Blinded by Pity (boyxboy)

Chapter 3

"So," Lee said, as he got in the car," where are you taking me?"

I noticed his hair was done in a completely different way. Tonight it looked as if he went for the 'just outta bed' style. It really worked for him.

I scratched my head. "That's kinda the problem, I don't know where to go."

"Do you like hamburgers-"

"I don't eat beef. Or pork for that matter." It just grossed me out for some reason, but all the other meats were fine.

"Weirdo, ok. Let's go to that Italian place around the block."

Italian food sounded good. "Deal."

It was a short drive from Lee's apartment; we probably could've walked. He lived in an average neighborhood, but it wasn't quite all the way in the downtown area, I guess the rent was too high for him there.

"Nice car," he commented, while rubbing the dashboard in front him. I had chosen to drive our bright red Mercedes-AMG GT. "How many do you have, exactly?"

I thought for a second. "Four. Two for Jackson and two for me," I laughed," but we're pretty good at sharing them. This is technically one of the cars he picked."

"That's so crazy, I can't even imagine having four cars like this."

...

We entered the restaurant and the hostess walked us to our table. I looked around, I'd never been here before, but it seemed nice enough. It had a good atmosphere. Plus it's pretty hard to screw up Italian food. It's just pasta and sauce.

As Lee sat down he said," So, tell me more about Steven. I'm pretty curious."

Great, he's already trying to get personal. "Hmm," I thought about what to say. I've always been bad at talking about myself. "Why don't you just ask me what you want to know."

He sighed. "Fine, how old are you?"

Simple enough," 28."

"How long have you been married?"

"We're coming up on our seventh anniversary."

He looked surprised. "That's pretty young to get married isn't it?"

I smiled. "You don't turn down a six and a half foot, good-looking millionaire when he proposes to you, no matter how young you are."

"Fair enough," he said, his face softening.

...

The rest of the meal went well. Thankfully Lee had enough sense to stay away from any subjects involving Jackson's behavior from the night before. We discussed our hobbies and Lee asked me about some of the vacations I'd taken to Europe. He said his top bucket list item was to backpack across the entire continent. I, for one, couldn't understand why anyone would want to carry a backpack to a classroom, much less over the Alps.

He offered to pay for our dinner, but I wouldn't let him. It was my idea after all. We left the restaurant and walked towards my car. Then I looked at my watch.

"This cannot be right, is it already almost 10 o'clock?"

"Yeah? What's wrong with that?"

Nothing except Jackson would definitely be wondering where I ran off to.

"Jackson- well, he should be home by now so-"

"So you should probably get back home now. I get it. It was fun talking to you Steven." He turned around to walk away.

"Hold on, Lee. I can drive you back if you want. You don't have to walk."

He did his hands in a waving motion,"No biggie, I need the exercise anyway. Working at a bakery all the time doesn't exactly help with keeping the pounds off."