18. Take The Lead
18
TAKE THE LEAD
“ I can’t believe you found more clues than me,” Tori said hours later.
She had a cute pout on her face. “Sorry,” he said. “I can’t help it if I can figure it out faster.”
They’d gone to her apartment, and she’d showered again while he sat in her little living room. Said that she felt dirty that yesterday’s clothes were on her body.
She didn’t keep him waiting long as she didn’t wash her hair, but she did put product in it and dried it better, then pulled it back away from her face.
When she was done with a light coating of makeup, Hyde realized she didn’t look much different without it.
The girl next door wasn’t usually the type he went for.
But when he went for types, he got himself backed into a corner and doubted everything.
The fact she was doing the same was enough for him to step up and try to take the lead to see where the two of them could land.
“It was still fun,” she said. “Did you want to go to the festival now?”
“I do,” he said. “I’d like to see if I can get my sister a gift. She’s doing so well with her therapy and it’d be nice to give her a little treat. Not sure what yet, but something will catch my eye.”
“Can we get something to eat?” she asked. “Doesn’t have to be a heavy lunch, but I’m hungry again. Maybe I’m still burning calories from last night.”
He winked at her. “You can use whatever excuse you want. But we’ll go wherever you want.”
They passed by a deli on the way back to his car. “How about there?” she asked. “We can grab a sandwich and sit outside.”
He moved toward the deli across the street and they went in, placed their orders and when he pulled his wallet out, she beat him to it. “Why did you pay?” he asked when they were waiting at the table for their number to be called.
“Because I’m all for equal opportunity dating. I don’t expect or want a guy to pay for it all. Are you going to be some macho guy that is all bent if I pay for something?”
“No,” he said. “Just not used to it.”
Women he’d dated before had paid for a few things, but rarely and never in the beginning.
Shana liked he took care of most of the cost of things.
He wasn’t struggling by any means, but he took a cut in pay when he came here since his position wasn’t a project manager like he’d been at his last job.
He’d get back there because he was going to prove he had what it took and wouldn’t let anyone down again.
But he still made good money.
“Get used to it,” she said. “I’ve got a good job, but I know I don’t make what you do.”
“It’s not a competition,” he said. “At least I’ve never thought so. What you do has a lot more meaning than me.”
“That’s not true,” she said. “I guess it just depends on who needs what we are providing.”
He smiled. “I’m glad to hear you say that.”
“Did you set me up that way?” she asked. “I’m the counselor. Or have the counseling background, not you.”
“Maybe you’re rubbing off on me,” he said.
They called his number and he went to get their order and came back.
“Do you know you haven’t looked at your phone once today that I’ve seen,” she said.
He frowned. “I haven’t,” he said. It’s like that just occurred to him.
“Did you put it on silent mode?” she asked.
He pulled it out and looked. “No. But a few days ago I turned off a lot of notifications that I used to get all the time.”
He’d told himself he had to focus on the people in front of him. When he was working and his phone went off, he just ignored it, but it was sitting on his desk and he could glance over to see if it was a notification for a news article or a sports score, a friend texting, or his parents.
Though he had a lot of pop-ups that he cleared, it wasn’t anything important.
“Did you do it for me or just in general?”
“In general and for you,” he said. “Another change I need to make. It’s rude. I know it. I’ve received enough lectures about it. Now if my phone goes off, I know it’s a text.”
“And you can glance at it to see if it’s important or not. I understand how hard it is to ignore it if you hear it go off. If you had one of those watches, then you could see that way.”
“I don’t like the way they look,” he said. “And I’m not much of a watch person at all.”
“I love wearing watches,” she said. “I’m with you not liking how they look. To me a watch is more a fashion accessory. I have one on to know the time, not to see who is trying to reach me. Maybe I’m a bit of an old soul, but if I’m working with someone, they get my commitment, not if my mother or a friend needs me. If it’s an emergency they will call. But a text isn’t an emergency to me.”
“I’m learning that too,” he said.
They sat there and ate their lunch.
The silence wasn’t awkward, but he was trying to think of what to say next.
Then he realized he didn’t need to do that.
Tori seemed comfortable sitting there eating her food when in the past he wasn’t used to being with someone who was.
When they were done with their lunch, they threw everything out and stood up to walk to his car.
He drove to the festival and parked. The crowd was massive and they made their way through.
“These are pretty,” she said when she walked toward a display of ceramic coasters.
“I like them,” he said. “Do you like the water?”
“I do,” she said. “I think my dream is to have a second home on the water somewhere. Any body of water will do.” She picked up the set of two white coasters with waves on them and turned them over. “I’ll take these.”
He wanted to pay for them but told himself to let it go. They weren’t there yet there and there was no reason to trigger a fight when it seemed as if it didn’t take much for them to get into one.
She reached for her coasters in the bag and they walked some more.
“Hyde.”
He turned his head. “Coop, how are you doing?”
“I can’t believe it’s you,” Coop said, reaching his hand out to shake. One of his and Ryder’s high school friends. “I heard you moved out of the area.”
“I did,” he said. “I’m back now.”
“Have you seen or heard from Ryder? Dude, he’s married with three kids. One kid he didn’t even know he had. Never thought I’d see the day. You two are the last people I thought would settle down.”
“I work with Ryder,” he said. He wasn’t sure he liked what was being said, but he couldn’t argue any of it either.
“Then you know all about it,” Coop said. “And who is this little lady? No ring on the finger, so you’re not married. Me, I’m divorced and just split from my second wife. I learned my lesson. Never going there again. We all said we’d never get shackled and I didn’t listen. Ryder neither, but let’s see how he does.”
“Coop is used to running at the mouth,” Hyde said, laughing. Though it was forced. He wished his friend would shut the hell up. “This is Tori Miller. Tori, Cooper Stevens. An old high school friend.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Tori said, putting her hand out.
“Don’t mean to say anything bad about Hyde,” Coop said. “Just, you know, guys will be guys and Ryder, Hyde, and me…we were a threesome back in the day. Everyone wanted to hang out with us.”
“I can’t imagine why, from a woman’s standpoint,” she said, smiling.
“I could tell you,” Coop said.
“She’s joking,” he said. Coop was a good-looking guy. Bigger than him and Ryder and a little thick in the head. Guess some things didn’t change.
“Ahhh,” Coop said. “Nice to know. Anyway, if you’re back in town now, why don’t you hit me up? You, me, and Ryder should get together for good old time's sake.”
“Sure,” he said. “I’ve got your number still. But we’ve got to get going.”
“Good seeing you,” Coop said.
“Sorry about that,” he said when they were further away and he’d turned back a few times to make sure his loose-lipped friend was gone from sight.
“I’m not hearing anything I didn’t know about,” she said.
“Ryder isn’t like that anymore.”
“He’s not,” she said.
“Coop, I’m not surprised he’s going on his second divorce. He always believed everything everyone told him.”
“Ahh,” she said. “One of them that would do any dare too?”
“That’s him,” he said. “He’d date a woman and give her everything she wanted and be fully committed and then they’d leave him for someone else.”
“So not a cheater?” she asked.
“I have no idea about his life now, but back then, he was like this big old teddy bear with jars of honey everywhere and he wasn’t sure which one to grab, but he wasn’t fussy in that he had many choices either. He’d pick one, get all sticky, and then not be able to clean up before he went to the next one.”
She frowned. “I’m not sure I like that analogy, but I kind of get it. You’re saying women played with him?”
“Back then, they did,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if someone took advantage of him again now, but that is his life.” He’s known to say stupid things and tick a woman off too.”
“So you don’t have the only license for that in your group of friends?” she asked.
If she wasn’t grinning, he’d think they’d be getting into it again and it was the last thing he wanted.
But she was making a joke.
He’d give it back.
“Between the two of us, I’d say we both have the same problem. Something we should work on, huh?”
“I’m willing if you are because I wouldn’t be here with you right now if I wasn’t,” she said.