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Chapter Fifteen
Dylan
I roll into work exhausted having spent much of last night awake, my brain rehashing the whole marriage conversation that started at Tommy and Penny’s and ended when I dropped Tessa off at her place, our goodbye still leaving me a little on edge.
I feel like shit for the way the whole thing played out, but it had seriously caught me off guard. I wasn’t used to talking about that kind of shit in front of people, much less my employer. Especially when things were still so new with the woman I’m dating.
But fuck my life, because now, I haven’t seen or heard from Tessa all morning and I find myself wandering into the kitchen at Apple Jacks with no idea about where she is or whether I should text her to see if she wants to have lunch today.
Who the fuck knew relationships would be this hard? This is why I’ve always preferred hook ups, because for the most part they are drama-free, and everyone knows where they stand.
Only now, I’ve gone and apparently decided I want more with this girl and to say it’s messing with my head is an understatement.
“Hey,” Leo calls as I walk in, making my way over to where he is frying something that smells fucking amazing.
“Hey,” I reply, leaning back against the stainless-steel bench, arms crossed over my chest as I watch him work.
Leo continues cooking, focused on whatever it is he’s doing until he eventually plates it up and yells out to a server that it’s done. I watch as the waiter comes to grab it and when I turn back, Leo is watching me, a smirk on his face.
“What?”
“Dunno,” he says, lifting a shoulder. “You tell me.”
“What are you talking about?”
Leo laughs, shaking his head as he turns his attention to another order. “Not having lunch with your girl today?” he asks, and I immediately wonder if he somehow knows about last night.
I let out a hard breath, wondering if I should’ve just texted Tessa and asked her to have lunch with me. I feel like we sort of left things in a good place when I dropped her off last night, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we are all good now. I know she asked me to think about shit, but as much as I laid awake last night going over and over the whole thing, I’m not any clearer on how I feel about the whole marriage and kids thing. I mean all that shit just feels like a million miles away from where we’re at now.
And is that such a bad thing? Just because I haven’t thought about it, doesn’t mean I don’t want it.
One day.
“Oh, oh, trouble in paradise?” he asks, a look of genuine concern on his face.
“I don’t know, man,” I admit, scrubbing a hand over my face. “I feel like I might have, sort of fucked things up a bit last night.”
“Might have, sort of?” Leo repeats, chuckling. “Okay, in what way?”
I glance around the kitchen, not needing anyone else at this place to hear this conversation. But we’re tucked in the back, anything we say drowned out by the sounds of pots and pans and the other staff’s chatter.
“We were at Tommy and Penny’s place for dinner,” I start, suddenly feeling weirdly nervous. “And Jack brought up getting married and I sorta, I don’t know…”
Leo bursts out laughing, apparently already knowing what my reaction was. “Let me guess, you freaked out?”
“Yeah,” I say, eyes widening as I hold my arms out in ayou got itgesture. “I mean, talk about awkward as fuck, having that conversation in front of my boss.”
“Totally,” Leo agrees. “So, what happened?”
I let out a groan. “I don’t know, shit got awkward with Tessa and then she asked me to think about what I wanted and fuck, you know I really like her, but dude, we only just started dating and I’m like, twenty-four years old and—”
“And you don’t wanna be tied down just yet?” Leo prompts.
I shake my head. “No, I mean, it’s not that. Look, I want to be with Tessa, I really do. I don’t want to just hook up with her, but fuck, can’t we just try dating each other first, before we jump into all that other shit?”
“Yeah, makes sense,” Leo says, nodding as he flips a steak.
I watch him for a minute, my mouth watering a little at the smell and the way it sizzles in the pan. “I mean, doyouwanna get married or whatever?” I ask, wondering if it’s just me who has no clue about this stuff.
