Chapter 9

Joe

“Ella, you have got to try this, it’s so good!” I know dessert was a bad idea, but gooey chocolate sponge cake is my weakness. Marnie had me hooked on it the first time I brought her to a restaurant.

Ella looks a little apprehensive as I hold out my forkful to her, I can almost see the wheels turning in her head as she makes her decision. She leans over and eats the cake off of my fork. Funny, I expected her to just take the fork. She looks up at me as she does it with her big blue eyes, damn those eyes.

“Gosh, that’s amazing! It’s so rich!” she says.

“You’ve got a little,” I point to my upper lip, where she’s got a little chocolate sauce on her face.

“What?” she snaps, a little embarrassed. She goes to wipe it off with her napkin and checks her reflection in her knife to see if it’s gone. I can’t help but laugh at how cute she is.

“How’s yours?” I ask, trying to cover up my laughter.

“It’s great, although I wish I’d ordered the chocolate cake now!” she giggles, “So, how’s Marnie? I hope we’re not too late.”

I check my watch and sadly she has a point, I should be getting back to Marnie soon, if only to rescue her from that crazy lady.

“I’ll pick her up after I drop you off if that’s okay?”

“Of course.” She looks a little sad, like either she wanted to see Marnie, or she preferred not to be dropped off. I can’t think like that. I’ll get hard just thinking about what I’d do to her if I brought her home for the night.

“So, you wouldn’t believe the woman whose daughter Marnie is visiting today. She is—she’s pretty crazy,” I say, trying to change the subject in my head.

“Oh yeah? You said something about it this morning on the phone. What happened?”

“Well, I met her at Marnie’s school the other day when I went to pick her up. And according to Marnie’s friend, her mother actually told her to be friends with Marnie because of me! Can you believe that?”

“Totally,” Ella laughs.

Oh great, so is it really common then?

“Moms used to do it all the time back where I used to work, especially if they were single. They’d get their kids to befriend the kids of the hot single fathers. I mean, it’s a good tactic, but it puts a lot of stress on the kids if they don’t like each other.”

“Hmm, I never thought of it like that. I hope Marnie gets along with her.”

“She probably will!”

“But anyway, that’s not even the craziest part. So, this morning, obviously I was in a bit of a state. Marnie was cross with me for, uh, for last night.” Crap, she’s gonna see me blushing again, I really can’t apologize enough. “And driving her over this afternoon was a bit much, I felt like I was going to be sick.” Okay, maybe this story isn’t the best dessert conversation, but she seems to be giggling. “I got to the friend’s house and immediately the girls run off to play in the sun. I was just about to leave but then the mother pulls me inside. I don’t know quite what’s going on, but suddenly she’s handing me a drink. To be fair, it’s about mid-afternoon. I still feel like, well, I feel like shit, so another drink is the last thing I need!”

Ella starts laughing. Come on, I haven’t even got to the crazy part.

“Anyway, she’s talking about, honestly I can’t even remember what. But she’s getting a little cozy and starts stroking my leg! So, I get up and apologize, saying I’m sorry if she got the wrong idea, but I was just dropping Marnie off! Then she was very confused, and maybe a bit angry at me. I don’t really understand it at all, but I just left after that, and in all honesty, I’m a little scared to go back later!”

Ella is now laughing almost uncontrollably. She definitely knows something.

“Alright, alright. What am I missing here?” I roll my eyes at her.

“Well, I’m not super sure, but it used to happen with some of the single parents. You get your kid to go ask someone else’s kid to have a play date, then if the other parent said yes, that means they would go around and like, while the kids are playing, they’d—”

“Okay, okay! I don’t need to hear any more!” I didn’t know what I was getting mixed up in!

“Some of them even had, like, a weird swinger’s sort of thing going on!”

“Gosh, people can be into some strange stuff.”

“Yeah, and you hear all about it when things get a little heated at parents evening.”

I almost choke on my drink laughing at that last comment. Part of me wants to ask more, but I feel like that’s a story for another night. This one’s kind of winding down anyway. I should probably take her home soon.

* * *

“So, are you gonna go back to Marnie’s friend’s after this?”

“Oh God, don’t remind me, I have no choice.” I drop my head in my hands, “I really don’t want to speak to her again… it was so damn awkward! I mean, now I get it, but did she really think that I was going to—”

“Hey,” Ella, nudges my side, “Don’t worry about it,” she smiles at me, damn her smile… she is just about the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. She takes my hand and scoots over to me.

“What are you doing?”

“Something I really wanted to do on the ride over here,” she says, grinning mischievously.

No, wait, what? What’s happening? She opens the sun roof, takes my hand and carefully tries to stand, pulling me up with her. We stick our heads out of the sun roof as we drive down the highway.

“Something tells me you’ve never done this before!” Ella shouts at me, her perfect hair flying behind her.

“No, but I’m thinking you haven’t either!” I shout back. What is she trying to get me to do?

She’s still holding my hand, and I can’t escape the feeling of electricity every time we touch.

Slowly, she lets go of the car and edges me to follow, she raises her hands in the air and shouts.

“Woohoo!” she screams into the road ahead of us. She is such a breath of fresh air, I can’t help smiling and laughing when I’m with her. She’s actually fun to be with, and I’ve had such an amazing night. I don’t want it to end, but I know it has to, because she works for me. I can’t fire her just so I can date her. That would be totally inappropriate.

I look over at her, hair in her face and shouting into the wind. I cheer along with her and she laughs.

“Now you’re getting it!” she yells.

“Yeah! This is actually really fun!” I shout back, but just at that moment, the car goes over a bump in the road, causing Ella to trip and fall into my arms. I don’t know what to do here, my hands are on her waist again, and her hips are just inches away. Calm down.

Ella looks up at me, her hair flowing violently behind her, a cold wind rushes past us and her eyes sparkle like sapphires in the evening light. I can’t help but smile at her.

She pulls me close to her and kisses me right on the lips. I—I don’t know what, wow… her, her lips are so soft. I’m kissing her back, I really shouldn’t be, but I am. My hands are making their way to her hips, her soft round hips…

Oh God, please don’t ever let me stop kissing Ella.

Ella stops kissing me and looks up into my eyes, like a frightened little mouse.

Crap, I asked you not to let me stop.

She giggles nervously as her cheeks redden, and we drop back into the limo, closing the sunroof.

We’re almost at her place and I don’t know what to do. Do I make a move? Should I ignore the fact that she kissed me? What do I say? Silence probably isn’t my best option, but it’s all I can do right now!

We eventually arrive at Ella’s and I get out of the car. She gets out herself without waiting for me to help her. Fair enough, I don’t think I could handle holding her hand right now.

She stands at the door to her building, and I’m struck by how innocent she looks. If only she knew what she was doing to me.

“So…” she says.

“Yeah,” I nod to her, like a massive dork.

“That shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have done that. It, it was silly.”

“Yeah… I guess it was.” I’m blushing, I can feel my hands almost shaking.

“I had a really good night, and uh… I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes, tomorrow,” more helpless smiling, I really should stop embarrassing myself like this, “I’m glad you had a good time, Ella.” I should say something else, “See you tomorrow.” I put my hand out to shake.

A handshake? Really? Wow, this is… Well, there’s striking out and there’s this.

She moves my hand aside and gives me a hug, I can hear her giggling right by my ear. Stop, please. She kisses my cheek before pulling away, then she gets that look in her eye again, the one she got just before she kissed me in the limo.

Oh screw it, I don’t care anymore. I’m going for it!

I pull her close to me and kiss her, putting as much passion into it as I possibly can. I run my hands through her hair and over her hips, and thank fuck she’s responding. She’s kissing me back! She’s squeezing my waist and pulling me close to her. Damn, it’s been so long since I’ve felt like this.

My pants feel two sizes too small right now, as I slide my hands to her waist and nuzzle into her neck, her perfume smells so sweet, like raspberries and vanilla.

She laughs and starts to pull away. No please, not now—

“What are we doing…?” she asks, sighing a little bit.

“Well, I thought it was pretty obvious.”

“Joe, I work for you… and you’ve got to go pick up your daughter. We can’t do this if it will end up with her getting left or forgotten about. It’s late. You should go get her,” she says, trying to smile.

I sigh, she’s right. But I don’t want her to be. Why does she have this power over me, with those beautiful eyes and that gorgeous smile? Plus that amazing body and soft lips.

Dammit, stop.

“You’re right. I should go. This… this isn’t right. Friends…?” Again, like an idiot I shake her hand. Weird that she would go along with that dumb move, but it’s sweet of her not to think I’m crazy.

I turn around and get into my limousine, then wave as I get driven away. Why? Why do I even try? We could have something great, I’m sure of it… but then again, if something bad happens, I’ll lose her forever. And I couldn’t do that to Marnie, she loves Ella already. And if Marnie grew up to be half the woman Ella is I’d be so proud of her.

But she’s right. I have to think about Marnie.

I get to Marnie’s friend’s house and she’s there waiting for me. The mom doesn’t even try to speak to me this time, so at least it’s not awkward.

The ride home is quiet and the whole way Marnie can tell I’m upset. I know she can.

We get to the house and I walk her up to her room, but before she goes up her little staircase she turns to look at me, just like she did last night. And she shakes her head at me.

Again.

She shakes her head, turns and walks up to her bedroom. So I screwed up again.

I’m going to bed.