Chapter Eight
BETHANY
I arrived at work Monday morning, still high off my Friday evening date with Gavin. We had talked every day since then, but he told me that he was too busy for us to meet up. He had to entertain some business guests from overseas. I guessed that is why he had to sign up for The Right Click to begin with. I tried not to get my hopes up too high because of that. If he didn’t have time to see me, he probably wouldn’t have time for a relationship. April told me not to worry about that though and just take things a day at a time. “It’ll all work out if it is supposed to, but for now, just have fun!”
When I walked into the teacher’s lounge, Sharon was there, making herself a cup of coffee. “Hey, girl. You are lucky because Derrick just left this room about five minutes ago.”
“Oh, thank God. I don’t know what is wrong with that man. He just will not take no for an answer. It is sickening!”
“Girl, I don’t know why you are playing around. You may as well give him some time. It’s not like you are seeing anyone else right now. All you do is go home and read those corny love stories.”
“Well,” I said as I slid my lunch into the refrigerator, “That is where you are wrong. That’s not all I am doing these days.”
Her eyebrows lifted to the middle of her forehead, “Oh, really? Well, well, well, do you care to explain yourself, missy?”
“Um. Okay. I met this guy named Gavin off this website called The Right Click.”
“Oh, girl, I’ve heard about that website! You have to pay for it, don’t you?”
She grabbed a seat, then tapped the cushion on the one beside her, urging me to sit down. I obliged. “Yes, you have to pay for it, but I didn’t do it. In fact, I didn’t even want to sign up for it. My friend created my page and took care of all that for me.”
“Ugh! I wish I had friends like that.”
“Yeah, I am thankful for her. Anyways, she set my page up, and later that day, I got a hit. It turned out to be Gavin. This tall, sexy CEO from a watch company out here. I forgot the name of it, but so far, everything is good. I’m just taking it slow, you know? I don’t want it to turn out like my last relationship.”
“Well, I can tell you like him. You haven’t stopped smiling since you mentioned his name. Derrick is gonna be crushed once he hears you have another love interest.”
“Crushed? If he is, he will only be crushed because of his own actions. I told him that I wasn’t interested from day one, but he wanted to keep trying, so that is on him.”
Just then, the school bell rang. A few more teachers quickly stepped in and out of the teachers’ lounge, waving to us in the process. “Well,” Sharon said, “I need to get going before that second bell rings. I hope things go well with you and, um, Mr. Gavin. Find out if he has a sexy brother or cousin or something. Please?”
I laughed. “Sure thing, Sharon. I’ll ask.”
I went through the rest of my day thinking about Gavin and the things we could do on our next outing. I thought about planning something for the two of us to do with his son, but I figured that would’ve been too soon. I felt that when Gavin was ready to include me on something like that, he would bring it up himself. I didn’t want to cross any lines and make things uncomfortable. If they were going to happen, they had to happen naturally.
After work, I went to April’s house. She asked me to give her the details about my date since she was half asleep the night I called her. She was busy all weekend, so we couldn’t catch up the way she wanted to. I told her how much of a gentleman he was. “He held doors for me, pulled out my chair, and everything. But oh, that’s not even the most surprising part. When I expected a kiss on the lips at the end of the night, he kissed me on the cheek instead.”
“The cheek? Seriously? What kind of third-grade shit is that?”
I laughed. “No, it was fine. I mean, I wouldn’t have minded if he kissed me on the lips, but the fact that he went for the cheek showed me that he respected me. And you know, coming from someone who had a past like me, that is a big deal. I wasn’t ever respected in that industry, so it felt good that the first man I met since then treated me like a woman instead of an object.”
“Well, I guess you have a point there. I can’t remember the last time I was kissed on the cheek. Maybe it was like… second grade? It had to be Alex. That was my crush back then. I wonder what he is doing now…”
“Are you serious, April? You are thinking about your second-grade crush? I don’t know what’s worse: the fact that you are thinking about him or that you had a crush in second grade.”
“Oh, grow up. I think I’ve had a crush in every grade I’ve been in. Anyways,” she stood up from her seat, “I am going to start dinner. Come on; we still have some things to talk about involving Gavin.”
I followed her into the kitchen and helped her gather the things she needed to make dinner. April loved cooking, and she always tried to teach me a few things each time she started a meal. She believed that a woman should know how to prepare dinner for her family a few nights a week, and since she was always trying to hook me up with someone, she felt it was her job to help me iron out some of the wifely duties.
I wasn’t one of those women who felt that I always needed to cook and clean for my husband. I felt that those things should be balanced equally amongst a couple, but I didn’t mind learning a few tidbits here and there. She filled a pot with water and placed it on the eye of the stove, then grabbed a package of spaghetti noodles from the cabinet. “This meal will be easy tonight. You can make it in less than thirty minutes. Can you grab the salt out of the cabinet for me?”
I handed her the salt as she continued speaking.
“You want to sprinkle this in the water so the noodles don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. After that,” she grabbed a handful of spaghetti noodles and broke them in two like a pencil. “Drop these in there and let them cook until they are finished.” I took mental notes as she explained how to prepare the meal.
When she was finished, we sat at the kitchen table. “Okay, now about this Gavin. When is the next date?”
“Well, he said that he wanted to get together this weekend.”
“Really? Wow, he must know what he wants. That is a good thing. I guess I can remove my card from the website.”
Before I could respond, my phone lit up with a voicemail. It surprised me because I didn’t even hear it ring, but I hardly ever got a good signal at April’s house. I put my phone to my ear and listened to the message. “Hey, Bethany. This is Gavin. I know I told you that I wanted to hang out this weekend, but I didn’t realize that I canceled plans with my son last weekend because of business, so I wanted to make it up with him. However, you are more than welcome to come along if you’d like. I know it may be a bit early for you to meet him, but if you are okay with it, then so am I. Either way, call me back and let me know. Talk to you soon.”
I ended the call as April stirred hamburger meat into a separate pot on the stove. “So,” she said without looking my way, “what did he say?”
“Well, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that he had to cancel our date this weekend.” She narrowed her eyes at me as the steam rose from the pot. “But, the good news is that he canceled it because he had to spend time with his son… and he offered me to go along with him.”
“His son? Wait, he asked you go hang out with him and his son? After a fucking week? No way, Bethany, that is way too soon for you to be meeting his children. You’ve barely even met him, and now he wants to turn you into a mother?”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, April, he is not doing that. I mean, I don’t think it is a bad idea. It’s best to get it out of the way up front, you know? I mean, if his kid doesn’t like me, chances are that we won’t go any further. I would rather find that out now than find it out later down the line when I really start to like him. Well, if it gets to that point.”
She turned off the eye on the stove. “No. That is my opinion, Bethany. No, and hell no. I think you need to wait a little bit before that happens.”
I held my phone in my hand while April expressed her disapproval of tagging along on a date with Gavin and his son. As she went on, I dialed his number, then held a finger in front of my lips so she would quiet down. “Hello, Gavin?”
“Hey, Bethany. How are you doing?”
“I am good. I um, I just got your voicemail.”
“Yeah, I am so sorry about that. I promised my son last weekend, and we didn’t go, so I would feel horrible if I took you out and the kid was still waiting to hang out with his old man. But, like I said, you’re more than welcome to come if you’re up to it.”
I looked at April as she sat close to me, listening in on our conversation. She lipped, “No,” and shook her head. I smiled. “I’d love to go with you and your son, Gavin.” She put her hand on her forehead and sulked in her seat. “Just let me know what time, and I’ll be there.”
“Great. Sounds good. I told him that we could go bowling and catch a movie or something, but we will just play it by ear.”
“Okay. I am looking forward to it.”
“Likewise.”
I hung up the phone as April stood near the stove, stirring the pot of spaghetti with one hand on her hip. “Welp, here we go. Do you want me to start calling you step-mom right now?”
“Stop it.”
“I am serious. You know how you are with children. One look at his son, and I bet you’ll fall head over heels for him.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
She turned towards me, pondering my question. After all this time of trying to hook me up with someone, it seemed as though she was going back on her decision. It didn’t seem like her. “Well, I guess it’s not. That’s what I signed you up on the dating site for, so yeah,” she turned back to the stove, “I hope it works out. I just don’t want you to get too attached so soon, you know? I don’t want you to go get hurt. I mean, he seems like a good guy so far, but I just want you to be careful. Move slow. That’s all.”
“Yeah, I know.” I walked closer to her and put my arm around her shoulder. “Thank you for caring. Thank you for everything. Seriously. I think I will be alright with this one, and if not, well, I still have that pepper spray that you gave me a few days ago.”
She laughed. “Yeah, you better. That shit cost twenty bucks.”