Don't Be Afraid To Love

Chapter 9

The following day, I was so caught up with work - it was such a crowded day - that I forgot completely about the interesting encounter I had the other night.

I was a bit more relieved knowing from Maria that the blonde woman wasn't Robert's girlfriend, but somehow I couldn't get over the fact that he had a daughter! I just felt even more sorry for him.

Robert didn't call or text me for the other viewings, and I stopped going jogging in the park because it was getting really chilly in the mornings.

So I really focused on work so I could manage to reach my target because I could really use the extra money.

In order to save some cash, I stopped going out or ordering take-out and went to my mother's for dinner instead. I'm not sure if she realized I was mostly going to her place to eat, so I could avoid spending more money on food (needless to say, I was too proud to admit that to her), but she was always glad I was going at all.

Every time I visited her, she asked me about my love life. The answer was always the same. I hated that both she and Cristina were constantly trying to hook me up with someone, like I was the only woman in the world who didn't have a boyfriend. And both of them had the same idea of what the ingredients for a perfect man should be: university degree, good job, good salary, nice house, high social status. They never mentioned anything about moral values, honesty, love, or other stuff like that; as if I was marrying the man's bank account, not the man himself.

The last blind date I went to was set up for me by Cristina, with a friend of hers, a nice guy who worked as an IT engineer in a big software company. So far so good, but he kept telling me about how important his job was and how he just got promoted and could afford to buy almost anything he wanted - like that was somehow supposed to impress me. The whole three hours of our date (because I wasn't able to stay much longer), he only talked about himself; he wasn't even curious to find out things about me.

I promised myself that that was the last time I was going to let anyone trick me into going to a blind date again.

And just as I was thinking about dates and love life, I got a text on my phone.

"Hey, beautiful! I'm back in town, and I couldn't resist texting you. How would you like to meet me for a coffee to catch up?"

It was from an unsaved number, and it wasn't signed, but I knew it had to be from John, my ex. I had deleted his number after we broke up.

Pfff... What does this asshole want?

I deleted the text without replying to him; I didn't want to have anything to do with him.

My mom did say she ran into John recently, but I wasn't exactly expecting him to have the guts to contact me after how we ended things. And then again, he had always been a bold type of guy.

I figured the best way to deal with that was to ignore it, so that was exactly what I did.

*****

That evening, I got another text:

"I'm free tomorrow morning at 8. Can you arrange a viewing for the Bakery Street house?"

It was from Robert. A smile emerged on my face, as it did pretty much every time I heard from him.

My work program didn't usually start until 9 - I had never scheduled any meeting before that hour - but I just couldn't say no to him.

Bakery Street was actually close to the previous house we saw and to the amazing view to the mountains that I loved. So, the next morning, before meeting Robert at the location, I went to Victor to the gas station - which was also close in that area - to buy some coffee.