Chapter 8: Movie Saturday

Meredith woke up the next morning feeling good about herself. It wasn’t love at first sight. She didn’t believe in that. The guy wasn’t even Prince Charming even though the had a princely accent. She had finally stopped saying no and went out. Even if she hadn’t had a decent time with one of the guys there she had fun. She tried sushi for the first time. And although she wasn’t excited to go try it again she didn’t find it terrible, except that weird green paste. She did karaoke for the first time and actually really liked it. The whole event was pleasant. She didn’t have to date the guy she had been paired off with but he seemed like a nice enough person to hang out with again. He was funny, he had interesting hobbies, and he was smart. 

She decided to text both Taylor and Jordan the same message:

Thanks for last night. I had a lot of fun. :)

Simple to the point and they both were responsible for helping her have a good time, which she was thankful for. 

Anytime Hon. 

Taylor responded. And Meredith picked up Dino and danced around her living room for a few minutes as Dino rolled his eyes. She finally put her dizzy cat down on the love seat and headed to the closet to grab something to wear and go get washed and dressed for her typical movie Saturday.

On her way out she grabbed a jacket from her armoire because movie theaters were notoriously cold and she headed downtown. While on the L she looked at her phone app to check the showtimes and plotted out three movies for the day. She had her bag with her and stopped at Dylan’s Candy Store on Michigan Ave. to get some high quality movie snacks and then stopped at Wholefoods for a wrap and headed into the theater around the corner. 

Meredith bought three tickets to three different movies. The ticket taker was new so she had to quickly explain and they shrugged and tore all three stubs for her. She heard a ping on her phone and looked down to see Jordan respond.

I’m assuming this is Meredith. lol I had fun too Luv. Let’s do it again.

Meredith smiled as she rode up the escalator into the downtown Chicago theater. She went and got a soda and a bag of popcorn and headed to her first show. The movie had something to do with vampires that lived on the dark side of the moon and came to earth to feed once every hundred years. Meredith liked the soundtrack but enjoyed her Wholefoods wrap far more than the movie. With half a bag of popcorn and half a wrap she headed to the theater bar to wait for the next show.

“Hey, Meredith.” A security guard strolled up to her and said hello. He was an off duty police officer picking up extra hours as a security guard at the theater. She saw him nearly every Saturday. He wore a Black Security uniform with a Security cap. He had a smile with dimples that could kill and muscles on top of muscles. He wasn’t one of those donut loving cops he was rock solid. His skin was olive and his eyes were chocolate. Anyway she looked at him, he was delicious.

“Oh! Hi Aaron! How are you?”

“You know, same ol’ same ol’. What are you seeing tonight?”

“I saw Darker Side of the Moon and waiting to see Fire Cloak and The Passing 3.”

“Oh. The Passing 3 was good. Better than 2 I think.”

“Sweet.” 

“You ever wanna watch one when I’m off duty I’ll join you.” He added a wink for extra measure. Normally Meredith would have laughed him off but after last night she decided why not and tore another piece of origami paper and wrote her number on. She handed it to him and told him to let her know when he was off duty then headed to her second movie.

Meredith only had about fifteen minutes between films so she went straight to the next movie. The guard found her and handed her a bag of chocolate covered almonds.

“I noticed you didn't have a bag of these tonight.” He winked at her and headed back out as he called out over his shoulder, “Enjoy the show.” She smiled and did just that. And Aaron was right, The Passing 3 was better than the first or second. She had finished her popcorn and wrap in the previous movie and saved dessert for last but since she had chocolate almonds she saved her Dylan’s for later and ate the almonds.

I’m becoming a gigolo, Meredith thought on her ride home. She didn’t even know what a gigolo was but she had Ben, Jordan, and Aaron all setting up dates with her, not to mention Taylor’s plan to get her hitched to Edward Maxwell in less than a week. Chad was ancient history. And he really was ancient history. She hadn’t seen or heard from him in nearly two years. And now she knew she wouldn’t need to.

When Meredith got home she danced Dino around before giving him a night time snack of leftover movie popcorn. She had saved a handful just for him. Then took a long shower and opened her armoire drawers to find her satin pajama short set that always made her feel extra special then she headed to bed early. She still had an important project to work on Monday and she was going to spend Sunday with her mother.