It had been a month since Greg had asked her to become his girlfriend, and she had to admit, she loved every minute of it. But at the moment, her dirty clothes were at the forefront of her mind. The pile was so big that she couldn't see the floor of her closet anymore. So she finally decided that her mountain of dirty clothes needed to be washed. She turned on her stereo and the sounds of Hoobastank came through the speakers:
I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is you
And the reason is you
She recognized the song as The Reason, and she started to sing as she settled in to sort out the colors from the whites.
She'd been working on the pile for roughly fifteen minutes when the phone rang. "Thank you God," she breathed. She jumped up from her seat amidst the clothes and dove across her bed to grab the phone. "Hello?"
"Hey beautiful." Beth smiled as soon as she heard the voice. It was Greg.
"Hey yourself. So what's up?"
"Well, I was going to ask you if you wanted to spend the evening with me."
"I don't know Greg; I was just doing my laundry. And you know how much of a project that is."
"Please?"
"Greg, if I don't finish this now, I may never get it done."
Greg was starting to worry that she might actually turn him down. That would be a disaster. He knew he should have asked her earlier. He'd been planning this particular evening for quite some time now. "Beth Morstan, look me in the eyes and tell me that you won't come."
"Um, Greg…Need I remind you that we're on the phone?"
"Well then, grab a picture of me, look it in the eye, and then say no."
Beth looked around the room and found a picture of Greg. The first picture she found was of Greg playing softball at the annual day-shift versus night-shift game. She didn't remember who had taken the picture, but it was a beautiful shot. She closed her eyes as the scene played out in her head. Greg was playing second base and she was playing first base. The photo was taken just after Greg dove to catch a ball. She was standing on first base with her glove outstretched, anticipating the throw from Greg that would get Conrad Ecklie, the day-shift supervisor, out for the double-play. Ecklie had taken a huge lead off of first base and was diving head-first to get back to the base so as to avoid the out. Ecklie didn't stand a chance against the dynamic duo, and he was out. The throw from Greg was beautiful and the double-play was made to end the inning, and the game. The night-shift won, 12-10. She smiled as she thought about the look on Ecklie's face when he realized he was out. This one moment in time, captured by the photo, said so much about them. They made a fantastic team in everything that they did.
"Beth…you still there?"
"Yea, I'm here. I was just thinking, reminiscing. How could I ever say no to you?"
It was as though a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. He didn't know what he would have done if she had said no. He had something very special planned for their evening out. "I don't know, but you had me worried a bit."
"Worried…about what?"
"Well, I wanted to take you someplace really special tonight. So think formal attire, and I'll come by to pick you up at seven? "
"Okay…what's the occasion?"
"It's our one-month anniversary."
"Okay, sounds good to me. I'll see you at seven then."
"Cool. See you soon." Greg hung up and breathed a sigh of relief.
Beth had learned to trust Greg, so she hung up the phone and thought about what she could wear. She looked at her clock. It was 5:56, so she had about an hour to get herself ready to go. She took one look at her laundry, walked around it, and headed into her closet to see what she had to wear.
Greg took a deep breath and thought about how close he had come to total disaster. Too many people were involved with what he had planned. She couldn't just say no. But he didn't want to tell her anything because it was supposed to be a surprise. She seemed to have bought the one-month anniversary story, and he was glad for that. Now, hopefully, the rest of the evening would go according to plan. He didn't think he could handle anymore unexpected surprises.
He ran a hand through his hair, and realized that he still had to get ready, too. He wasn't the type of guy who did formal occasions very often, so he thought about calling Nick for help, but he realized that Nick was probably getting himself ready. He forgot that he had invited everyone to come. So he resigned himself to the fact that he had to make himself presentable all on his own. He realized that this was a disaster in the making, but he had no choice. He'd planned everything out, but he'd forgotten about himself in the process. His mind was reeling as he headed toward the bathroom. He was actually nervous. Hoping that hot water would calm his nerves, he stepped into the shower and turned the hot water on.