AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I had been woken up by Drew an hour ago, telling me the time and that I needed to pick up my daughter. I was down in the car park and rushing towards the school before I was even fully awake. Luckily for me and Luna, Drew had actually woken me a little earlier than I needed to be there, so Luna wasn’t waiting around for me.
I would have never forgiven myself if I had missed her pick-up time. It’s one thing I always make sure I am there for.
“Mummy, what’s for dinner?” Luna asks from my lap.
“I don’t know, sweetheart, I’ll have a look in a bit,” I reply, closing my burning eyes as I absent-mindedly continue to stroke her hair.
“Mummy, someone’s at the door.”
“What?” I wake with a jump. Shit, did I fall asleep? I look around, dazed, realising it’s darker than when I got home.
“I said there’s someone at the door,” Luna says again as a knocking sound comes from the hallway. I jump to my feet and rush for the door, throwing it open before looking through the peephole. There, standing in front of me is a pizza delivery man.
“I have a delivery for …” he looks at the paper in his hand, “Chelsea Hughes.”
“I haven’t ordered any pizza; there must be some mistake,” I argue, but he shakes his head and hands me the slip.
“There's a message on the bottom,” he says, pointing to a square at the bottom of the paper.
Chelsea, we know you will be too tired to cook, so we supplied dinner. Thanks for all your hard work. Rest tonight. Calvin, Drew and Logan.
“There's two pizzas, garlic bread, wedges and a bottle of pop,” the delivery guy announces as he hands me a pile of boxes. He passes the pop to Luna, who is now beside me. “There are also a few cookies in there too, which I am sure you will enjoy,” he adds as he hands a smaller box to Luna.
“Thank you,” I reply, still clutching the receipt, unable to believe they thought to send me dinner.
“You’re welcome. Enjoy your meal,” he smiles, turning around and heading back towards his car. I see that Luna has already rushed off, no doubt getting a drink of pop, as she’s usually only allowed it on special occasions.
I walk into the kitchen carrying the pizzas and garlic bread and place them on the table. There is more than enough to feed us both tonight and tomorrow. Looking down at the receipt again, I smile whilst grabbing my phone and opening up Tinder to message them.
First, I open Calvin’s profile and send a quick message.
CHughes18: Thank you so much for the food. I can’t thank you enough.
I stop momentarily before adding my mobile number and sending the text. I send an identical message to Logan and Drew, making sure to add my number to see if they will message me directly.
It takes less than a minute for a message to come through on WhatsApp.
UNKNOWN: You are more than welcome. I hope it means you can relax a bit tonight. Calvin x
Two more come through with almost identical replies from Logan and Drew. I try to work out what to say to them, but I don’t know what to do or say, so I close the app and place my phone on the table.
Luna has already grabbed two plates and loaded hers with food before sitting down and filling her face.
“This pizza is amazing! When did you order it?” she asks with her mouth full. I shake my head as I chew. Luna isn’t wrong. The meat feast is possibly the best thing I have ever eaten.
“No, it’s from the guys I was helping out last night,” I answer once my mouth’s empty. Luna smiles before going back to her food.
We continue to eat as Luna tells me about her day, which has been better than yesterday. The whole time I listen to her, my mind keeps wandering back to the offer the guys made in the early hours of this morning. Could I do it? Would I be able to spend time with them and not develop feelings for any of them? I look at the food around us and know that no one else has ever done anything this considerate for me before. Even though I know it could be a way for them to persuade me to give them a chance, I don’t think it is. We spent ten hours in the room last night, and they never gave me the impression that they were faking the way they were with me or each other. There again, I’ve thought that about people in the past, and look how that turned out. I don’t know why this feels so different from the apprehension I have felt about people since all that. I can't explain it, but my gut and heart are saying to trust them.
“Mummy, I’ve had enough. Can we eat the cookies in bed with a film?” Lun asks from across the table.
“Just this once. But you need to have a shower first.” I only just finished saying before she jumps from the table, shouting that I need to turn it on for her.
We take turns to shower before curling up in my bed to watch a film. As I lay there watching “Barbie: The Nutcracker” for the hundredth time, I start looking through some of the messages I have received on Tinder. They range from reasonably polite to downright rude. Yes, people are offering just sex or to “show me a good time”.I shudder at the thought of it. Does this actually work for people? Because all it does is creep me the hell out. I know one thing for sure: I’m coming off this app. There is no appeal in it for me, and the slime balls on it need to do one.
As I close my account, I decide that I’m going to give in and go with the guys to these events. It might not be ideal, but as the four of us all said last night, we don’t have time for the commitment of a relationship, and going to events with them could be fun. It’s not like they are hard to get along with and are certainly nice to look at. I could see myself having a lot of fun with them.
I take a deep breath and type out a message to all three.
