Chapter 10
I overslept the next morning and woke up to chaos. I burned the toast, I couldn’t find my keys, and then Brady didn’t have any clean underwear. By the time we got out the door, the boys were late and so was I.
Meanwhile, my phone was beeping with texts from my friends. I hadn’t had a chance to read them, but I knew they would be about my date the day before.
After I dropped the boys off at school, I thought about Glenn on my way to work. Only then did I remember that I’d never called him the night before as I’d said I would. As awkward as some parts of the date had been, I did want to see him again. I liked the conversations we’d had and he seemed to be an interesting man.
But what if he wanted more than I was willing to offer?
I settled at my desk ten minutes late. Luckily no one in the office seemed to notice. But the work was already piled up in my in-box.
As I began to sort through it all, my phone beeped. I ignored it at first, but when it beeped again, I wondered if there might be some emergency with the boys.
I checked it to see several texts from Glenn. I couldn’t resist reading through them. Most were apologies for his behavior on the date and the final one was a request for me to give him a second chance. I realized he must have thought I didn’t want to see him again after I didn’t call him the night before.
As I started to text him back my computer began to ring with a video call from Wes. I answered it, with the phone still in my hand.
“Hi, Wes, just give me a second.” I finished typing out the text to Glenn asking when we could see each other again.
“Wait, what are you smiling about?” He laughed. “And you’re blushing!”
“I am not.” I set my phone down and looked at him. “Okay, maybe a little.”
“Noella? What’s going on over there?”
“I had a date yesterday.” The words slipped out before I even thought it through. When Wes and I had worked together, I’d been careful to keep things fairly professional, but he was always so casual and lighthearted that we ended up forming a close friendship anyway. Still, there were some areas of my life that I kept to myself, knowing that there were lines I shouldn’t cross.
Now, though, we didn’t work together anymore.
“What?” His mouth dropped open. “With who?”
“You want all the details?” I laughed, then it hit me.
Maybe Wes was the best person to get advice from. He was younger, more into the dating scene, and he was a guy. I didn’t have any other guys to bounce my thoughts off of, and I really believed I could trust his feedback to be honest.
“Are there details to give?” His eyes widened even more. “How did I not know about this?”
“I didn’t know you needed to know.” I glanced over my shoulder to be sure no one was listening in, then looked back at the screen. “Can I call you back at lunch? I got in a little late today.”
“Sure, of course. Wait, why did you get in late?” His voice wavered some. “Noella, just how many details are there?”
“Talk to you at lunch.” I grinned as I hung up the phone.
I had to admit it gave me a bit of a buzz to see him squirm. Usually he was the one trying to get me to loosen up, but apparently I’d shocked him by going on a date. That made sense to me as during our friendship I’d only been out on maybe one date, and I’d never told him about it. He probably thought I was a complete hermit, which in many ways I was.
When lunch rolled around I was excited to talk to Wes about Glenn. I was sure he would be able to give me some perspective on what Glenn might expect from me. I initiated a video call and waited for him to answer.
After a few rings, he picked up.
“Alright, I’ve been preparing for this.” He looked at me intently. “So, who did you go out with? A friend of yours?”
“No, I met him on a dating site—Forty and Free.”
“Noella, you didn’t tell me you were on a dating site.”
“Why would I?”
“Well, I mean, there are better ways to meet people. You have no idea who you might be hooking up with when you meet a guy online. Did you meet him somewhere safe?”
“Yes, of course I did—at my friend’s cafe. Remember I told you about it—Common Grounds?”
“Yes, I remember. Well, that’s good, but still, you can’t know who he is. He could turn out to be a creep.”
“He’s not a creep. Anyway, I need some advice from you.”
“You do?” He leaned a little closer to the camera. “What kind of advice?”
Suddenly I felt awkward. His tone had changed. Was he judging me? He was quite a bit younger than me and I guessed that he didn’t have to use dating sites to find someone to go out with. But he’d always been so kind to me before.
“Maybe this was a bad idea. I’m sorry, Wes.”
“What? No, it’s fine. Go on, ask me. I’m full of wisdom.” He winked at me.
“Okay. Well, I really like Glenn.”
“Glenn.” He repeated the name with a snort.
“What?”
“Nothing. Go on.” He smiled.
“I like him, we had a good time talking, he seems like a really nice guy. But I don’t—uh—date much. I’m not really sure what the rules are these days.”
“The rules?” He narrowed his eyes.
“He seemed to want to move pretty fast.”
“Noella, are you asking me if men expect to have sex on the first date?”
His tone was flat, but I noticed a flush in his cheeks.