216. Commuter Games

“Oh, my god.” I yelled from the shower. “This girl is going on a diet starting today!”

“What makes you say that?” Cayden yelled back from the sink area of the Jack-and-Jill bathroom.

“You’re not seeing what I’m seeing,” I said as I poked my belly in disgust. I tried to suck it in as much as possible but gave up as soon as I felt light headed. I shouldn’t have been surprised after three straight days of beer and BBQ.

I stepped out of the shower and wrapped my towel tightly around my bloated body. I found Cayden looking in the mirror, pinching some skin on his stomach the way skinny girls do when they think they’re fat.

“I could stand to lose a few,” he said. I laughed and elbowed him in the side.

“How about we go to the grocery store when I get off work,” I suggested. “You know, buy some healthy-ish food for the rest of the week.”

“I’ll cook for you,” Cayden said, and then leaned down to kiss me. “It will be just like we live together.”

We finished getting ready and hit the road by 8 a.m. It was nice to have Cayden along for my morning commute because I’d fallen in love with some of the neighborhoods and I couldn’t wait to show him.

We turned onto Preston and headed south toward Dallas. I turned the radio down so Cayden and I could talk, but I always felt like I was missing out on something when I didn’t get to listen to the Kidd Kraddick Show on the way to work. What was going to happen on today’s Hollywood Top 5??

“Wow, that house is amazing,” Cayden said as we crossed over University.

“Just wait until we turn in Mockingbird,” I said. “The houses are so… funky and adorable and different and quirky.”

I turned left on Mockingbird and watched Cayden’s eyes light up. Had I had glue in the car, his eyes literally would have been glued to the window.

“You’re not kidding,” he said, in awe. 

“Sometimes I like to look at them and picture which one we’d live in,” I said.

This became a fun game Cayden and I played every day that week on my way to work. One day it was the cottage-like one with the vines growing up the front. The next day it was the white two-story house with the blue shutters and the circular driveway. And the next day it was the sprawling castle-like house off Preston.

I dropped Cayden off at the Starbucks in Mockingbird Station, kissed him goodbye, and then drove the remaining 2 minutes to work.

I felt like I was abandoning him as I drove off. I wanted to turn around and sit down with him on one of the comfy Starbucks couches and say, “Good news, I’m spending the day with you!”

But as the new girl, I had to try to leave him behind. It was time for work, not play.

He’d understand.

--

After work that day, we filled our grocery cart with chicken, sweet potatoes, yellow squash, brown rice, zucchini and red wine.  Cayden cooked a delicious healthy-ish meal and we drank until our lips were numb.

And then I made Cayden watch one of my all-time favorite documentaries: The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. The perfect ending to a perfect night.

--Sorry it's another short post! I'm on day 6 of my tonsillectomy recovery, so I'm drugged up on painkillers. I fall asleep when I look at the screen for too long. Bed time! G'night!