CeCe knew the rules. Good girls didn’t ask boys out, or even approach them. Good girls didn’t chase boys. Good girls were innocent, well-dressed, demurely made-up. Good girls were quiet, non-threatening, unassuming. Good girls ended up with good lives. Handsome husbands, gorgeous homes, fat babies. They just had to be patient.
The rules, hammered into her brain by her mother from the time she could walk, circled her thoughts. This is what being a good girl gets you, she thought bitterly, at the movies alone on a Friday night. She usually enjoyed her own company. Besides, it wasn’t her friends’ kind of movie, a French film about two lovers who meet who meet at the tomb of Napoleon II. But for some reason, that night she couldn’t stop thinking about Ricky. They were both single for the first time in years and he still hadn’t asked her out.
She quieted the nagging voice in her brain and pulled out her phone, composing a text.
Her heart pounding, she pressed send.
Jennifer Terry 
good story, i like the way you showed her struggle between being good and being honest with her feelings. well done!
Thanks!
Aww, to heck with her mom! CeCe is going to have a good time for a change! Great story, Jenn! Good for CeCe for bucking the rules.
Ha! Yes, you’re only young once! Thanks 🙂
Go girl! Love that!
🙂 Thanks!
You are very welcome 🙂
Great story! I really felt for CeCe.
Thanks! The rules us ladies impose on ourselves, I tell ya…
Let’s hope that everything works out for her. Fantastic story.
Yes, let’s hope! Thanks 🙂
Given how CeCe was raised, it’s probably a big step for her to send that text, doing the asking out. I like how you leave the verdict unknown. I think Ricki is gay and CeCe meets a guy at the movies, some guy her mother would totally not approve of but makes her happy because he lets her be herself, not a woman caught up in rules.
Ha! Yes, I think the most important thing is that she knows she can ask a guy out and the world isn’t going to end. Maybe she and Ricky get together, maybe they don’t, but at least she’s asserting her independence as a woman.
Here’s a (not so) secret from men. Most guys love being asked out by a woman. Cece can forget that “good girl” stuff. If you want something, go get it!
Great story, Jenn.
PS, I hope things work out for her. 😉
Lol, I learned that lesson when I was single! You guys take too long 🙂
I think CeCe will be okay. At least she knows her mother isn’t going to jump out of the shadows and knock the phone away if she asks out a boy.
I think the teachings from her mother finally reached a breaking point for her and she realized she could do certain things that she decides what is right or wrong. Maybe her friend has the same kind of hang-up and he will welcome the call from her. Hopefully, her life will change for the better. Great story.
Thank you!
What a wonderful story, Jenn! I love the tug and push of those thoughts, and then, her final act, one of freedom, and the throwing off of conventional constraints! Great ending!
🙂 Thank you
My pleasure!
What a lovely tale. Sometimes we should go after what we want and leave all those shackles behind.
Thank you 🙂 I totally agree.