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Chapter Nine - Lillian
“Are you okay?” Sylvia’s quiet question startles me out of my thoughts. I jump, causing her concern to go deeper. “What’s wrong?”
“I…” Do I tell her? I look around at her coffeeshop; it’s quiet. No curious ears around to spread any gossip. “I’ve got guy problems.” Will she judge me? For dating someone older? Are we even dating? We’re definitely fucking; no rose-tinted glasses in the world are going to cover that up. Not to mention, he thinks I’m dating his son. My God, he must think I’m a complete whore. Yet on the contrary, he treats me with more respect than any man ever has. What’s up with that?
“Same. I don’t know what I’m doing and if I should be doing it or if it’s going to bite me in the butt.” She purses her lips as she bangs the silver jug of milk on the counter and begins to pour it into my to-go cup of coffee.
“Same.” We look at each other, obviously debating telling each other the details. I can see she wants to tell me. “I’m fucking Chuck’s dad.” As the words leave my mouth, I hear them and realize how absolutely crazy they sound.
Her mouth pops open as she stares at me, probably waiting for me to tell her I’m kidding. When I don’t, she glances down at the cup of coffee before putting the lid on. “Okay, this should really have whisky in it.” She hands me the cup, gesturing for me to take a seat in one of the bar chairs at the counter away from the cash machine. “Spill,” she demands as soon as I settle in my seat.
“We met at a party a few months ago. We had the hottest weekend of sex I’ve ever had but I freaked out that I’d behaved that way with him and expected him to just want me to leave so I disappeared and didn’t so much as give him my number.” I attempt to take a sip of the coffee but feel the scalding heat through the sip hole and think better of it. “A couple days ago, Chuck asked me to go to this party with him at his mom's. We went and it was fine, but then he introduced me to his dad and it’s him. It’s Charles. Well, I was pretending to be Chuck's date! So that didn’t go down well; it was awkward as hell! He left, and then he texted me when I got home so I invited him in. We’ve been fucking nonstop ever since. He was back over this morning!”
She stares at me with pursed lips. “Where is this going? Is this just fucking? I take it Chuck doesn’t know—wait, what do you mean you invited him in?”
I reach for my phone, bringing up a photo I’d snapped of him lying in the bed. A beautiful work of art of him laughing, flexing his abs with the sheet strategically placed to cover his manhood.
“Fuck! That’s him?” She stares at the picture, dramatically fanning herself. “He’s hot!” If there was any judgment, there’s no sign of it now. “Wait! I know him! He rents the one that’s an Airbnb!”
I nod. I knew she would recognize him. She kind of knows everyone, being the closest source of coffee. “I don’t know where it is going. That’s the part that worries me. I really like him! But what if it’s just sex? I mean… he thinks I’m dating Chuck.” I cringe and sink into my seat, thinking about it again.
“You haven’t told him it was a ruse?” She tuts when I shake my head. “That’s a bad sign. He’s sleeping with what he thinks is his son’s girlfriend then. Do you really want anything long-lasting with someone like that?” Logic. I hate it.
“I hear you.” I sigh and slump down into my seat. This is going to end. I’m going to have to wave goodbye to him being my happily ever after. “What’s happening with you?”
“Oh, you’ve solved my problem. What I have going on is nothing compared to what you have going on.” She gives me an encouraging smile before going back down the counter to the cash machine to serve someone.
The fact that my problem dwarfed hers only makes me feel ickier as I walk back to my apartment.
Looking for a distraction, I throw myself into work when I return and don’t come up for air until my phone rings for the third time. I’m not sure who I am expecting it to be but it’s not Charles. My brain has almost convinced myself it’s going to end very soon and it’s probably going to be sudden and without any communication. Much like how I ended it with him.
“Hey.”
“Hello, baby girl, how is your day?” I can hear traffic noise in the background. I wonder if he is on his way back to his Airbnb. Will he want me to come over?
“It’s okay. Yours?” The conversation with Sylvia runs through my brain, reminding me that he can’t be my prince if he’s intentionally fucking his son’s girlfriend even if it is only in his head and not real.
“It will be better when I get back. I have plans tonight.”
“Oh, I hope you enjoy them.” The words are like vinegar leaving my mouth. Who the fuck is he going out with? How can he be so quick to move on to the next woman and why is he telling me about it?
He laughs through the phone and it makes me so mad my teeth grit. How dare he!
“I would like to invite you to dinner tonight; that’s my plans. Would you let me take you on our first date? So far all we have done is fuck and while I intend on doing it again multiple times tonight, I want to take you somewhere special and see you get all dressed up before I do.” There’s a loud honk in the background. The phone is lowered and I hear him shout a few expletives before coming back to the phone. “Are you still there?”
I should say no. I shouldn’t be going out to dinner with him, even if it he isn’t seeing anyone else. He thinks I’m dating his son! However, this is going to end soon and I’ll be back to just me, and Chuck is never going to know so I should go and enjoy myself and just cherish these memories when it does end. How is the next guy ever going to measure up to this? It’s not worth thinking about.
“Yes, I’m still here. What time would you like to go to dinner?”
He tells me to get ready immediately so we can go early and get back early so he isn’t keeping me up all night. Just the thought of what we will do when we get back from dinner has me grinning like a moron as I put on the sluttiest underwear I can find that he hasn’t already seen. I’ve put on more weight over the last six months so a lot of my underwear doesn’t fit me, so I have to dig for it. I’m going to need to get some new sets.
He threatens to fuck me right there on the doorstep when he comes to my door to walk me down to the taxi but resists my enticements and pulls me down to the waiting car. I’m surprised at how quickly we are at the restaurant. It’s new, modern, and arranged in a way that most of the tables are private with romantic lighting.
“Don’t hold the food against me. I’ve never actually been here before myself; however, I’ve had a few friends recommend it,” he whispers as we walk through the restaurant so we don’t disturb anyone eating.
It’s nice knowing this isn’t a spothe brings his fuck buddies. “That’s okay. I’ve heard good things about it as well.” The name only becomes familiar when I see the menus on the table with their logo. “It’s supposed to have really good fish and apparently the deserts are good.”
We sit at the table in silence for a while. It feels awkward. Have we gone past the chemistry stage? Is this going to be the last time I see him? This uncertainty is going to be the death of me.
“What’s bugging you?”
I open my mouth and he raises his hand to intercept me. “Don’t lie to me, Lillian.” His smile is gentle and I want to believe it's genuine.
“I think I’m just a bit worried you’re going to leave abruptly like I did.” It’s not completely transparent but it’s not lying. It’s just strategically phrased.
He frowns, his hand instantly covering mine from across the table. “Oh, baby girl no, I’m not going to do that.” He takes my hand between both of his, studying my nails. “We do need to discuss a few things though. Such as this charade of you dating my son. Why is he lying to me?”
I stare at him. He knew we wasn’t dating? “What?”
He smiles but it’s slightly sad. “My son won’t tell me the truth and I have tried a few times now to get it out of him and he won’t budge.” He sighs, sadness rooting itself around his eyes. “I really want to hear the truth from you. Otherwise, I feel as though this will obviously get between us and in our way.” Oh shit. I’m going to have to tell him.
