Love and Respect

Chapter 2

As the days slid past the snippet of conversation I'd overheard I kept thinking I needed to show Cindy some love and respect, she had earned that much from me. We had long since gotten past the hormonal driven insanity of our teen years and formed a close sibling bond, but how could I show her? The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced she needed someone to be nice to her and since she wasn't dating, the task fell on my broad shoulders.

I started with flowers. I had a bouquet of spring flowers sent anonymously to her on a Saturday morning. I picked Saturday because I wanted to see her reaction. After the delivery girl left Cindy quickly opened the small card to find only "From one who admires you very much" nothing else.

Her reaction was as delightful as the bouquet itself. She flustered, she blushed sweetly, she spun to me "Who did this, do you know who he is?"

"Nobody said anything to me, and maybe it was a she" I said teasingly.

Cindy caressed those blooms until the petals dropped to the table and she needed to toss them away. Each time she focused on the flowers, she wore a pleasant but puzzled smile.

The next bouquet, slightly larger, was delivered with the message "Dinner and Dance?" Cindy went half nuts waiting for a phone call. She simmered for five days and when she finally realized the invitation might not come my sister said to me dejectedly "Someone is playing with me, even if he did call now I wouldn't go out with him."

I apologized for the crass unknown person then made my offer "I'll take you out, let's go to Luigi's tomorrow, I'll spring for dinner and you can talk me into a club if you want." The spark in her eyes was enough to tell me not only did she accept the invitation, she liked the invitation.