Inner Beauty

Chapter 14

This chapter is dedicated to that_awkward_momentt .

Ring! Ring!

Derek groaned. The last thing he wanted to do was talk to anyone. He had a splitting headache from his binge drinking the night before. And at the moment, he had a bag of frozen peas on his forehead.

Derek decided to answer, anyway, in case it was important.

"Derek." He barked.

"Whoa, man, you are in a bad mood all the time, lately." Jim said.

"Yeah, I have stuff on my mind."

"Obviously."

"Did you call to lecture me?"

"Can't I call a friend to see how he is?"

"Alright, Jim. It is obvious I'm not going to get you off my back. Everything is fine."

"Just fine?"

"Freaking awesome. What do you want me to say?"

"How about trying the truth?"

"How do you think I am? I am upset over this Becca shit. I drank myself into oblivion last night, and I feel like crap today. Is that what you wanted to know?"

"So I take it the vacation isn't going well?"

Derek stopped to consider that question. It was going better since he met Anna. He was enjoying her company. Derek felt comfortable with her.

"Well, it isn't all bad. There is this girl..." Derek said.

"I should have known. Is she good in bed?"

Derek's temper flared, and his hand tightened around the phone. She wasn't like the other women he had known.

"It isn't like that," Derek said through clenched teeth.

Jim must have felt the tension through the line, because he said, "Well, I thought I would come down one weekend to visit. You could introduce me to her."

"Sure. When you think you'll be coming down?" Derek asked

"Haven't decided, yet. I'll let you know, though."

"Sounds good."

"Look, Derek, hang in there. Try to have some fun. I'll call in a few days."

"Yeah, talk at ya later."

After he hung up the phone, he laid his head on the back of the couch and put the frozen peas back to his forehead.

He thought of Anna, and her answer to his question yesterday.

She had said yes.

What next? Should I call her? Text her? Should I wait?

He wasn't sure what the protocol was when you were just friends. He had never been friends with a woman before.

Where would I even take her?

There was always dinner and a movie, but that sounded too much like a date.

I don't have the brain power for this.

"I'll call her tomorrow when I'm not such a friggin' mess," Derek muttered.