Waiting Around for Friday Night

Waiting for the fish to bite
Or waiting for wind to fly a kite
Or waiting around for Friday night

 

Wendell Molinson had hoped to pick his date up quietly and without fanfare; however, his detective’s eye immediately noticed the plethora of vehicles parked outside the Manor House that evening. The odds of a quiet arrival didn’t look good.

The Captain knew the moment the gracious and lovely Honey Wheeler Belden opened the door to greet him that his hopes were dashed. They would all know. He wondered if they would approve.

Wendell watched as his date bustled around, obviously flustered as she gathered her coat and purse. She looked lovely that evening and he had embarrassed her in front of the young people she considered her own. Oh well, he had no intention of hiding his interest in this woman. It was better they know, much better. Then there could be no mystery for the Belden-Wheeler Agency to solve.

He opened the car door. He was aware that there were at least three pairs of eyes watching them. Had someone asked him, he would have bet all seven pairs were on the couple as they made their way out of the driveway.

He breathed a sigh of relief as they reached the bottom of the steep driveway. His date obviously relaxed at that moment, and he smiled at her. “I was thinking Wimpy’s for burgers, then a movie at the Cameo. The new holiday movie is out and it looked like it would be fun to see.” It would be Thanksgiving in less than two weeks.

Margery Trask’s eyes twinkled as she responded. “Wimpy’s sounds like fun, and I’m always up for a funny movie.”

Wendell nodded, thinking that Margery’s eyes were the feature which attracted him to her in the first place. She tried so hard to come across as the brisk, stern and ever-efficient governess, math teacher, and part-time estate manager for the Wheelers, but those twinkling eyes gave her away, at least to him. He knew her six new students would not see beyond the façade she had managed to erect, but after all, he was a detective. He could perceive her sense of humor and the love of a good joke.

“You realize, of course, they think I’m stepping out on Frank.” Margery spoke with a hint of laughter in her voice.

“Yes, well, do you blame them? It gave me a few bad moments myself before I asked you out.”

“No, of course not, but they never asked for an explanation of our relationship either.” Margery’s eyes twinkled again.

“If they had asked, would you have told them?” the police captain asked carefully. He had wondered if she would.

“Of course.” There was no hesitation in her answer. “I’ve never lied to them. Those kids are too good for me to do that.”

“You won’t get any argument from me. By the way, what are they all doing tonight? It looked like they were celebrating to me.”

“Oh, yes, indeed. Trixie and Honey were celebrating something to do with the business, an account they won. They’re at Manor House to take advantage of Matthew’s large-screen television. They plan to watch Bobby play in the game tonight against Notre Dame.”

“Bobby has really done well at Syracuse; I’ll bet they get a kick out of watching him.”

“They have certainly made a big deal about it. Secretly, all the boys give themselves credit for coaching him in Pee-Wee ball and Little League. They sure had a good time a few weeks ago when they took the Frayler students over to watch him play.”

Wendell pulled into Wimpy’s to park and hurried around the car to open her door. He felt as though the eyes of Jim, Brian, Mart and Dan were all on him. There was no way he would ever want to try and explain to any of those young men why he had not treated Margery with all the old-fashioned good manners they had been taught to observe.

They were both relieved to find an empty booth in the back. Mike knew them both and they knew he would not discuss their presence there together tonight. Both ordered burgers without onions and agreed to split the extra large order of French fries. They agreed on shakes to drink.

“Chocolate for me, Mike,” Margery told him.

“I’ll have my usual strawberry.” Wendell added with a look at Mike that conveyed the message to the counterman that it would all be on one check.

“Is it a detective thing, liking strawberry?” Marge asked him.

“I don’t think so, what makes you ask?”

“Well, Trixie always had a thing for strawberry pop. I noticed she’ll order a strawberry shake as often as she does chocolate anyway. So it made me wonder if there was a connection.”

Wendell choked on this comment. She thinks Trixie and I are alike? Impossible! Where does she get this stuff? He thought to himself.

“How is Trixie?” he asked changing the subject from that embarrassing comparison. “Did she ever hook up with Jim or are those two still dancing around each other?”

Margery laughed. “Funny you should ask. Since that weekend trip to Syracuse, I believe they have, as you say, hooked up. At least in the meaning of they’re now dating, not necessarily sleeping together. Although that will probably happen sooner rather than later.” She paused and frowned. “I never did hear exactly what happened, but they both came back with stars in their eyes. I strongly suspect their friends meddled.” She stopped as the waitress dropped off their order and waited while they divided fries and passed the ketchup bottle back and forth.

“No one has said a word about what happened, but something obviously did.”

“Mart hasn’t said anything?” Wendell looked at her in surprise. “I thought you said he went that weekend as well.”

“Oh yes, he and Diana. Dan, Regan, none of them has said a word. It’s most suspicious.” She munched a fry as she remembered trying to get some information out of Bill Regan.

“Did you ask them?” He wondered.

“Oh, definitely! I asked Bill right after lunch on Monday afternoon what was up. It was obvious something was going on, but he just clammed up and said he didn’t know what I was talking about.”

“That’s odd.”

“Yes, that’s what I thought as well.” She chewed slower as she pondered the situation.

“So what did you do all weekend with the school shut down?” He asked her.

“Well, you know about the one thing, right?” she said, blushing.

“Of course I know. Don’t be embarrassed about it; after all, it hooked you up with me.” He smiled as he patted her hand.

“Yes, hooked up. I’m not sure if you know exactly what that means today, because so far, we have not hooked up. But yes, I do know what you mean. If I had any idea you were interested, well, we both could have saved about $100.”

“Are you going to tell me what it means to hook-up in today’s world?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. Not tonight, anyway.”

“Okay. Well, yes, we could’ve saved some bucks, that’s true enough, but I think it was a good investment.” Wendell smiled.

“Do you believe in fate?” Margery asked him seriously. “Do you think maybe it was meant for us to both call the number?”

“Yes, I do,” he told her seriously. “I hadn’t been interested in dating for years after my wife passed. It’s only since I’ve made Captain and the weekend patrols and late night shifts became a thing of the past, that things changed. Something was missing and I wanted a partner again, a life partner. I just had been gone from the scene so long I didn’t know how to do it. That’s why when that brochure kept getting passed around the station house, I finally confiscated it and threatened the officers that I didn’t want to see another joke about it. I called and investigated, made sure they weren’t a fraud and then I signed up. The rest is history.” He shrugged his shoulders, “What made you call?”

“Frank gave it to me. He told me I was too young and too much like that ‘harum- scarum’ Belden girl to spend all my weekends with him. He told me if I didn’t call he wasn’t going to let me watch wrestling with him any more. So I called the better business bureau first and when they said there had been no complaints, I called and … well, I guess you know the rest of the story…” Margery drifted off as her explanation wound down.

“It seems kind of funny that neither of us actually got the Are You Single solicitation sent directly to us,” he laughed. “We just took advantage of the one someone else received.

“Fate,” she murmured as she slurped the last of her chocolate shake.

“Fate,” he agreed as he smiled. “At least since that ‘harum-scarum Belden girl’ was at Manor House tonight, we won’t have to worry about her investigating who you were dating.”

Margery laughed, “Don’t be surprised if she calls on you and asks you what your intentions are.”

Wendell Molinson laughed, “There’s not much that young lady could do that would surprise me.”