“Si, you have to feed me! I am out of
food at my place, and Mom said that if I ask her to cook for me again, she
would make sure I moved back into the house! Help!”
Sienna looked
into the anxious face of her twenty year old cousin, Faith, who was currently
standing at the door to her cottage.
“Faithie, I’m not
going to keep feeding you, you know. I
was 20 once. I managed to eat,” Sienna
sighed, then let her cousin in.
“Thank you so
much, Sienna! You know you’re my favorite cousin, right? Besides, you were
twenty, five years ago. Things have
changed since then. It’s much more
difficult trying to live in an apartment and go to school at the same time,”
Faith explained.
Sienna laughed as
she picked up her sauce spoon and stirred the spaghetti sauce she had left
simmering. "Faith, give me a break!
It’s not that hard. Besides, I don’t understand
why you don’t just live on campus. That
way, you’ll have meal plans and won’t “starve”.
Ok, whatever,” she added quickly when she saw the look on Faith’s face. “You’re welcome for dinner. It’s just spaghetti.”
Faith smiled and,
plopping down on the couch, flicked the television to Access Hollywood. Sienna groaned inwardly and wondered when
Faith would get over her teeny bopper phase.
Probably never, Sienna
thought. Then, she gasped at the image
on the television and tried to focus on what the anchor was saying.
“Actress
Leighanne Wallace, the former fiancée of Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell, tied
the knot yesterday with her longtime love, Daniel Trace, in their hometown of
Marietta, Georgia. Trace and Wallace
were high school sweethearts until Trace enlisted in the army. Wallace met Littrell at a 1997 Backstreet
Boys’ video shoot, and the couple was engaged, when, in February 2000, Wallace
broke the engagement to go back to Trace.
Trace was honorably discharged from the US army after being permanently
crippled by mortar fire in Sudan. The
couple is also expecting their first child sometime in the beginning of
2003. Our Access reporters caught up
with Wallace’s ex, Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell, in a Lexington, Kentucky
airport to discover his reaction to the news of the nuptials.”
The screen
flickered and a video of Brian—the same Brian, Sienna realized, that had walked
into her shop that day—began to play.
“Actually, I
think it’s great that she’s happy. That’s
all I’d really ever want for anyone I loved.
If she and Daniel plan to be together and happy for the rest of their
lives, then I am happy for them. The
fact that they’re expecting a child is a double blessing, I think. Children are a gift from God and a
miracle. I couldn’t be happier,” Brian
finished with a smile.
The anchor
switched to another celebrity story, and Sienna snapped to when she realized
that Faith was waving her hand in front of her face.
“Hello? Earth to
Sienna! Where are you?”
“I met him,”
Sienna managed and sank into a kitchen chair.
Faith came and
sat next to her.
“What do you mean
‘met him’? Who did you meet?” Faith asked.
Sienna gestured
towards the television screen. “Brian,
that Backstreet guy. He walked into the
shop today and asked for help for a flower arrangement for his mom. It was her birthday today, and he has the
most beautiful eyes.” Sienna stopped then, realizing that she was babbling.
Faith sat down
next to her and tried not to shriek. “I can’t believe you met Brian from the
Backstreet Boys! I’ve lived here all my life, and I hoped that I would meet him
or Kevin, but it never happened. And
then, one day, he just walks into your shop! How amazing is that?!”
“He said he’d be
back,” Sienna said quietly.
“What?”
“He said that my
flower arrangements were incredible and that, next time he wanted flowers, he
would come to Sienna’s first,” Sienna clarified for Faith, and for herself.
“Wow. Can I take more hours at the shop? Please?
Maybe he’ll come in again. You know,
he’s only 27. That’s not too much older
than me, right?”
Sienna listened
to Faith babble on about whether or not she could date Brian because age was a
big factor, etc. When she remembered the
spaghetti, she moved to the stove and poured the sauce into the pasta and
stirred. Faith realized that Sienna was
getting things ready for dinner and stopped talking. She pulled out plates and silverware and set
the table. Then she looked over at
Sienna, who was dishing up the spaghetti.
“What are you
thinking, Si?”
“Hmm?” Sienna
glanced over at Faith. “Oh, well, I was
just thinking that he looked sad.”
“Who?”
“Brian. He looked sad on the interview when they
asked him about his ex-fiancée. I mean,
he said he was happy for them, but the look in his eyes said something
different,” Sienna explained.
“Wow. How could you tell? He was smiling and seemed
happy enough,” Faith wondered.
Sienna
shrugged. “I met him and saw his genuine
smile. It lit up his whole face. It was like watching a little kid on
Christmas.” She smiled. “Faith, when I
walked over to ask him if he needed help, he looked at me. But not really. It was like he looked into me. Like he could see
right to my soul. It was weird. But kind of comforting.”
Faith sat, placed
her hand over her heart, and let out an exaggerated sigh. “That’s so poetic. Really,” she added when she saw the look on
Sienna’s face. “Okay, so tell me. When he left the shop, did you think, ‘Mmm, I
hope that one comes back because I’d like to take a nice, big bite out of
him’?”
Sienna
laughed. “Of course not. Although, I don’t think I would have said no
to a date, either. But that’s never
going to happen anyway. So, why bother
thinking about it?”
“Oh, Sienna. That’s exactly why it’s not working out for
you and Scott. You look at everything so
practically. Let yourself fall
once. Even if it is just a celebrity
that may or may not come back to your shop again.”
Sienna shook her
head and bit into spaghetti. “Faith,
give it up. I like Scott, we’re working
out well, and you should focus on school more than your love life. All will be well.” And then she stopped. “Damn it! I knew I was forgetting something!”
She pushed away
from the table and grabbed her keys off the counter.
“Sienna! Where
are you going?! Where’s the fire?” Faith called after her as Sienna rushed
towards the door.
Sienna turned
back. “Mrs. Johnson is throwing her
daughter a bridal shower. I was supposed
to make up five arrangements that she’s picking up at 8 tomorrow morning. Jesus, I’m a moron for forgetting something
like this!” She grabbed her keys and called over her shoulder, “Wash my dishes,
would you? And, lock the door behind you when you leave!”
***