My head is cocked to the side and I can feel the skin between my eyebrows wrinkling as she talked about her nervousness and her inability to drive next to large trucks. All the while I am thinking to myself, lady this is NJ, there is traffic, lots and there are trucks. You lived here for how many years? Only thirty. "For christ's sake", I say, "I know they do barrel down the road" I watch as she waits for my next word, but none come.
I am holding my drink and thinking to myself, god she is thin, she sort of mirrors a banaster railing. The rought iron kind. My parents had one like that growing up, it was black and swirled around and I would stick my head between the rows until it grew too large in diameter. If only the cup weren't so full I could excuse myself to the bar. Then she asks the question. Did I see it coming? probably, it was inevitable. "So are you going to get married?" Well, hum, I repeat hum, " Haven't even thought about it."
This is when I down the remainging beer in my cup and start to shift from side to side. " We always wondered why you and your sister were not married yet."
Oh for fuck's sake, I could be playing bocci ball instead there I was listening to my cousin talk to my about her nervous aliments and has lumped that right in with why she and her sister don't understand why neither my sister or I are married yet.
What is there to talk about?
What could I say to recover from that? I tried "I don't really know that I would like to be married right now", once before and that was the wrong avenue of choice. This go around I opted for the career enhancement and personal space philosophy. Since she doesn't know much about this, I figured I could talk that up and end the conversation.
"We always wondered why you weren't married." she says and laughs lightly as she exuses herself for a refill.
I toss my cup in the garbage and ask the bartendar for a martini. He asks me on a date.
I like options.