“You
know, Gabby, if you came out to visit me more often, you’d have a fighting
chance to get acclimated to life out here,” Wes explained as he handed Gabby
her dinner. He sat across from her at
his kitchen table, grinning as Gabby shuddered in response.
“And
you know, it wouldn’t kill you to
come out and visit me,” she replied as she toyed around with her soup.
Wes
watched her in amusement. “We tried that
once, remember? Your fancy city life is
way too opulent for me.”
“Oooh,
‘opulent’ – Big word for a country boy,” teased Gabby.
Knowing
his cousin, Wes just stared at her with a carefully blank face so as not to egg
her on. But as usual, it didn’t
work. Gabby continued, “in case you
weren’t sure, that was sarcasm. Here,
let me spell it out for you,” and she started to dig around in her soup. Wes couldn’t contain a smirk any longer, and
it played at the corner of his lips as he watched Gabby’s brows come
together. “What’s the matter, cuz?” he
asked.
Gabby
put her spoon down in frustration. “I
can’t find what I’m looking for. I never knew there were no punctuation marks
in alphabet soup.”
Wes
laughed. “Have you ever had alphabet soup before, Gabby?” She just smirked back at him in response.
“I’ll
take that as a ‘no’,” Wes chuckled. “Well,
hurry and finish your dinner, because I have another ‘first’ planned for you
tonight.”
Gabby
eyed him suspiciously. “What are you up
to?” she asked.
Leaning
back in his chair, Wes smiled broadly as he said “Bullesque.”
Gabby
crinkled her nose. “Bullesque? What the fuck is
that?”
“It’s
only the most high-end dining, drinking and bull-riding bar around here. Pure country opulence,” he teased.
“Bull riding?” Gabby repeated in
disbelief.
Wes
shrugged. “Well, mechanical.”
Gabby
rolled her eyes. “God help me,” she
muttered.
Wes
threw his napkin at her. “Better get
dressed, if we get there too late we’ll be hard-pressed to find parking.”
Gabby
arched a brow. “Seriously? Parking there is a problem?” Wes gave her a leveled look. “I mean, ye-haw!” she tossed back at him,
then bolted out of her chair as Wes made to come after her. Laughing, Gabby ran upstairs to change as Wes
stood in the kitchen shaking his head at her.
After
a bit, Gabby came into the front room calling out to Wes. “I’m ready to go! When will you – ” She stopped short when she
saw her cousin sitting on the couch.
Looking him over, she asked “Really? Is that what you guys wear to go
out around here?”
“What?”
asked Wes as he stood up and slowly spun around in front of her. “What’s throwing you off? The belt buckle? The boots?
The hat? Surely I don’t look that
alien to you. Under this garb, we’re perfectly ordinary Americans.” He flashed Gabby his most rakish smile.
“Perfectly
ridiculous….” Gabby muttered under her breath.
Wes feigned
insult. “What was that?” he asked.
Gabby
smiled sweetly at him in return. “Nothing,
dear warped cousin. I’m always game for
an adventure.”
Wes
was the one rolling his eyes this time.
“Never one to miss an opportunity for sarcasm, are you?”
“You
know me,” replied Gabby lovingly. She
grabbed Wes’ keys from the coffee table and tossed them to him. “Ready to rock n’ roll? Or boot-stomp, or whatever it is you do out
here?”
Wes
caught the keys and chuckled. “Oh, you
are so going down tonight.” Gabby merely
smiled at him in response as she breezed past him through the front door.
Thirty
minutes later, after claiming one of the few remaining spots in the parking
lot, Gabby and Wes walked into Bullesque.
Gabby paused just inside the door as her eyes strove to take in her
surroundings. “Oh my God. The whole world here is flipped upside down!” she mused in astonishment.
“What
do you want, Gabby? Cherry blossoms in winter?” asked Wes with a smile.
Gabby
looked at her cousin with a wry glance.
“What, you’re a poet now? All
this fresh air has finally done you some good?”
“Amazing
what a little unpolluted air will do for a person.” Wes gave her a pointed look, which she
ignored. Instead, she was focused on the
commotion to her left. In the center of
a large, roped-off platform, she watched as a man whipped back and forth on the
back of a mechanical bull, waving his hat steadily in the air with one hand and
holding on tightly with the other.
“You
weren’t kidding?? People really do
that?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes,”
replied Wes. “They do it because they’re
‘game for adventure’.” Gabby didn’t miss
his pointed retort, and she glanced sideways at him.
“You
are going to ride the bull, aren’t
you?” Wes teased.
Gabby
gave him a startled look. “You can’t be serious?”
Wes
shrugged. “I’m afraid I’m still naïve enough to believe the impossible can’t be
done.”
“You’re impossible,” Gabby replied. Looking around the room at her options, she
zeroed in on the only one that made any sense to her - the farthest side of the
room with all the liquor bottles lining the shelves. She turned to Wes and said “I’m just going to hang around the bar. I don’t want to look conspicuous.”
Wes eyed
Gabby as she walked away, her long red skirt swaying with each step and her
crystal heeled stilettos clicking across the wooden floor. ‘Don’t
want to look conspicuous’? Yeah,
good luck with that,’ he laughed to himself as he stepped in line behind her.
This was written for Blogophilia Week 46.5
Topic: Flipped Upside Down
Bonus Points: (Hard, 2pts): Incorporate a quote
of the original Batman TV
series from the 60's**
(Easy, 1pt): Include 'cherry
blossoms in winter'
** I used the following Batman quotes:
Robin: I never knew there were no punctuation marks
in alphabet soup.
Robin: Under this garb, we're perfectly ordinary Americans.
Barbara: I'm afraid I'm still naive enough to believe the impossible can't be done.
Batman: I'm just going to hang around the bar. I
don't want to look conspicuous.
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