Chapter 31 (7/17/16)

I'm finally ahead with writing and editing, so let's do some bonuses this week!  If you didn't catch yesterday's post, make sure you read that one first.  This one is a little shorter, but come back Tuesday morning for the next post!

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I still wasn’t positive if I was going to go on Saturday, but I was leaning a little more towards yes by the end of the day on Wednesday.  I had dinner with Erica and Kelly, and I told them about Grace and the cookout.  They both knew damn well how hurt I’d been by the group’s sudden disappearance from my life, and they both reacted very differently.

Erica, who was excited that I had reconciled with Grace, said, “I really, really think you should go.  I think you’ll regret it if you don’t.  And you know Grace will hang out with you and diffuse anything that might happen, not that I think anything will.”

Kelly, who could hold a grudge better than anyone else I knew, shook her head.  “We don’t know that, though.  We don’t know that at all.  Where did Grace go when everyone left?  With them.  She finally called when she found out she was a dick for believing an obviously made up story.”  She looked at me and narrowed her eyes slightly.  “I don’t trust her.”

“Clearly,” I said, laughing.  “I don’t think she has any bad intentions,” I continued.  “I think she just got caught up in the groupthink.  She was in a shitty position.”

“You’re too nice,” Kelly said.

I snorted.  “No one has ever accused me of that before.” I was about to say more, but my phone lit up with a new text from a number I didn’t recognize.  I frowned at it and picked it up.  “Hey, this is Jesse from Rachael’s friend’s birthday.  Sorry it took me so long to text, but I’d really like to take you out sometime soon.”

“Who is it?” Erica asked curiously.

“Jesse,” I responded, feeling perplexed.  I had no idea why he’d want to go out with me after the spectacle I made of myself that night.

“Who is Jesse?” Erica and Kelly both looked confused.  I realized that I had never told them the story of the night I went out with Rachel, so I filled them in. 

“I can’t believe he wants to see me after how much of a drunken disaster I was,” I said, at the end of the story.

“We all do dumb things when we’re drunk,” Erica said, shrugging.  “You must have just impressed him enough before getting ridiculous.”

I frowned skeptically.  “But why did he wait so long to text?” I wondered out loud.  “That seems odd.”

“Maybe he had an emergency, or was on vacation,” Kelly suggested.  She was not normally optimistic, so I was surprised by her answer.  “Don’t overthink it.  Do you want to go out with him?”

“I wouldn’t mind,” I said.  “He was cute and seemed nice enough.”  They both urged me to just go, so I texted him back.  Within minutes, we’d set up a date for Friday night.

“I’m kind of jealous of how easy it is for you to get dates,” Erica said.

I almost spit out a mouthful of wine.  “Are you in the market?” I asked, joking.  “I had no idea.”

“No, but if I was I know it wouldn’t be as easy as it is for you,” she retorted.

I shrugged.  “I mean, I can get a couple dates but that doesn’t mean they’re good.  I’d rather have fewer better dates, really.”

We debated the merits of quality vs quantity for a while and then our conversation turned to other topics.  Eventually Erica needed to leave so we all went home for the night.  Alone in my car, headed towards home, I questioned my decision to go out with Jesse.  I was still not feeling ready to date anyone.  I reasoned with myself that as long as I made it pretty clear that I wasn’t interested in anything serious, it would be fine.

On Friday, as I got ready for my date, I thought about how much I had changed over the last 8 months.  I’d been so much more of a homebody while I was married, and now I was out and about doing something almost every night.  But after thinking about it for awhile, I realized that it wasn’t that I had changed now…I had changed while I was married.  Prior to getting married to Kevin I’d been a social butterfly, but living with someone that you were constantly worried was cheating you was soul sucking.  My extroverted nature had slowly withered to not really wanting to do much of anything. 

Shaking my head, I put the thoughts out of my mind and concentrated on my makeup.  I kept it fairly simple and finished it quickly.  I curled my hair a little, then glanced at my phone.  I was running late and needed to leave.  I quickly brushed my teeth, ran my fingers through my hair one more time, and then left.

When I got the restaurant where we were meeting, Jesse wasn’t there.  He walked in just after me and spotted me immediately.  “I’m so sorry I’m late,” he apologized.  “Seriously, I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I just got here too.”

“Oh good, I felt really bad that I was going to be late,” he said.  Clearly.  He took a second to look me over, and then he said, “Wow, you look really beautiful.”

“Thank you,” I said, smiling.  I started to say something else, but he kept talking.

“I thought you were really pretty when we met, but you look amazing tonight.”

“Thanks,” I said again, feeling a little self-conscious.  I chalked his enthusiasm up to nerves, because I didn’t remember him seeming quite so excitable when we first met.

We had to wait a little while for a table and the bar was full, so we stood near the door and talked.  He didn’t mention my drunken antics and neither did I.  We did a great job of just pretending it didn’t happen, and that was fine with me.  Maybe he had also been a shit show and didn’t even remember.

When we finally got a table, we ordered drinks right away.  I hoped it would quell his enthusiasm a little.  He thought my job sounded “sooooo cool” (there's nothing exciting about my job),  and he was thrilled that I owned my home and didn’t rent.  I was struggling with responding politely because his comments were so over the top.  

He did settle down a little after getting a drink into him, and my hope that it was just nerves returned.  We actually spent most of our meal having good conversation, which was nice.  After dinner, he walked with me out to my car.  It was a gorgeous early summer night, and I relished that it was barely even dark.  “I’d ask you if you wanted to go get a drink somewhere, but since we both drove, that’s probably not a good choice,” he said, shrugging.  “I’d like to see you again though.  What are you up to tomorrow?”

I’d never had a man ask me out for a second date the next day and I was slightly surprised.  “I actually have plans tomorrow,” I said truthfully.  I had finally decided to just go to the cookout and see how it went.  “And on Sunday,” I added, before he could suggest that.  “I have my dance class on Monday, but what about Tuesday?”

He frowned.  “I have dinner plans with friends on Tuesday already.  Wednesday or Thursday?”

“Wednesday is my dinner with friends day,” I said, wrinkling my nose.  “And I have dance on Thursdays too…so Friday or Saturday?”

“You’re a busy girl,” he said, shaking his head.  “I think Saturday will work, can I let you know?”

“Sure,” I said, fully expecting not to ever hear from him again.  He seemed irritated with my busy schedule.  I considered telling him I wasn’t looking for anything serious right now, but seeing as I probably wouldn’t hear from him, I decided not to bother.  We said goodnight and I got in my car. 

As soon as he was gone, I texted Erica and Kelly.  “Weirdest date ever!”  Kelly responded right away.  “Weird how?” “He was super enthusiastic and complimentary right away, then he settled down and we had really conversation over dinner, then he asked to see me again TOMORROW, and when we figured out that next Saturday is probably the next day we both have free, he went cold,” I responded.  “hmmmm,” Kelly replied.  “I doubt I’ll hear from him,” I texted back.  Then I tossed my phone in my purse and put my car in gear to head home.