Alexa B-Side: #28 – Katie & Danny

“Katie, wake up” Danny whispered into his girlfriend’s ear. Katie groaned a bit and then slowly opened her eyes. It took her a minute to figure out where she was. She was in one of the guestrooms at her roommate Jenny’s family estate on Lake Minnetonka. Katie and Danny had come out to the Lake on Friday for the annual Thompson Memorial weekend gala. While these were not the type of people that the couple usually hung with, the technical “hostesses’ were, so they came and enjoyed themselves. Katie knew there was another reason that Danny had come. This weekend was the bass fishing opener in the State of Minnesota and Lake Minnetonka was one of the best bass fishing lakes in the country. Danny had brought his new boat up for the opener and then went to the party. As part of a deal the young couple made, they spent also spent Saturday night so Danny could try his hand again Sunday morning.

“Yeah I’m awake. What’s up? Is it night or morning? Katie asked as her eyes adjusted to the dark room.

“It’s 4:30, I was wondering if you wanted to go out fishing with me this morning?” Danny asked. Katie was not that excited by the prospect of getting up at this ungodly hour but getting a chance to spend some quiet time with Danny was always a bonus. She just didn’t want him to think he could get by with this all the time. She didn’t really care one way or the other about fishing, but she did prefer sleeping over getting up at the crack of dawn.

“Sure, I guess. You will have to bait the hooks and take off the fish.” Katie told him. Danny readily agreed to those tasks. “I will go see if those two have anything for me to wear.” Katie said as she rolled out of bed. A few minutes later she was opening the bedroom door of her two best friends. Jenny and Katie had been roommates for all four years of college and had developed an extremely tight bond, though not as tight as her and Alexa had. Alexa had been Katie’s best friend since middle school. Alexa had been there during most of the major events in her life. Confirmation, two graduations, prom and the one thing that still always nagged at her, the unplanned pregnancy she went through in high school. When it seemed like everyone was bailing on her, Alexa stood by her side, protecting her, helping her, but most importantly caring about her. And not only was there bond as tight as sisters, but Alexa was also Danny’s younger sister. Her relationship with Alexa was a concern for Katie when she and Danny had first started dating. However, Alexa could see the attraction between the two and assured Katie that she was more important than her dumb brother.

Katie slipped in and went to the large walk in closet at the one side of the room. She shut the door behind her and turned on the light. As her eyes adjusted, she saw clothes lying everywhere. “God these two are slobs” Katie thought to herself. “What is going to happen when I move out?” The idea of Katie moving out had been a recent topic of discussion in the apartment. Mostly because they were deciding what they all were going to do now that they were done with their undergraduate classes. Jenny had been accepted to the master’s program in Psychology at the U and Alexa was going to work for the Thompson Foundation in the Fall. But Katie had only decided the other day what she was going to do. She had received two offers for employment. One was as a floor nurse at the Sanford Medical Center in Fargo, a brand-new state of the art facility. However, Fargo was over 5 hours away from her mother, her friends and Danny. The other job was a little less pay but was at the Mayo Clinic Health System clinic in Montgomery. She was excited that Mayo had come to her and hoped that it may lead to bigger things. Plus, it was only a half hour’s drive from Faribault. She had decided on the Mayo job but had not told anyone yet.

After tossing aside a few skirts and tops, she finally found a dresser shoved in the corner. She opened it up and found a ratty old Blake Hockey sweatshirt and a pair of shorts. She started to head out of the closet when she knocked over a pile of shoe boxes. “Damn Alexa” Katie muttered as she left the closet. The collision in the closet most have been louder than Katie had thought.

‘Who’s in here?” Alexa asked into the dark. Katie identified herself and explained that she was looking for some clothes. “Well quit making so much noise. Why do you need an old sweatshirt anyway?” Alexa asked.

“Going fishing with Danny” Katie said with a little glee in her voice. Alexa groaned.

“Fishing? You’re whipped” Alexa told her sister, who was promptly told to shut up by Katie. “You shut up” Alexa responded.

“Both of you shut up, I’m trying to sleep.” Jenny said from her side of the bed. Katie said she was leaving anyways and soon she was gone and the couple in bed cuddled into each other again and drifted back to sleep.

Katie went back to the guest room to get her shoes and surprisingly, Danny was nowhere to be found. She went downstairs and found her boyfriend once again struggling with a coffee pot. “Here, let me do that you big oaf.” Katie told her boyfriend before giving him a quick kiss. Danny quickly agreed and said he was heading down to the boat to get it ready. “He seems a bit anxious this morning.” Katie thought as she poured two large travel mugs of the hot brew and made her way down to Danny’s new fishing boat. She untied the bowline and hopped on while Danny warmed up the motor. A few minutes later the pair were easing the boat out of the bay and into the large part of the lake,

The morning had a slight chill, but nothing like what some days in May could be like. The air was calm, and it was peaceful as the sun was showing its first light on the eastern horizon. Danny found a nice spot where he thought the bass would be biting and dropped anchor. He instructed Katie to move to the front of the boat, where a platform made up the bow along with a single chair. He started to get everything organized in the back while Katie got her self situated. “It’s really pretty out here at this time of day” Katie commented as the sun continued its rise over the far end of the lake.

“It is, isn’t it” Danny commented as he stopped what he was doing and looked around at the morning sky. He stopped digging in one of his tackle boxes and moved to the bow. “All set?” Danny asked his girlfriend. She nodded as she looked over his shoulder and had a perfect view of the rising sun and the purple, orange and golden colors that emanated. “Well I’m not.” Danny said. He knelt down. “Katie, I never thought I would be saying this and least of all to you, but. You are the most special person I have ever met. You have a toughness to you that tells me you won’t put up with any crap but also you also have a warm and tender heart. And I was wondering if you would marry me?” There he had said it and he held open a box holding a beautiful gold ring with a single solitaire diamond. Silence came over Katie for a second then Danny had to reach up to grab his girlfriend as she began to fall out the fishing seat. The couple fell backwards onto the deck of the boat. Their faces were inches apart, their smiles as large as any ever seen as they stared into each other’s eyes. Finally Katie shared a kiss with her now fiancé before giving a slight nod. At that point all fishing for the day was forgotten.

A few hours later Danny’s boat pulled up to the dock at the Thompson’s and the pair held hands as they walked up to the patio where Alexa and Jenny were enjoying their morning coffee and cuddled into each other. “Catch anything?” Jenny asked as the newly arrived couple stood before their family.

“Yep. And it is was a keeper!” Katie said as she flashed her new engagement ring at her sisters.