Tea Party
“Cooper?”
“Yeah?”
“What the hell are you doing?”
Cooper glanced up from where he was admiring his toes.
“Painting my toenails. Why do you ask?”
“Cuz you’ve never done that before and it’s weird,” Ronnie answered.
“Well, Olivia wanted to have a tea party, but she said that we all had to paint our toes before we came because, in her words, ‘the foot’s a game.’ So who am I to argue with a four-year-old princess hosting a tea party?” Cooper went back to carefully applying what looked like eggplant purple to his toes. He gave them a close look before reaching for the bottle of quick dry coating and applying that.
“It’s aubergine, in case you were wondering,” Cooper said, not looking up.
“Oh. Looks like purple to me,” Ronnie said. He scratched the back of his neck.
“Well, yeah, but it’s a fancy purple, so I got that going for me.” Cooper smiled up at him. “All done! What do you think?”
Ronnie stared at his buddy’s feet. “I think Olivia is going to love it,” he said diplomatically.
“Well, that’s what counts, isn’t it?”
The door to the barn banged open and footsteps sounded down the center aisle between the rows of stalls. Ronnie stuck his head out of the tack room before glancing back at Cooper, seated on a bench in the corner admiring his purple toes.
“It’s Alyssa,” he said.
“Oh, okay. Well, the polish is dry now,” Cooper pulled his socks off the bench and started putting them on just as Alyssa marched into the tack room.
“Cooper, did my daughter invite… Oh. I guess she did.” Alyssa eyed Cooper’s toes before he pulled on his sock.
“Yes, ma’am, she did. And I’m ready to roll. Aubergine,” he said, gesturing to his feet. He pulled on the other sock and reached for his boots.
Alyssa’s shoulders sagged. “Cooper, I’m sorry. You don’t have to do this, you know. I mean, she’ll still have a great tea party. I’m sorry she’s imposing on you like this.”
Cooper stood, picking up his hat. “Now, Alyssa, you know I’ll do pretty much anything for Miss Olivia. And purple toes isn’t a big deal. I’m not worried about anybody making fun of me and it’ll come off anyway.” He paused. “It will come off, right?”
Alyssa smiled. “Yes, it will. And I have polish remover if you need it. Well, thank you and I guess I’ll see you at the tea party this afternoon. She’s holding it in the kitchen in case she didn’t tell you.” Alyssa glanced over at Ronnie. “You’re invited too, if you’d like to come.”
Ronnie pulled his cowboy hat off his head and held it in his hands, turning it around by the brim. “I appreciate the invitation ma’am, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get away. And, I definitely won’t have time to do my toes up proper.”
Laughing, Alyssa shook her head. “I understand. Maybe the next one.” She turned and walked out of the tack room. The men waited until they heard the barn door close before looking at each other.
“I think she likes you, Coop,” Ronnie said with a smile.
“I sure hope so. I’d hate to think I went to all the trouble to paint my toes for nothing,” Cooper replied.
******
This week’s MOTE prompt challenge came from Padre: “The foot’s a game.” Find your way over to More Odds Than Ends to see what everybody else came up with. If you’d like to join in, just pick up a spare or send in your own prompt to oddprompts <at> gmail <dot> com and you’ll get one in return.