cantankerous
disagreeable to deal with; contentious; peevish: a cantankerous, argumentative man.
************************************
“Dude, you’re acting like Grandpa.” Henry whispered.
Nick did not reply. At least not verbally. His response was to huff, cross his arms and sink deeper into the chair. The large, overstuffed easy chair.
“Come on, Nick, don’t be like that. This’ll be great, I promise.”
Nick’s eyes slowly turned to look at his brother. He gave a deliberately slow blink, and his mouth was set into a firm line.
“It’s just one date. One date won’t kill you. And if you act like a normal person, maybe it’ll even turn into a second date.”
Henry looked Nick hopefully. Nick finally deigned to speak.
“Remember what happened on the last blind date you set me up with?”
“Uh…okay, yeah, that didn’t go too well. But I’ve got a good feeling about this one. I mean, you saw her picture. She’s a total 10.”
“That. Means. Nothing.”
“Come on, at least act like you’re happy to be going. If you act like an old man, you’ll never get a girlfriend.”
Nick remained silent. He felt no need to reply. Henry took that as permission to keep talking.
“Look, just…just pretend, okay? Mom’s getting worried about you.”
“Mom worries about everything. That doesn’t mean I have to act like I enjoy social interaction.”
“No, but it will keep her from trying to set you up herself. And we both know how that’ll turn out.”
Both brothers shuddered at the memory of their mother’s attempts at matchmaking. She was a wonderful person, and a fine mother, but her view on dating was a few decades out of date. Neither of them wanted to deal with that again. And even Nick had to admit Henry’s picks were better overall. Not that he would admit that out loud.
“Fine.” Nick practically spat. “I’ll go. But I make no promises to enjoyment, real or otherwise. And you have to tell Mom that I’m making the attempt.”
Henry brightened up immediately. “Great! I promise, as long as you’re not channeling Grandpa, it’ll go great. She seems super nice, and isn’t too enthusiastic about everything.”
That gave Nick pause. “Too enthusiastic? So, what, she’s only a little nuts?”
“Come on, man, don’t be like that. People are allowed to like things.” Henry pulled out his phone and sent a quick message. “Besides, you can’t back out now. I already said you’d be there.”
“Wait, no. I’m reconsidering this. Henry, how crazy is she?”
“She’s not crazy. People are allowed to like things without being crazy. And I’d say she has takes about the normal level of enjoyment out of things. There’s nothing you need to get all bent up over. She won’t try and make you go to yoga classes or anything.” Henry leaned in close. “But if she does, you should totally go. Because her in yoga pants? Damn.”
Nick groaned. “So she’ll make me do other things?”
“No! You know what I mean. Yoga was just an example, and you know that. Look, just go on the date, pretend to be normal, and then go home. That’s all you have to do. And if anything else happens? Well, that’s just a bonus.”
Nick took a deep, slow breath. “Fine. I’ll go. But I make no promises about enjoyment.”
“That’s all I could ever hope for.”
*****************************
Maybe I should try actually going on a date. Although knowing me, I'll probably mess it up by just being boring and stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment