Make It Nice by Dorinda Medley

Author:Dorinda Medley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2021-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

Everything in life has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. God controls the timeline.

(This one is courtesy of my mother, Diane Cinkala.)

Chapter Six BECOMING MRS. MEDLEY

For our first date, Richard brought me to TAO.

I hate TAO. It’s too big, too young, too loud, and it’s really not my style. I was a mother, not a twenty-five-year-old who wanted to wear a short dress and party with the girls. I was more of a dinner party type. I didn’t want to have to yell in order to hear myself speak.

What makes the Upper East Side so beautiful is how light it is. I don’t know why, maybe it has something to do with the streets being wider or the buildings being shorter, but you can feel it the moment you arrive at the edge of Central Park. It’s like one of those old Claritin commercials where a frosty film peels off the screen. TAO is the opposite of the Upper East Side. It looks like a dungeon, with a big dark door sporting those red-lit letters.

The centerpiece of the restaurant is the giant buddha inside, which is probably twenty feet high. Embedded within the seating chart of a restaurant is a hierarchy system that no one really talks about, but everyone can feel. At TAO, the closer you are to the Buddha, the higher up you are in the food chain.

The waiter brought us to our table, and it was right next to the Buddha. I looked over at Richard and he had a big grin on his face and his arm out. “Well, look at this!” I quickly realized that Richard, like me, didn’t really frequent places like TAO, and I assumed he’d probably pulled some strings to get us this spot. He looked so pleased with himself, but totally out of place, too, which only made me like him more.

No matter where you were with Richard, he had a way of making you feel like the center of the universe. There are those people who, regardless of whether you are or you aren’t special, make you feel like what you have to say matters, even in the most unexciting situations. Richard was one of those people. His gift was his ability to carve out little nooks in crowded spaces for you to be heard. Where you came from and what you had didn’t matter as much as the fact that you had something to say, and Richard made it his business to hear it. You could really be yourself with him because there was no penalty for contradicting yourself. He was never shocked by anything, only ever curious and empathetic. He didn’t hold grudges or dish out judgment.

A few dates in, I got honest with Richard: “I’m not interested in a lover, Richard Medley. I want a life partner. I want a best friend. I want someone I can count on no matter what. I’m a mother, first and foremost; do you get that?”

That was something I used to repeat constantly: “I’m a mother.

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