Mitchell's Power Play

Making Dinner

MITCHELL

I had hesitated and changed my mind over and over again. In the end, I decided that it was rude to cancel the dinner with Sammy. Regardless if she was pursuing a relationship with Jackson and just wanted to be friends with me, it would be selfish to cancel something we'd planned together. She was to bring dessert and I wasn't sure if she'd already baked. I didn't want her to have to do all that for nothing. Maybe we'd never be anything more than friends, but at least we could be that. We were that. And as Nash and Kennedy's best friends we would be seeing each other all the time, so we needed to remain friendly.

Maybe staying "just" friendly would be the smarter decision. It's just that I wasn't sure whether I cared too much about being smart when it came to Sammy. It hadn't been that instant love at first sight, or lust at first sight, like it'd been when I met Louise, or the friends to lovers Nash and Ken had, but there was definitely something there.

Sammy made me happy. She made me feel good and she was real. It didn't hurt that she was beautiful, tall and thin, and always smiling. I'd always found her attractive, but she'd been in a relationship with that cheating asshole Keith when we met, so I'd never given the idea of having anything but friendship with her an extra thought. Not until we were on that vacation in Florida. 

I swallowed down my hurt feelings, thinking back to Jackson and Sammy leaving for their date and hoping they weren't becoming anything serious. At least not before I got my chance. With a deep sigh, I pulled myself together and left for the grocery store.

It had snowed overnight and the cold air hit me as soon as I stepped outside. I tightened the scarf around my neck and was glad I'd decided to wear a hat. I usually did it to stay as anonymous as possible, but in the cold weather, it had a practical reason too. The wind gust slammed into me as I rounded the corner and stepped onto 6th Avenue. The skyscrapers kept the wind at bay sometimes, and you almost forgot until you made a turn and the wind took your breath away.

"Shit," I groaned and burrowed my nose further down into the scarf I was wearing, and quickened my steps. The store was just another block over and the sidewalks weren't that crowded, because of the weather, so I picked up the pace. Another gust pulled at my hat and I almost regretted not placing an order for the groceries I needed, but I did like to pick out my own produce. It seemed like the store took the opportunity to get rid of their half-wilted lettuce, or slightly mushy apples when you allowed them to select it for you.

I wanted the dinner to be as perfect as it could be, so if that meant braving some ice and snow, so be it. It wasn't like I wasn't used to this kind of weather. Michigan winters hadn't exactly been a dance in the park.

After selecting red leaf lettuce and some veggies for a salad, and large fresh-looking shrimp I grabbed a bottle of wine and made my way back home. It was easier that way, with the wind in my back. I took a few seconds to just enjoy the freshly falling snow, knowing that it wouldn't take many hours before it turned into a gray pile of slush on the side of the road, creating traffic problems and slip and fall incidents all over the place.

The maintenance personnel at my apartment building had already cleared the sidewalk in front of the entrance and rolled out mats in the lobby. Eddie, one of the older men that worked there, stood outside smoking while leaning up against the shovel.

"Don't work too hard, Eddie," I told him. "Leave some of that shoveling for the young kids."

"You got that right," he snorted. "I'll gladly hand this over to Jose as soon as he arrives."

"Just be careful."

"Always. Have a good night."

"You too."