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I keep my promise and go no farther than the school gates, where a sea of housewives have gathered. I pretend not to notice the looks I’m getting, but it’s hard. I feel like a celebrity. Some of them are anything but subtle. In fact, two of them are outright staring at my crotch, and I’m sure both of them are married.
I’d heard the rumors, too. It was a bit hard not to—small town gossip and all. It was a little bit disconcerting how everyone stopped talking whenever I walked into a room, but I got used to it. Where most guys would be happy to have women throwing themselves at them, I think I preferred it when the size of my cock wasn’t the deciding factor when weighing up whether or not to go out with me.
I never thought I’d say this, but I’m sick of the one-night stands, women who wanted nothing more than to see if I “fit” in. Yes, one woman had actually said that to me. By far the worst was the other night when the woman I was with ended up in the hospital needing stitches in a rather delicate area. Apparently, sex with me was like giving birth, without the rewards of a baby. If that didn’t kill my libido, nothing would.
“You know what you need to do,” my best friend, Dan, had said.
“What?” I asked suspiciously. Nearly everything Dan came up with was a bad idea.
“No sex on the first three dates.” He held his hands out triumphantly. “There, I said it.”
It actually wasn’t a bad idea, because at least then, it would weed out the ones who were only interested in one thing. I mean, did they have no dignity or respect? Forget the fact that I was a single dad who’d lost my wife to cancer, or that this dating scene was all new to me. I was beginning to feel like Cinderella, only it wasn’t a shoe I was trying to squeeze into.I leave the school with three new numbers in my pocket and no intention of calling any of them, then I head to work. Having my own business gave me the flexibility to come and go as I pleased, which worked really well when it came to having kids. I was serious when I’d told Anna last night that I loved my job. Thinking about that first design being put into action still gave me goose bumps.
Anna. Hot, mature, and incredibly awkward Anna. I chuckle just thinking about her. Where the fuck had I been? She was so fucking cute with her awkward comments and ability to say the wrong thing nearly every time. Watching her upend herself in her driveway had been hilarious. And then to turn up two hours later for dinner, smelling like strawberries? God, who knew strawberries could be so sexy.
I can think naughty things about Anna, but I’d never go there. Way too much to lose and all that. Still, she’s nice to think about, and I’m pretty sure she has a little crush on me, considering she couldn’t look me in the eye. It was either that or…
Oh, crap. The rumors. I cringe at the thought of what she’s probably heard about me.
Shirley, my assistant, smiles at me as I sit down at my desk.
“Long day already?” she asks, with a sympathetic grin.
“You know how it is,” I chuckle. “Just dropping the kids off at school, I had to wade through the countless propositions from mothers just to get back to my car.”
“Oh, poor you,” teases Shirley.
She lets out a hearty laugh that I can’t help but echo. Shirley is like a second mother to me, and the closest thing the kids have to a grandparent. In her fifties, she's been my assistant for the last ten years. She was the last person my wife hired for me. I don't know what I'd do without her often-crazy advice.
“You know what I think?” she asks, looking at me over the rim of her glasses.
“I'm sure you’re going to tell me,” I say with an amused smile. I sit back in my chair, resting my hands behind my head and wait to hear what it’s going to be this time.
“You need to think outside the box,” she says with a shrug.
“Thanks, but I don't think the box is the problem,” I joke.
She laughs. “Think outside this town, Nick. Why limit yourself to what Keeley's Island has to offer when fifteen minutes in the car can have you in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the state? Go out on the town and meet someone who doesn't know you.” She arches her eyebrow and glances at my crotch. “Or what you have to offer,” she smirks. I groan and hunch forward because the last thing I want her thinking about is that.
