Neighbors

Dinner

Since we had left Kim's house on Friday, Veronica and I had babbled for hours about her, our new home and for sure Marshall. I have to admit I always had a thing for him, since I'd went to one of his concerts back in 2003, but seeing him live and actually talking to him....
He's hotter than hell!!!!!!!
But I would never think, not even after what Kim had told me, that I would have a chance to get to know him better.

I have to be realistic!!!

After Ronnie and I had taken a drink at the hotel bar, we had went to bed so we could get up early and explore the city a bit.

The next morning we had eaten breakfast, showered, pulled on some comfortable clothes (jeans, sneakers, t-shirt), grabbed our handbags and went out.
We ended up shopping at the mall and after Ronnie had called the interior designer, who wanted to meet immediately with us, we drove to our house.
It took 2 hours to tell Jessica what colors we preferred, how we wanted everything to look and to show her around the house and after I had told her that money wouldn't be a problem, she had promised to start on Monday. Also she would find a construction firm, who should build the wall and gate around my property. I was thankful that Kim had given us her phone number.

Today was Sunday and we were getting ready to drive over to Kim and help her with the dinner preparations. Honestly, I was a little bit nervous how the evening would be, but I was sure that Kim would take care that we had a lot to laugh.

"Hey you two." Kim smiled when she had opened the door and greeted us both with a hug, which I gladly returned. "How you doing?"
"I'm fine, thanks. You?" I asked her and she nodded as answer.
"Come in, I wanna introduce you to my oldest Alaina. Hailie's with Whit at her Dad's, so it's only adults here right now." She chuckled and she offered to take our jackets, which we pulled off and handed her.
"Tell me again, how old are you?" She asked me out of the blue, while she stepped back and scanned my body up and down.
"Uh...37?!" I answered questioning and she pursed her lips and shook her head.
"And how the hell can you still look like this at that age?" She asked on and I shrugged my shoulders and Ronnie chuckled.
"That's what I meant with men almost drooling." She told Kim and they both laughed.
"You two are weird!" I stated and they laughed even more, before Kim was telling us to follow her into the kitchen.

To be honest I didn't really understand why they were talking about me like that. In my opinion I was a regular woman, not overly beautiful, but not ugly either; normal!
I was doing sport each morning since years, to keep my body in shape. But that still didn't mean, that men had to drool over me. Ronnie had told me that it was the fault of my ex, that I couldn't realize how I really looked. He always had locked me away and if I was allowed to go out, he had made sure, that my clothes weren't catching any attention, telling me I was too ugly anyway.

"That's Alaina." Kim introduced us to a gorgeous young woman who stood in the kitchen and smiled at us.
"Mom, come on." She told Kim and walked towards us and stuck her hand out. "I'm Laney and you must be Veronica" my bestie nodded and shook her hand and then she turned to me and smiled widely, "and you must be Tina!"

WEIRD!!!!!!!!!!

I nodded, shook her hand and answered with a "nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." She said and turned to her mother and nodded, while Kim shrugged and smiled back at her. I turned my head to Ronnie to see if she had recognized the same strange behavior as I have and she nodded lightly.

Good, I'm not hallucinating....

"How about a glass of wine?" Kim asked and while I declined, saying that I had to drive later, Ronnie gladly took the offer. "Tina, what else can I offer you?" She asked and I answered that I would be okay with a coffee, which made Ronnie chuckle.
"I told you she can't live without it."
"So, what can we help you with?" I changed the subject and Kim and Laney shook their heads.
"Actually nothing. We decided to make pasta and the tomato sauce is already finished, so we could sit outside and talk a bit if y'all want?!" She suggested and I nodded.
"Kim, you don't have an ashtray possibly?" I asked her and she looked surprised at me.
"You smoke?"
"Yup." I answered shortly and she turned around, opened one of the cabinets and handed me an ashtray, before we walked outside and sat down on her veranda.