SPOV
I sighed as I leaned back in my tub and closed my eyes, letting the hot water and bubbles relax me. It was Sunday night, and despite my nervousness over Operation Cranial Extraction/Bombshell Bachelorette, I'd had a lot of fun so far.
My Friday evening started with a string of Merry Men, each asking me out on a date. About two dozen guys, all wanting to take me out. That was quite the boost to my self-esteem.
After my calendar for the next month had been filled, I dialed Elena. I thanked her for going to dinner with me the other night and told her I was happy she was still located in New Jersey and not trying to find her way home from a third world country. She said she too was relieved to still be state-side. I filled her in on my calendar of dates with the Merry Men, and she told me to find a time in that busy schedule of mine when we could get together again. I told her I'd get back to her on that, and I would. She didn't bring up her therapy suggestion, and I was grateful for that. I still haven't made a decision on it yet.
I had only played laser tag one time before yesterday, and that was when I'd taken Mary Alice and Angie to play laser tag along with Mary Lou and her boys. Playing with the Merry Men was a completely different experience. To start, the Laser Command Center where we played yesterday was on a whole different level than the small room at the back of the trampoline park where Mary Lou and I played with the kids. The location yesterday had multiple floors and elaborate arenas. Apparently, it was owned by a former SWAT officer who retired from the TPD and decided to spend his retirement operating a sophisticated laser tag arena where police departments would come to train during the weekdays, and evenings and weekends would host teens, families, and adults just looking to have some fun. I guess the Merry Men have played there often because they seemed to know the owner really well.
The other difference was in strategy. When Mary Lou and I played with the kids, we had no strategy. We just went in and tried to shoot anyone with a different color than our team. With the Merry Men, each team huddled before entering the arena to strategize. Each team member was assigned an area to protect or a specific task to perform. I should have expected nothing less from a bunch of former special ops guys.
Obviously not all the guys where there because some had to work. Tank told me he switched around the days and times of the group dates so everyone would be able to make at least one of the group dates. There were 15 Merry Men plus me, and we played four rounds of laser tag before heading over to Shorty's. Each round, we switched up the teams a little, but no matter who was on my team, it seemed the RangeMan policy of protecting me was in place. Even though it was just a game of laser tag, I always had a couple of Merry Men watching my back.
Shorty's was just as fun as laser tag. The beer was cold, and the pizza was hot and delicious, just like all the Merry Men that were surrounding me. Over the last few years, I've gotten to know these guys better, but I still was limited in what I knew about their families and private lives. I decided to take advantage of the relaxed atmosphere of Shorty's to quiz them about their lives outside of RangeMan. I discovered that Manny restores old motorcycles, Caesar likes to travel and has a goal to visit all 50 states, and Ram played drums in marching band in high school. Ram took some good natured ribbing from the rest of the guys over that one until I said they had to leave him alone.
Eventually, it was getting later in the evening, and I was starting to lose steam. I knew I had to be up in decent time tomorrow to get ready for my first one on one date with Manny. Tank had picked me up to take me to laser tag, so he drove me home. As he walked me up to my apartment and checked it for killer dust bunnies, I thanked him for putting together a fun outing for us, and he seemed pleased it had gone well. I noticed that we both carefully avoided any specific mention of Ranger as we talked, which was a relief. I kissed Tank goodnight on the cheek, told him to say hi to Lula for me, and headed to bed after locking up.
I woke at 8:43, a little before my alarm went off, which was unusual for me. I guess I was a little nervous about my first date with a Merry Man. Manny was set to pick me up at 10:30, so I hopped out of bed to get ready. All I knew about our date was our mode of transportation. Manny told me he was going to be picking me up on an old Indian he had restored, so I needed to dress comfortably for a motorcycle ride, and we would be eating brunch somewhere casual. I chose a pair of jeans and a cotton summer button-up top. I grabbed a small drawstring backpack and threw my wallet, mascara, and lip gloss in there along with a hairbrush and the requisite can of hairspray that all respectable Jersey girls must carry with them at all times. I slid a ponytail holder over my wrist, sure I'd need it later.
Manny arrived right on time, as was to be expected with a Merry Man, and presented me with a small bouquet of wild flowers. I can't remember the last time a guy gave me flowers. Outside of my stalkers, that is. I took an old jar down from the cupboard, filled it with water, and deposited the flowers in it. They made me smile. I don't know why the flowers made me feel so special, but they did. I gave Manny a quick peck on the cheek as a thank you, and I'd swear he blushed.
I grabbed my backpack and locked my door. Not that it mattered since it seemed anyone over the age of 6 could pick the lock, except for me of course. Manny handed me a helmet and announced we would be heading to Point Pleasant to eat brunch on the boardwalk. It was a fun ride, and brunch on the boardwalk overlooking the beach was amazing.
Despite having been married to Manny for a full night while he was in St. Francis's ER, I really knew very little about him. I'd learned about his love of motorcycles the night before, so for brunch I asked about his family. He's a second-generation U.S. citizen. His parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico with his older brother a couple years before Manny was born. They settled in central Florida where Manny's dad found work as a mechanic. His dad taught him to work on cars and bikes and wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a mechanic. Manny loved it as a hobby, but he felt a calling to serve the country his parents had so fervently believed held the best future for them and their children. When an Army recruiter came to his high school his senior year, he jumped to enlist. He didn't serve with Ranger and the Core Team, but his unit commander knew the guys and when Manny was debating if he should re-up for another tour or get out, his commander told him he would put a good word in with Ranger if Manny wanted to get out and join RangeMan. He'd started at RangeMan just a month before the whole Scrog ordeal, but even after getting shot, he never regretted his decision to work for Ranger.
When we finished with brunch, we took a walk on the boardwalk before heading back to the bike to make the trek back to Trenton. I had a dinner date with Vince, so we couldn't stay all day. The boardwalk was packed. I'm so grateful a vaccine for the virus had been developed quickly, so places like the Point Pleasant could get back to normal. New York and New Jersey were the first two states to receive shipments of the vaccine due to our unfortunate position at the top of the list for cases and deaths. Shipments were also going around the world, to all continents, but countries experiencing the greatest difficulty controlling the spread were prioritized. Asia, with their cultural acceptance of wearing masks in public, had been able to keep the spread limited. Impoverished countries in South America were especially hard hit. The U.S. company that developed the vaccine and antibody treatment, StarPharma, had shared everything about their work with other pharmaceutical companies. This way, all the companies could work together to quickly produce the vaccine and the antibody treatment that were saving lives. Most of the U.S. had the spread under control now, as well as Europe. Focus currently was on Central and South America, where the virus appeared to have originated.
It's strange that every time I read something about StarPharma and their work on the virus, my spidey sense starts tingling. I've looked into the company and their prior work, and there's nothing that seems unusual about them, so I don't know why I'm getting that reaction. Maybe the two months of lockdown in my apartment with Rex threw off my instincts.
The ride back to Trenton was enjoyable, and I thanked Manny for a wonderful date as he walked me to my apartment and cleared it for me.
My date with Vince was amazing too. I didn't know ahead of time where we were going, but he told me dress was casual and we'd be outside. Since the temperature was supposed to drop in the evening, I wore jeans, a knit short-sleeved top, and stuffed a lightweight soft fleece pullover in the drawstring backpack I'd used earlier in the day. When Vince picked me up, he was carrying a small vase with six yellow roses. He told me Manny had warned him I didn't have a proper vase, and I blushed from embarrassment. Shouldn't a woman my age have vases for flowers? I guess I never felt the need for one. Joe never gave me flowers.
Vince told me we were headed to the Capital City Theatre's Theatre in the Park production of The Music Man. He had a picnic basket with dinner and a blanket in the SUV for us. I'd never seen The Music Man before. I'd never seen any musical before, to be honest, outside of productions I'd been forced to be in in elementary and middle school. I really enjoyed it. Vince told me they put on two productions in the park during the summer and four more productions in the theatre over the remainder of the year. I'm going to check out their schedule. I could see Mary Alice and Angie really enjoying the show as well.
We ate the picnic dinner and talked while we were waiting for the musical to start. I asked Vince why he chose it as our date, and he told me about his family. Vince grew up in New York City with his parents and sister, Gianna. His mom loved theatre, especially Broadway musicals. His mom and dad would often go to Broadway shows by themselves, but occasionally they would take the kids along, especially to the musicals. Vince was 12 and Gianna was 14 when 9/11 happened. Their dad worked for an insurance broker on the 95th floor of the north tower. They didn't get a call from him that morning, and as a family, they chose to believe that meant he died in the initial impact.
Vince said his mom lost interest in the theatre for a couple years, but when Gianna was a senior in high school, she tried out for her high school production of The Music Man and landed a minor part. Vince and his mom went to see the production together, the first time she had been to a live theatre production since his dad died, and he said it was like a dark cloud lifted from over his mom's head. Somehow, seeing that high school production of the musical breathed new life into her. After that, his mom started taking him and Gianna to Broadway shows from time to time. Even now, he and his sister often purchase tickets to shows as birthday and Christmas gifts for their mom. He said that having the theatres closed during the pandemic was tough on his mom, and she was so grateful they were re-opened, even if the theatres could only be at 50% capacity. Knowing the story as to why The Music Man was extra special for Vince made me enjoy it more.
So now I was home and letting the hot bath water warm me after the evening got chilly. I can't believe I let Lula and Connie talk me into online dating when Merry Man dating was so much better. Unfortunately, tomorrow night would be dinner at the Plum's, but Tuesday night should be fun with Bobby. I wonder what he has planned.