Fresh-Faced French Teenager
Rosie sent me home with a bottle of wine last night. I drove to her place in Santa Monica to get all the details on the dinner party she hosted for her fiancé’s family who is visiting from out of town. When I talked to her during the day she was really nervous about not having enough food. Two of the guests were teenaged brothers from France. The cute blonde one with braces who spoke English perfectly poked his head in the kitchen while Rosie was stressing out over forgetting to defrost the puff pastries for the pesto salmon.
“Why do you look so mad?” he asked.
“I forgot to defrost something and I don’t want to ruin the meal,” she said while closing the freezer door.
“It doesn’t matter if the food is good or bad—that won’t make us like you. We like you because you’re nice,” he said with the wisdom only a fresh faced, sparkly toothed teenager could give. Everything turned out nicely. She made these watermelon/tomato/basil leaf skewers with balsamic reduction that made my mouth water just hearing about them.
We also talked about the wedding.
She was fine with having it at the courthouse but he likes the idea of having a small wedding so she went dress shopping with her mom the other day. Her goal is to spend no more than 10 thousand… on the entire wedding. At the bridal shop she asked the saleswoman to point her in the direction of something in the 3 hundred dollar range.
“Sweetie, we might have a few damaged or ripped ones in the back but nothing on this floor is in that range,” the woman said.
Rosie’s Mom doesn’t want her daughter getting married in a ripped dress so she offered to pay for a nice dress. Rosie doesn’t want to put any burdens on her parents but the truth is I know they’ve been saving for her wedding since the day the doctor said, “You’re having a girl.” I think every parent does. Even mine did and we wore sweat pants growing up.
Rosie was telling me that a nice wedding can cost on average 40 thousand dollars. I gasped. I’ve never thought about it before. Those numbers are so outrageous to me and not even close to my budget. That makes me scared. Also, the fact that she’ll probably be having a baby within the next couple of years petrifies me because I want one so bad but know that it’s going to be a minimum of 5 (that’s if I get married tomorrow) years before I even come close. Realistically the number 10 stands out in my head.
What if I end up never having one? I’ll be bald Uncle Jim who shows up to Holidays and says something inappropriate about one of the guests. I just hope it’s not about the fresh-faced French teenager.
