said. "He is a little way behind you." Jordan looked around and saw the tall, blond muscular young man, giving him a deadly stare. Owen had seen the young man, hanging around Cristina for the past ten minutes.
"Here is your drink, Cristina," Owen said, handing her the glass of coca cola. "Thanks," she said, as she took a sip.
"Are you going to introduce me to your friend?" Owen asked, in an icy tone. Jordan started to feel uncomfortable.
A/N Please leave your comments. Thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts.