I was slouched in the easy chair in the living room watching some dumb-ass game show on MTV when I heard Dani's footsteps as she came down the stairs.
"Paul?"
"What?" I said, not taking my eyes off the TV. The girl in the scanty tank top was trying to win a new MP3 player. I was hoping that the camera would switch to a view behind the podium so that I could get a glimpse of her ass. If it was half as sexy as her face, then I'd have to move her up from a 'maybe' to a 'hell yeah!'.
"Could you do me a favor?"
"What?" Tank top girl blew it. She actually thought that a crustacean was some kind of piecrust. Bimbo.
"Come on," Dani said, taking my hand and pulling me from the chair.
"What do you want?" I said, turning off the TV and throwing down the remote as Dani pulled me towards the front door. Now that my attention had been dragged from the girl on the tube I could see what Dani was wearing. My little sister had forsaken her usual jeans for a slinky floral dress that just came down to mid-thigh. Her hair was combed and pretty and I caught the tantalizing scent of perfume. And heels! Now I knew something big was up. I hardly ever saw Dani in a dress and heels. And sure as hell not on a Tuesday afternoon right after she got home from school.
"Just come on," she said, leading me out the door and down the driveway to my car.
Dani let go of my hand and kind of pushed me towards the driver's side as she climbed into the passenger seat. Resigned but not surprised, I got behind the wheel and cranked up the engine.
I'm not above giving Dani a ride when she needs one. And she seems to need one a lot. You know how it is when you're a senior in high school - there's always places to go, people to see. I remembered it well. Even though I was living at home with Dani and Mom and Dad to save on college expenses, I had managed to scrape enough together for a car. And since I owned one and she didn't it usually fell to me to drive her around. Not that I minded - I kind of liked being 'big brother with a car.'
"Where are we going?" I said in a resigned voice as I pulled away from the curb.
"Sakura Square."
The fuzzy picture of what Dani wanted this time cleared up a little. Sakura Square was a downtown hot spot, with some oriental stores and a restaurant that was known all over the city for its shrimp tempura. Obviously Dani was meeting some boy there. Since she didn't go on many dates I decided not to press her for details. Knowing Dani, it was best to let her do it her way.
We sat quietly on the ride downtown, which wasn't unusual. Dani's always been a little, I don't know - intense? She's very reserved, and has been ever since she was little. Somehow she always gave you the impression that she was thinking deep thoughts, but she never shared them with anybody. Not Mom. Not Dad. Not me. Which doesn't mean that she didn't manage to communicate her feelings well.
Take my fiancΓ©, Joanne. Dani had made it pretty plain that she didn't like her without saying a thing. She practically stomped out of the room when I broke the news of our engagement to everyone. None of us could get her to explain what upset her so much. Her feelings about Joanne were so stormy that she'd get up and leave the room with a scowl on her face every time she heard me talking to her on the phone. And even with Mom and Dad's help I was never able to get Dani in the same room as Joanne.
After a few weeks with no explanation I decided that I'd had enough. I wanted to know what the big deal was. I mean, I loved Joanne, but I loved my sister too. And if I could find out the reason that Dani was getting so huffy all the time then maybe I could do something about it. So one night I went to her room to see if she would talk to me about it. She was lying on her bed flipping through a pile of magazines.
Dani's pretty good at ignoring subtlety, so I went for the direct approach. "Do you have some kind of problem with Joanne?"
"Nope." I knew that that wasn't the truth. Dani's eyes never left the magazine in her hands. Why was she acting so hostile towards Joanne if there wasn't a problem? I waited for her to elucidate, but she just sat there with a bored look on her face, turning pages.
"Come on, there must be something." I said. "Every time we're on the phone together you leave the room with a disgusted look on your face. And you always find some reason to not be here every time she's come over. What's the deal? She's my fiancΓ©e, you know. We're going to get married. Why don't you like her?"
Dani flipped a page as she sat there pretending I wasn't even in the room. I tell you, I was pretty exasperated.
"That's it? That's all you've got to say?" Still no answer. Apparently she was finished speaking to me, because she acted as if I wasn't even there. I left her alone in her room, with all of my questions unanswered.
But you see what I mean? Without saying hardly a thing, Dani managed to communicate just as much as she wanted to, and no more than that. So I knew that it wouldn't do much good to try to pump her for information about why she was going to Sakura Square or why she was all prettified.
And anyone who saw her would think she was a fox when she was all dolled up like this. We always felt like it was Dani's quiet personality that kept her from going on more dates - it sure as hell wasn't her looks. If she had been interested, she could have had all the boys she wanted. But for some reason dating was just never a priority with her. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd seen her dressed up like this. I snuck a glance over at her, sitting there looking all sexy and grown up in her high heels and short dress. Whoever this guy was, he was pretty lucky.
When we got downtown I pulled into a parking spot on the street near the restaurant. While Dani gathered her little purse she said, "Don't just sit there. Come on."
"What?" I said. I didn't know where we were going or what was going on, but I got out anyway. I don't know exactly why it is, but Dani's always been able to get me to do pretty much whatever she wanted.