So let's find a bar, so dark we forget who we are...

The week was a crazy one. The interns were good, but still new, so they needed a lot of help, even with simple tasks, like teaching them how to use our crazy, temperamental copy machine. Monday was a decent day, although I was running my butt off, showing the interns what to do, and prepping them on our policies and procedures. Tuesday I ended up getting chewed out by a parent who was angry that I had “let” her daughter get her good clothes muddy. (Word to all your parents out there: Kids GET dirty, it’s like, their job. So if you want to keep good clothes clean, don’t send them to school and an after school program where kids frequently play outside, or pack them a change of play clothes.) Wednesday was the worst though. Sandy (Big Momma), ran her own after school program at another location. We had found out that day that her program would be featured on the news, and not for good reasons. Earlier in the month a girl had been playing on the playground and had fallen and broken her arm. Now, I don’t like Big Momma, I think she’s lazy, but she does train her workers very well, and I believe them when they say they followed procedure to a T. They first called her parents, and when they couldn’t reach them, were going to call the squad to transport her to the hospital. Her Dad walked in as they were calling the squad, and told them he would transport her to the hospital himself. Well, now her Mom was claiming that the workers had let the girl lay there after she fell for so long that she ended up wetting her pants, and had yelled at her when they finally did find her. The news was doing a story on it, casting our agency in a bad light. We were anticipating being sued. With the economy being so bad, and funding getting slashed, it would probably be a fatal blow. Not to mention, Big Momma was like a wounded elephant, lashing out and snapping at everyone. Everyone was stressed, and the interns looked baffled to be caught in such a whirlwind of negativity, not knowing how to help.
I was stressed for work, staying late and coming in early, and I was looking forward to Greg and my date on Thursday. I was nervous though, when I didn’t hear from him at all on Monday, and downright agitated when I didn’t hear from him on Tuesday.
Finally on Wednesday I got a voicemail, apologizing for being out of touch. Greg had gotten a substitute job, and between that and the gigs at the club, he had been busy.
“I am still looking forward to taking you out tomorrow, if you’ll still let me. If you text me your address, I can pick you up, does around seven work? If it doesn’t, let me know. If I don’t answer, just leave me a message with a time that does work. I’m open all day. Alright. Bye.”
I texted him back my address, and told him that earlier would be better. I decided that drama or not at work, I was leaving early. I also knew exactly where we would go.
They didn’t like it at work when I told them I had a doctors appointment and needed to leave at three, but I didn’t care. Everyone left work early all the time, or dicked around while at work. I deserved a break too. Stacey agreed to drive Matt home for me, and I left at three, changed, and put on makeup. I kept my hair down, slipping a pair of sunglasses on my forehead to hold my hair out of my face. I let the dogs out, and texted Greg that I’d be out back when he got here.
Greg came and played with the puppies for a few minutes, and then I brought him inside and gave him the grand tour. We locked up the puppies, and headed to his car, a rugged Jeep Wrangler Sport.
“Not what I was expecting, Mr. Dangers.”
“What were you expecting?” He asked, walking me to the door and giving me a hand up.
“I don’t know exactly. A sedan?”
Greg laughed. “Yeah, right.” He walked over to his side and hopped in. “So, are you going to tell me this mysterious location.”
“Nope, you’ll see when we get there. I think it’ll be right up your ally.” I said, smiling secretly.
Greg and I talked easily, he told me about his new sub job, a shop teacher, and how he was glad it wasn’t a real class because he sure sucked as a shop teacher. I filled him in on how the interns were doing, and all the drama that was going on, interrupting him only to give him directions. We drove for a half hour, but as soon as we were in sight of the place, Greg broke out into a large smile.
“I can’t believe it! Do you know, I haven’t been to a fair in forever?” He exclaimed, excited.
“You work at fairs all summer long!” I answered, glad that he liked it. I was afraid because he worked at a fair, that he wouldn’t be interested in going to one.
“I know.” He answered, after parking and walking over to my side of the car to help me down. “But, I’m working, and I often refrain from doing things so I don’t get burnt out on fairs. I don’t eat fair food because if I did eat it all summer long, I’d be about five hundred pounds, I don’t ride the rides because it’s really no fun riding by yourself, I take in some shows, but mainly I perform and head back to the trailer to wait till the next show.”
“That doesn’t sound as exciting as I imagined.” I replied, smiling when he slipped his hand into mine before we started walking towards the front gate.
I tried to pay. I argued with Greg that since I was the one that planned the date, I should be the one to pay for it, but he was having none of it. He countered with the fact that he had been the one to originally ask me out, so he was going to cover the fun for this evening.
“If you really feel badly about it, you can buy me a funnel cake or something.” He said, waving me off when I reached for my purse.

To be honest, while I thought Greg might enjoy coming to a fair, I really picked the date for me. I thought it would be a fun way to relax and blow off some steam and have fun, and I had always wanted to go with a date to a fair. I thought it was the perfect date, filled with plenty of opportunities to laugh, talk, goof off, and eat. And then, when the sun set, the lights of the fair would make it a romantic place to be, giving us a perfect setting for what I hoped to be our first kiss.
Our first stop was rides. I’m not a big rider, in fact, I’m terrified, but I have a “I’ll try anything once” type of attitude which I’m surprised hasn’t gotten me killed yet. I did, however, refuse to get on anything that spun. I knew me, and while I wasn’t scared of the rides per-say, I was scared of the effect they would have on me after I got off. I didn’t want to spend my first official date with Greg puking into a nasty fair trashcan, and I didn’t think he wanted to spend our first date holding my hair back.
Greg, was a ride warrior. He loved the roller coasters, as “weak” as he claimed they were, riding the whole time laughing with his hands in the air. I didn’t find these coasters weak in the least bit, and spent my time screaming, cursing, and holding on for dear life. There was this one coaster, called the mouse trap or something of that nature, that I think was designed to make you pee your pants. It wasn’t that tall, and gave off a kid-friendly vibe with colorful yellow tracks and cars shaped like mouse heads. I agreed to go on it, thinking this was the one ride that I could act brave on and Greg wouldn’t make fun of me for. How wrong I was. The coaster didn’t even go up that high, or have any serious drops, but what it did do was hit the turns hard, and spin. Not enough to make me feel sick, but enough to make me feel like every time we hit a turn (and there were a lot of them) that I was going to get thrown out of the car.
We got off the ride, Greg laughing at me, me eyeing the mouse trap warily, and Greg started laughing even harder when we noticed a group of young kids get on, laughing the entire time. I pretended to pout, and this made Greg sling and arm around my shoulder, pulling me close to him.
“It’s OK Ella. I don’t mind that you’re a ride wuss. I think it’s kinda cute.”
I slapped him gently on the shoulder, laughing and pulling away. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back next to him. We walked on, stopping to eat here and there, snacking on foods that had to be extremely dangerous to your health: deep fried cheese on a stick, deep fried oreos, funnel cake, elephant ears, caramel apples… It was all so good, and obviously horrible for you.
The food carts were located in the mid-way, so as we stopped to taste something here and there, we were passing game after game. Finally, Greg stopped in front of one.
“You know, it wouldn’t be a real carnival date unless I won you an obscenely large stuffed animal that you’ll have no use for.”
“As long as you realize you’re the one that’ll be lugging around that obscenely large stuffed animal for the rest of the night.” I said.
“Oh, we do free baby-sitting.” The carnie running the tent piped up (is carnie a politically correct term, and if not, what do I call the people who work at the carnival?)
“Uh, what’s that?” I asked.
“You win a large prize, we watch it until you come back.” He looked explained, looking at me like I was dumb to not know that already.
Greg smiled at me. “See? It looks like it was fate.”

Twenty minutes AND twenty dollars later, Greg had won me that obscenely large stuffed animal. It was a giant turtle that probably cost five cents to make in some sweatshop in China. But, he looked so proud of himself that I squealed and clapped my hands and I imagined girls do in situations like this.
By the time we were done, it was dark. I checked my watch and was surprised to see it was already nine-thirty. I knew I needed to go into work a little early tomorrow, to make up for what I missed today, and that it was still a pretty long drive home. But there was one more thing I wanted to do before we left, something I had saved for when it was dark outside. It was where I was expecting I would get that highly anticipated first kiss.
I don’t like Ferris Wheels. I don’t like being up so high, and I don’t like the rocking of the carts. I was extremely nervous the first go around, but once we spun a few times, I started to relax and feel more comfortable. The view was gorgeous. You couldn’t see the stars due to the light of the fair, but the lights at the fair were almost like stars themselves. We went around a few times, stopped a few to let people on and off, and then, it finally happened. We got stopped at the top. Greg and I had been talking here and there, and he had moved his arm around me. I leaned up against his chest, looking up at him. When his head leaned towards mine, I closed my eyes, and waited for his lips… Which then landed on my forehead. I opened my eyes, surprised, and looked to see what he was waiting for. Greg wasn’t even looking at me, but back out over the fair. He sighed.
“Isn’t it gorgeous up here?” He asked.
“Yup, sure is.” I answered, still studying him to see if I could figure out what, exactly I had done wrong.
We were let off the ride shortly after. We walked back to the game we had played, and picked up my huge turtle. We then walked back to the car, where Greg helped me back up into the jeep, and stopped to shove the turtle into the back. We drove home in a comfortable silence. I was occupied by my thoughts on why Greg hadn’t kissed me, and Greg was singly along quietly with the radio. We pulled up to the house, and once again, Greg walked over to help me out. He lugged out the giant turtle, and carried it was one hand, while holding my hand in the other.
“You want to come in?” I asked, fumbling through my purse for my keys.
“I do, but I better not, I know you have work early tomorrow, and I have school.” He answered, propping the turtle against the wall.
“Yeah…” I trailed off, looking up from my purse at him.
“I had a good time Ella. Can I see you again?”
“Sure you can.” I said, smiling.
“Tomorrow?” He asked, smiling. I laughed.
“Sure, why not?”
“Alright. I have a show, but after? You don’t have anything going on Saturday, do you?”
“Home visits for the dogs, but not till afternoon.”
“Good, I can keep you out late.” He said, putting his hands on my hips and pulling me closer.
I was once again, expecting a kiss. But, once again, Greg hugged me, kissed me on the forehead, and pulled away, turning to wave once he reached his car. I watched him drive off, and then turned to bang my head up against the front door, frustrated with myself.