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“One of those women that thinks a man can’t maintain a household without a woman,” Brennon said. He squinted at Katy. “How sexist. For centuries, men have been reduced and subjugated in ways that women haven’t. Forced to go fight in wars while the woman was allowed the privilege of staying home and caring for the children.”
Katy’s head drooped forward and she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, if you say so. Yeah, okay. Subjugated and marginalized, huh?”
Brennon burst into laughter and stepped over to Katy in attempts to gently kiss the side of her head. Katy turned her head away abruptly, avoiding Brennon’s lips. She did so several times, failing at holding back her laughter. Once Brennon’s lips finally made contact, he stepped back over to the stove and finished making breakfast. When the timer for the biscuits sounded, he looked over at Katy. “Do you think you could show me how to clear off the table? I’ve never known how to do that.”
Katy looked at Brennon’s small round kitchen table. “Yeah, I’ll show you.” She said and smiled. While Brennon made their plates, Katy cleared mail and a couple of empty grocery bags from the tables surface. They both then sat down and enjoyed their breakfasts. Katy nodded approvingly. “Okay, okay.”
“Okay, what?” Brennon asked, looking up. “What are you talking about?”
Katy gestured toward the food. “This isn’t bad, this isn’t bad. You did okay.”
“Oh, just okay,” Brennon nodded. “You didn’t know I was a chef, huh?”
Katy looked up. “Yeah, if you say so.”
In a blissful morning glow, Brennon and Katy went on with eating their breakfast. When they finished, Brennon gathered up the dishes and set them down into the sink. They then got dressed and Brennon escorted Katy out to his car. The ride back to the strip mall was filled with conversation; they each were still finding they had so much in common with the other, as well as that they disagreed on some key issues. Brennon joked about how Katy was going home in the morning in her elegant dress because she hadn’t brought any clothes to wear home in the morning. Katy responded with, “Yeah, isn’t that something? I didn’t plan on going home in the morning like this.”
Around 8 o’clock or so, Brennon pulled into the strip mall parking lot then up to Katy’s car. There was a long pause before either of them said anything. Brennon stepped around to Katy’s side and helped her out of the car and over to her own door. He looked down and into her eyes as she climbed into the car. “Well, I had a nice night.”
Katy giggled. “Yeah… I did too. Thank you for dinner.”
“Oh, no problem.” Brennon paused, watching his words carefully. “Thank you for...well, thank you for accepting.” Brennon wondered what else he could say. Will she want to have another date? Will she go home and regret it and maybe decide this isn’t the way to go? Even I haven’t slept with a woman on the very first date.
Brennon leaned in and kissed Katy on the cheek as she pulled her dress into the car. As he sat in his car, watching Katy pull off, he had a good feeling about their romance. His heart swelled in a way it hadn’t in years; however, there was this tingling feeling in his gut. He feared that should their romance blossom and become more obvious to both of their families, the reaction could be something they certainly wouldn’t welcome. He started his engine then pulled off. He thought about Katy all the way home.
Chapter 7
“Miss Miller, did my daddy call yet?” little Audrey asked. “He said he was going to call when it was time to pick me up.”
Katy hid her frustration, knowing doing such was pivotal to her being a teacher. “No, Audrey. He didn’t call just yet. Just go ahead and get in line so you can get to lunch. I’ll let you know when I come get you all if he’s called yet.”
Katy watched the little girl smile as she got in line. After tending to some of the other children – the kids who were a little more resistant to following directions – she guided her class down to the cafeteria and left them in the care of the lunch room attendants. Down in her classroom, she pulled her yogurt and ham sandwich out of her bag, having decided to bring her lunch today instead of going to grab something.
As Katy sat at her desk, enjoying her lunch and looking out at the freshly manicured grounds between the school building and the street, she couldn’t help but to think about Saturday night. I lost my virginity, she thought.
Her world seemed to have changed so much even though everything was the same.
She thought about the dinner – the elegant Greek restaurant she had passed up the opportunity to dine at in the past. The way Brennon was the perfect gentlemen – held her hand every step of the way from the car to the restaurant entrance and back. She could carry a conversation with him for hours, if not days. How much they had in common was simply amazing.
“I can’t believe he did that,” Katy commented, chuckling under her breath as she recounted Brennon driving down the street, blocks and blocks into the dangerous-looking neighborhood. She shrugged the experience off, telling her that it might not have been that bad of an area. And she felt so safe with Brennon being with her. He was bold and courageous and adventurous in her way.
No matter what parts of the date Katy reminisced – parts that would forever be cemented into her mind as beautiful memories – her mind would inevitably come back around to making love to Brennon. She smiled at the thought while savoring the cherry flavor in her yogurt. There had definitely been slight pain from losing her virginity, but it was certainly worth it. As she vividly reflected on sharing a glass of wine with Brennon then suddenly finding herself locked in passionate embrace, it all seemed to go by so fast.
When she thought about the morning, being dropped off at her car then having to go home, she couldn’t help but to feel a little excited. The secretiveness of having a love affair with Brennon – her father’s cousin’s older half-brother – was thrilling. Katy chuckled yet again and shook her head. “Oh my God, if Mom knew…. Dad.”
Katy finished her lunch, content with Eve’s suggestion about keeping her new-found romance a secret. For much of Sunday, she had been texting Brennon back and forth. They texted about any and everything. Katy made sure to fill him in on whether or not her parents had noticed that she came back home in an elegant dress early Sunday morning. Thankfully, her mother had father were still been in bed when she walked through the front door. As to be expected, like a teenager who sneaked out in the middle of the nights, she raced up the steps and into her bedroom. For the rest of the day, she made sure to move in such a way to where she avoided interacting with her parents as much as possible. She could only imagine how awkward such a conversation would be.
The rest of the afternoon went as planned. Katy taught her lessons, went over the homework and passed back graded papers, then gave a short quiz. Shortly after walking the children out to the school buses, Katy had been headed back into the building when her phone rang. It was Eve calling. She sighed, totally shocked that E
ve hadn’t called her yesterday. “You already know what she’s calling about, Katy,” she mumbled to herself.
“Hello?” Katy answered.
“Well, hello,” Eve said.
“Uh oh.” Katy rolled her eyes. The tone in Eve’s voice said she was every bit of a little too excited. “What is it, Eve?”
“I see you’re in one of your moods,” Eve said. “Are you going to be up at the school for a little while? I’m off work early and thought about coming up there and sitting with you for a bit so we can...you know...chat.”
