The New York Doll by Ellie Midwood

her I’m going to marry.
    Zed is so enthusiastic and has such a huge smile on his face; meanwhile I feel chills going down my spine.
    - Of course you can’t tell her that you are dancing. I told her you are a waitress. She’s leaving to Greece soon with her fiancé, isn’t it so awesome that they’re gonna meet you before they leave?
    Oh God! He’s making it even creepier!
    - I guess…
    - Cool! So I’ll tell her that you’re coming.
    - Yeah, okay…

- We’ll do shopping early in the morning and we’ll get all the stuff we need and then we’re gonna cook it, it’s gonna be such a cool family barbeque, don’t you think?
    “I think it’s not normal that you are talking family and marriage after two weeks of knowing me! And the whole last week you didn’t even see me because I took days off when you were working, because you really started creeping me out!!!”
    - Aha, I guess…
     
    _______________
     
    The next day when I was talking to Mikky, she absolutely supported me in my position.
    - I don’t even know what you are doing with him. I mean, he’s just so immature for his age, I still can’t get over the fact that he’s forty! He looks younger, yes, but the whole piercing in his ears, tattoos, the chain on his jeans, all that gotta go. What’s with that chain anyway? He walks around rattling his keys like some frigging janitor or something!
    I can’t help but burst into laughing.
    - He’s so in love with me… I’m being a total bitch with him, telling him that I hate cooking and would never do that, he agrees to that. He says he’s gonna cook. I say that I can’t come over to his house for a movie because of my puppy, he lets me bring her over even though he hates dogs. It’s just nice that he’s so crazy about me…but you’re right. He’s very immature. He still believes that if he moves to LA, he’s going to become a huge star there. He doesn’t want to admit that he might be a good DJ, but a bad composer. Do you know that every night he took me home after the club he would make me listen to the improvements he made in his track?
    - No! Poor thing! – Mikky’s laughing. – And now his mother thing? He’s obsessed with you, baby. And it’s a little freaky.
    But Mikky had no idea what freaky really meant until I met Zed’s mother and her fiancé the following day. Don’t get me wrong, she was a delightful Cuban woman, looking gorgeous in her seventies, who was really nice to me the whole time during our barbeque. She was genuinely interested in me and concerned how it’s going to be between me and Zed, but her genuine participation was that straw that broke the camel’s back.
    - So, Milana, you’re Jewish?
    - Well, I don’t really observe it, but yes, I am. – I touch the diamond Star of David on my neck.
    - That’s nice. – she smiles at me. – You know, in our church we have a lot of Jews who converted into Catholicism. Such nice people! We are all one big family over there.
    “Did she really just say that?!”
    I look at Zed, but he just cuts his steak like nothing happened.
    - Yeah, I’m not sure how much you know about Judaism, but you can’t really convert to any religion. If you are born Jewish, you just stay Jewish your whole life. You can only convert into our religion, not the other way round.
    - Don’t get me wrong, sweetie! I didn’t want to offend you or your religion, I’m just saying that those people became happier after our Savior Jesus Christ changed their lives. It’s not for everybody of course, and that’s why it’s so great that our religion accepts every single lost soul. Jesus loves you.
    - I’m sure he does, - I don’t know what astonishes me the most, her sincere smile and assurance in her eyes that eventually she’ll bring my “lost soul” to the Savior, or Zed’s poker face. Not only he didn’t point out to his mother that this is quite a shaky topic for discussion on our first meeting, but he looked pretty much supportive of the