Butterflies

“The best seats in the whole stadium”, Toby exclaims gleefully as the group of four make their way to their seats on the 10th row on the 50-yard line. 

“You didn’t have to do this, Dash”, Lynn is saying but, she is so impressed by the view up here, she doesn’t mean it. Dash has a humble smile on his face as they take their seats.

“It was no problem at all. I’m a huge fan of the Knicks”, he lies through his teeth, and Lenny bursts out in laughter out of disbelief. 

Just as Lynn had suggested, Lenny had invited Dash out to come to see the Knicks game with them, she thought it’d be a good idea because if they were to wed soon; pretend or not, he had to at least have met her sister. Lenny had no idea he was going to put on this ‘I-love-the-knicks’ act and get them such great and expensive seats. Dash and Lenny met up earlier and then came to the stadium together to meet up with Toby and Lynn. 

From the look in Lynn’s eyes, her first impression of him caught her off-guard. She hadn’t expected him to be so…..strikingly handsome. Of course, she had observed that Lenny always had a good taste in men but, it wasn’t only that Dash was good looking, it was that he looked reliable and capable. Not the usual free-spirited, deadbeat artists that Lenny seemed to have a thing for. In comparison to Lynn’s sweet, curly-haired, and slightly socially awkward Toby, Dash gave off a big brother vibe and the two actually had a natural rapport that Lenny didn’t see coming at all. 

After an intense 15 minutes of play between the Knicks and the Bucks, there’s a brief break before the next quarter begins and Dash decides now is the best time to make his move;

“Ever been to a proper football game, Toby?”, 

“Proper?”,

“Yes or let me say ‘soccer’ game. You know that’s the original and by far more entertaining football”, Toby picks up on his banter and laughs heartedly, stretching a little over Lynn to reply to him;

“Ah - Lenny didn’t tell us you were European.”, because Lenny didn’t know, Dash thinks to himself;

“Oh really?”, he steals a glance at Lenny by his left and then back to Toby;

“Italian”,

“You look Italian”, Lynn chips in acknowledgment. Lenny can tell that she likes him already. Pretty privilege? Or class privilege? Or perhaps both.

“I’d hope so”,

“I’m actually taking a trip home for the weekend, one of my uncles is getting married.”, he adds

“Oh, that sounds lovely. I’ve never been to Italy. Been to Paris once on a student exchange thing.”, Toby mutters mostly to himself.

“Baby, have you been to Italy?”, the question is coming from Dash to Lenny but, she’s caught off-guard by the ‘baby’ identifier and doesn’t even realize he’s talking to her.

“Baby?”,

“Yeah. I mean no, no I have not been to Italy”, she tries to sound sweet and like an actual girlfriend but clearly Dash is the better actor of the two.

“Really? Why don’t you come with me then? It’ll only be a weekend and you get to meet Uncle Leonard, he’s heard so much about you”, Lenny is speechless because she can’t tell if this is a real invitation or just part of the plot to convince her sister that they were so so in love.

“Uhm...Hannah. You know I’d love to but, I have to be with Hannah”, 

“What? Ohmygod, you should go Len. I can watch Hannah. She’s at my place half the time anyway”, Lynn offers excitedly and proud of herself because she thinks she’s helping. Lenny is baffled at how gullible her sister is being at the hands of this man. 

“But your wedding is in 2 weeks, I can’t just leave. I’m the maid of honor”, Lenny says. Lynn gives her a knowing glance and she fesses up;

“Okay fine. Unofficial maid of honor. I don’t know what kind of person picks someone else over her own sister to be her maid of honor”,

“You said you didn’t want it!”, Lynn exclaims; clearly an argument they’ve had more than once;

“Yes but only because I was mad at you at that moment. You know what? I still don’t want it. Zoe is going to fucking kill me if I take that away from her. It’s like it’s her life’s long dream or something”, Lenny backs down at the thought of Zoe, Lynn’s extremely anal and detailed long-time friend.

“Great so you can go to Italy if you want”, Lenny had forgotten that that was the original topic. She seats back in her seat and evaluates her options. If she and Dash were truly in a relationship then it would make sense that she should be ecstatic to get to travel with him. If she declines in front of Lynn, it’s going to probably come off as suspicious. Like she doesn’t trust Dash or love him enough. And the whole point of today was to convince Lynn that she loves him enough to marry him;

“I’m totally going. Super excited”, Dash almost face-palms himself at how unconvincing her excitement is but, Lynn and Toby seem to buy it.

 “I want to go get some more snacks, need anything?”, she asks Toby and Lynn who shake their heads no; 

“Okay. Baby, can you walk with me?”, her throat tightens at the word baby. Her only baby is Hannah. Using that term of endearment for anyone other than Hannah feels so wrong. 

“Of course”, he says with a matching smile and they shuffle out of the row and walk hand-in-hand to one of the tailgates selling food. 

Once they’re out of sight, Lenny stops abruptly and pulls her hand away from his, the venom in her voice as she speaks is unmissable;

“I know what you’re doing”, her green eyes are lit and the sun illuminates her blonde hair so she appears as if she’s glowing to him.

“No clue what you’re talking about”, 

“Don’t do that. I’m not an idiot. The flowers, the best seats in the stadium, and then you spring up this Italy talk. It was all a set up wasn’t it?”, he doesn’t reply;

“Well, I’m not going”, she turns abruptly to walk away but, he reaches out and pulls her back by her arm;

“Wait”, 

She’s turned flush against him and his train of thought skips for a second and he forgets what he was about to say. He recovers quickly and lets go of her arm. The entire exchange would have been awkward if she hadn’t skipped for a second too and if she hadn’t been so focused on his hands around her arm and how incredibly close her body was to his. Less than a foot. Too close.

“I did set this whole thing up. After the dinner with my family, I thought you were having cold feet”,

“Dash, it’s 5 million dollars. I could never have cold feet”, she says to lighten up the mood and he laughs and relaxes but, underneath that there’s a faint hit of reality that she wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the money. They shift a little further away from each other.

“If we’re going to be partners in this crime, there needs to be transparency. We’re playing everybody else. Not each other”, she says sincerely and her green eyes look less devious and tamer. Like someone trustworthy.

“Okay. Hundred percent transparency. I can do that”, he extends his hand out for a handshake, and she takes it. There it is again. What was this? Butterflies?;

“So….no to Italy?”,

“Well, I mean Lynn already said she could help me babysit Hannah”, she remembers the ‘baby’ thing;

“By the way, who the hell still says baby? It’s so cringe”,

“What would you prefer? Honey? Dear? Pudding?”, he’s clearly teasing and she punches him playfully as she replies;

“Just call me by my name, damnit”, 

“I can do that. Melanie”, he says it syllable after syllable, like trying out a new word. His eyes don’t leave hers as her name rolls off his tongue. Her smile dwindles from aloof and playful to sweet and a bit embarrassed. Mostly embarrassed by her reaction to him simply just calling her name. 

She snaps out of it and thinks of something witty and unbothered to say;

“I’m still going to Italy though. Can’t say no to a free trip, I’m not that selfless”, he laughs good-heartedly and she feels her mission has been accomplished. Lenny and laughter were beginning to become synonymous for him, he realizes. 

They proceed to buy some pretzels, hotdogs, and beer and then make their way back to their seats as a happy couple once more. 

“What did we miss?” Dash asks and Toby gladly fills them in on what’s been happening in the last 5 minutes since the 2nd quarter began. Both Lynn and Lenny have this fulfilled smile planted on their faces. But for two completely different reasons.