My Brother's Best Friend *ON HIATUS*

Chapter Five

Times were tough for me as my conscious was not comfortable with the situation I was in. It was hard staying away from Mason at the bar a few nights ago, it was even harder to look at my loving brother and know I was deceiving him. Unfortunately I knew no other way for the situation to move forward and for me to be truly happy at that moment.

Mason and I made no real contact while at the bar, it just didn't feel like the right time or place, however we have been talking on the phone every day since then. It has been over a week now and I really enjoyed our time together, though I would never admit that to him. We wanted to make plans to see each other, but with two away games in a row the odds of that happing any time soon were slim.

"So I was thinking, when I get home, do I get to take you out for our first real date?" He asked me one night over the phone, I felt like a real school girl chatting to a boy she likes late at night. I giggled like the infatuated girl I was, I didn't even know I could laugh like that.

"Well that depends, where do you plan on taking me?" I asked playfully, tossing around in my bed. I heard him chuckle on the other end, that real deep chuckle that turns my insides to jelly.

"Well I have never been on a real date before while living here in America, but I here the boys say The Palace is a nice place to go. How about we go to dinner there?" He asked kindly, he even sounded a little excited.

"The Palace!" I shouted in shock. Dinner in that place costs more that my mortgage payment for the month, and that is per head.

"Yeah, why do you not like it there?" He asked with concern. I felt a little bad for shooting down his idea for a date. Truthfully it just slipped out, I couldn't have hide my shock even if I tried.

"No its not that, it's just so fancy and I'm not the fancy type of girl. I'll probably use the wrong fork for my salad and get shunned from the place in seconds" I joked, hoping to light the mood. It must have worked because I heard him give a small burst of laughter, making me smile in relief and happiness.

"OK so no place too fancy then?" He asked, I know he was sniffing for answers for an appropriate place for our date. I think he really wanted me to be happy and have a good time on our date. It was really quire sweet, no guy has ever really cared about my opinion in such a way.

"Exactly, nothing fancy. No place where our meal will cost over forty bucks" I told him, hearing him scoff.

"So I'm taking you to McDonald's for dinner then am I?" He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. I think he thought I was joking or testing him to see if he was cheap.

"Honestly that would be great with me. We could order Happy Meals and play with our toys all night!" I said enthusiastically. This really made him laugh, a full on belly laugh that warmed my heart.

"I'm sorry I didn't realize I was dating a child" He exclaimed, joking with me.

"Only at heart. When you spend all day talking to people in unfortunate situations, its nice to take a load off and forget about it all. Doing stupid kid stuff tends to help with that" I told him honestly.

"Shit, I'm sorry I didn't mean it that way. I forget how hard your work must be sometimes" He said, moving on to ask me more about my work. I knew he was truly interested so I didn't mind telling him all about what I do. I also made sure he knew that while my work can be tough, I love it. Not every person gets to wake up every day and know they are making a difference in someones life. I do and it's the reason I wake up every day. Helping others makes my soul content. It started to get late and I could not stop yawning, so reluctantly we had to hang up and go to sleep.

Work for the next week was trying but Mason would text me sweet things every day and they really helped get me through. He even surprised me by sending me a bunch of flowers to work. I was having a really tough day dealing with a child neglect case, so when I saw the beautiful blue and yellow creation approach my desk I almost burst into tears.