Chapter Twenty-Eight: Mia

I was already in bed and almost asleep when the phone rang last Friday night, and I had to run to answer it before it woke up Mama and Poppa. It was Camila, and she wanted to talk about her date with Marcus, and I said I was exhausted and could we talk tomorrow morning. she asked if she could come over after breakfast and I said no, that Poppa had to work a half-day on saturday to get extra money, and saturday morning, Mama and I were going to mow the yard (she's going to do the front yard while I mow the back) to surprise him so he wouldn't have to do it himself when he was all tired from his job.

So Camila said how about her and Hannah coming over after lunch, and the three of us could go over the date with Marcus and analyze what happened. The tone in Camila's voice sort of hinted to me that it hadn't been the best date in the world, but what did she expect when she went out with Marcus...who is just so immature and at the same time so incredibly cocky and spoiled.

Mama and I really worked hard outside saturday morning while my sisters cleaned the kitchen and washed the clothes. I really admire Mama for how she likes to take some of the workload off Poppa—that's how a woman should treat a man...help him and be partners with him and discuss things and make decisions together. That's how I want my relationship with the guy I marry to be, just like Mama and Poppa and the way they work together. After Mama and I finished mowing, we clipped around the house and weeded the flower garden, and we were both smiling and nodding our heads at each other. Mama and I make a good team, too.

When Poppa came home at lunchtime, he was so surprised to see the yard looking so good and the same for all of the outside and he bragged on Mama and me and made us both feel so good. Then he bragged on the work that Isabella and Emma had done inside and they were just beaming, and then he gave us all a kiss and a hug. I love my poppa! He said he was going to take all his girls out for ice cream after supper tonight.

After lunch, Camila and Hannah came over and we went for our walk. The first thing I said was how did it go, and Camila said okay she guessed, that it was her first ever date, it was hard to know if a date was supposed to be fun or not, and right then and there, I knew the date hadn't gone so well. Then Hannah said what was the problem, and Camila replied, what were the problems, you mean. Then I knew there had been some serious issues.

Camila said that Marcus had been bossy when they were ordering their food and all he had wanted to do was talk about himself and his football and basketball skills. she said that she got the impression that Marcus' brother Joshua was perturbed with him, too, for the way he acted, because he kept giving off this aggravated body language-type movements.

The worst thing, continued Camila, was that when they got to her house, Marcus walked to her door and then gave her this big sloppy kiss that was too hard and wet and long. And she thought her dad had come to the window when the car drove up and that maybe he had seen the kiss and would be angry with her.

The main question that Hannah had for Camila was if she was going to go out for a second date, and Camila said she thought she had to. That she had to argue and plead with her parents to go out on a date this year anyway with any guy, not just Marcus, and by not going out again, she would be like saying that her parents were right all along about not going out. I understood what she was saying and I told her so, but I thought that I had better keep my mouth shut about telling her that Marcus was my idea of a perfect loser. I got the distinct impression that Camila liked the idea of going out and having a boyfriend more than she liked staying at home and doing schoolwork...and not having a boyfriend.

While all this was going on, I remembered that Camila and Hannah had teased me about spending so much time with Luke and calling him my fixer upper project. If Luke and I had been out on a date, he would never have been bossy to me and he would have wanted to hear about how I felt about things. We talk about life and current events all the time, and Luke always wants to know about how I think about things. But Marcus is like one of those guys that has to be in control all the time. I am beginning to think that Marcus is also a fixer upper that can't ever be fixed. But that's not my problem, and before too long, I bet it won't be Camila's either.