The Ink Well Prompt Link
Prompt Word: RSVP
Synopsis: A young woman receives great insight from an unlikely source.
Brianne watched the microwave count down the seconds as her bowl of leftover baked ziti spun around in sync with the humming sound. A sudden steam explosion within the pasta made her jump, as the bowl rocked the glass plate and spurted sauce across the walls and top of the white microwave interior.
This made her think of her white dress, so she went back to her desk to retrieve a pen. On the notepad nearby she wrote: don’t order anything with pasta sauce. This only reminded her to open up her planner and flip through the pages to double-check the date of her menu tasting with the caterer. The pile of pages she needed to flip through to get to the important dates was getting thinner each day. Every day presented a new reminder of the nuances involved in planning her wedding. She flipped back through the pages toward the current week; glancing through the appointments, reminders, and arrangements scribbled in on the weekends and squeezed in around work. Dress fittings, ordering the cake, hair and make-up trial, booking the limo. Make sure they fixed your reservation at the Ko’a Kea Resort. Finally, her eyes zeroed in on a date for next week: Make sure everyone is RSVP’d. The microwave had stopped, but let out another reminder beep in the background as Brianne became distracted by a ping on her computer. She glanced over a new e-mail from her boss and started typing out a reply.
She clinked the brass mailbox door shut as she twisted the little key to the right, retrieving what looked like a pile of just bills and direct mail ads, engulfed in a packet of car insurance information. But as she sifted through, a recognizable cornflower blue envelope peeked through, adding some excitement to her mundane mail pile. An RSVP! Most of them had come in by now, but some were still trickling in once in a while. She opened up the crisp envelope to pull out a weathered RSVP full of creases and folds. It certainly wasnt in the same taut condition she’d sent it. Then her stomach dropped as she opened it to look down at the name: Jake Lennon: Attending, plus one. Her eyes made their way over toward the faint grey “X” next to the Regretfully Declines box. An attempt to obscure it with an eraser was evident, but the eraser marks only made it stand out more. What made him change his mind? No, don’t over-analyze it. She started her car and drove to the gym.
The Next Day:
“I personally thought the top section looked a little too cluttered, and maybe not enough contrast in the left section,” said Isaac.
“Okay,” Brianne said adherently, writing something down. She nodded her head while holding the phone; taking in what her boss was saying while her eyes wandered around the room. They landed on the pile of RSVPs on her desk. The once-neat pile was now disheveled from the one RSVP from Jake sitting in the middle; its creases causing the other RSVP cards to slant slightly upwards. She imagined Jake doing something careless, like shoving it in his back pocket and then washing his pants. Then as she looked down, she saw her wastebasket and another possibility came to mind: did he crumple it up and throw it in the trash? Afterall, it wouldn’t surprise her. But then, what made him take it back out? Was he bringing another girl to make her jealous?
“So, I’ll have you make a plan with Kelly on how to clean this up and then you guys can show the idea to Carlos. Sound good?” Isaac said.
Brianne rolled her eyes at the thought of Kelly, then changed her tone before speaking. “Sounds good. I’ll arrange something with her when she gets back this week,” she said, studying the wrinkled RSVP in her hand. She had pulled it out of the pile while Isaac was talking and continued to examine it, as though it was going to provide further answers. Those little specks are eraser, right? Why did he write that he's coming in permanent pen?
A Few Days Later:
Kelly’s mom answered the front door when Brianne rang the doorbell. Kelly was a college student who interned with the software company in which Brianne worked. Brianne found her to be simple and featherbrained, but attributed it to her youth. As she met Kelly’s mom, Lisa, for the time, she saw that these naive characteristics were not to be outgrown.
“Hi, Brianne, nice to finally meet you. Thanks for coming over. Kelly’s um -- Hey Kelly!” she called to the back of the house. “They lost her luggage coming back, so she’s gotta be around to sign for it today.” Brianne smiled and nodded her head as she walked into the split level foyer and a tiny Shih Tzu head stuck out between the balusters from the living room, letting out a yap. “Oh, hush, Mitchell!” Lisa said with mocked embarrassment as she made her way up the staircase and Brianne followed.
“You can just have a seat at the kitchen table back there.” Lisa pointed toward the back of the kitchen. “You want anything to drink?”
“I’m okay, thanks.” Brianne smiled politely, while taking her laptop bag off her shoulder.
“So, I’m thinking we could move this one to the bottom to clear out this space. Then do a drop-down menu up in the corner.” Brianne used her pen on the computer to illustrate what she was saying, as Kelly wrote something down. The two sat at the kitchen table with laptops next to each other for about thirty minutes when they heard a knock on the door.
“Kelly, that’s probably your luggage,” her mom called from the living room. Kelly got up to retrieve her luggage at the front door.
“It’s here!” she cheered as she hauled her luggage up the stairs toward the kitchen. “Hold on, Brianne, I’m just going to put this in my room.”
“Don’t fly Southwest, Brianne,” Lisa said jokingly from the living room. Brianne laughed politely.
“So how did they lose it in the first place?” Brianne asked. Kelly’s eyes lit up in response to a personal question, since she’d always been seeking Brianne’s approval.
“No idea,” Kelly said with an eye roll.
“We recently had someone mess up our hotel reservation for our honeymoon. But luckily we got it figured out before we got all the way to Hawaii.” Brianne laughed with relief.
“Oh yea, you’re getting married, right? When’s the wedding?” Kelly asked.
“In a few months. June seventh,” Brianne said proudly, but with a hint of nervousness.
“Are you ready?” asked Kelly.
“Well, we’ve been together a few years now, and we’re not getting any younger so…” Brianne trailed off.
Kelly’s face went from confused to smiling “Oh no, I meant like all the wedding plans and stuff.” She laughed nervously.
“Oh.” Brianne laughed and shook her head at herself. “We’re still in the planning stages.” She looked up, suddenly noticing Kelly’s receptive nature.
“How many people are coming to the wedding?” Kelly asked.
“I’m actually beginning the process of tallying up the RSVPs next week,” Brianne said, excited. “But probably somewhere around one-fifty. I rec---” She started to say something else but stopped.
“Oh, wow --” Kelly realized Brianne wasn’t done speaking. “I’m sorry, what were you going to say?”
Brianne opened her mouth to speak, but then hesitated and shook her head. “Nothing, I --” she stammered. “I received an RSVP from an ex-boyfriend and I’m not sure what to make of it.”
“Oh?” Kelly seemed intrigued but also surprised Brianne was telling her this. “Wh- What did it say?”
“Well it wasn’t the response, per se. It was more the condition of the response. Like, when I took it out, it had all these creases in it; like it had been crumpled up. And… he’d written not attending in pencil, but then erased it and put attending plus one in pen.” She paused and laughed to herself. “It’s probably nothing,” she lied. “You know how sometimes you start overanalyzing tiny things?” She laughed a nervous laugh again. Lisa walked through the kitchen with the dog in her arms. She put him down and he started lapping up water from his bowl as she poured herself a drink. Then the two of them went out the sliding back door. As they kept chatting, Brianne and Kelly watched Mitchell trot around the backyard looking for a place to do his business.
“So you think he crumpled it up and threw it in the garbage?” Kelly asked.
Brianne’s eyes lit up. “So that’s the first thing that comes to your mind?”
“Yes.” Kelly nodded her head. “He obviously has some kind of feelings toward you.” Brianne smiled and looked down, flattered, but also wondered if Kelly was just kissing up to her.
“Well also changing his mind about coming,” Brianne added. She’d brought the subject up so there was nothing so lose; and she liked the feedback she was getting.
Lisa walked back in through the sliding door cradling Mitchell. “You want to know what I think?” She smiled.
Brianne and Kelly looked at each other and laughed. “Mom—“ Kelly started to stop her.
“I’m sorry, I just happened to overhear,” Lisa said. Brianne laughed.
“It’s okay, what do you think?” Brianne was curious.
“ I think the piece of paper does convey some sort of feelings toward you, but it also says a lot that it’s on your mind.” Brianne nodded, simply because she had nothing to say to this valid point. “What happened between you and this guy? If I may ask?”
“We’d been dating for a while, but he didn’t want anything serious. So… I broke it off with him.” Brianne said this in a more solemn tone.
“Sounds like there could still be feelings between the both of you.” Lisa said this while kneeling down to put Mitchell on the ground. He walked up and started licking Brianne. She sat in silence as she looked down smiling and holding her hand out to Mitchell. Kelly looked at her mom, and then nodded in agreement as she looked at Brianne.
Brianne knew to always take advice from strangers with a grain of salt, but for some reason this candid opinion stayed in the back of her mind beyond her meeting with Kelly.
——-
A Couple Days Later:
“Would you like chips or apple on the side?” the cashier asked with her hand on the touch-screen; expecting a quick answer.
“Uh -- Ch--” Brianne started to say. Then she started to think about her wedding dress and approaching wedding. The cashier looked up at her, then glanced over the line behind her. “Apple, please,” Brianne finally said.
“Number 67.” The cashier ripped off the short receipt and handed it to her. Great. Another wedding date reminder.
As she walked to the food pick-up counter, Brianne’s mind wandered to a vision of her walking down the aisle in her embroidered cap-sleeve wedding dress; looking absolutely perfect. Only instead of her fiance admiring her from the front of the altar, it was Jake standing in the pews watching her. It was then that she realized her unconscious daydreams were bringing forward her true desires.