To Love Again

Meeting Matt

Chapter Seven (Matt’s POV)

Today was going to be a great day, my nephews welcome home their two new kids and I finally was going to be going out on a date with Raul. “Good morning everyone!” I said as I walked into the kitchen, today was going to be a great day.

“You’re very cheerful this morning, why?” Craig asked as I sat down next to him, I poured myself a bowl of cereal. Since neither Craig nor my sister-in-law Emily could cook to save their life, I have been having cereal since I got here.

“I have a date.”

“With who?” I smiled at him, “No way! He finally agreed to go out with you? What the hell did you do that he finally agreed?”

“Craig, language.” Emily said as the kids giggled.

“Sorry, but really what did you do?”

“Remind me to get Jesse and Adrian a gift, because of their beautiful baby girl, I got him to say yes. I don’t know what it is about her but she just drew him in.”

“Ah nice to see you using my granddaughter to get dates. Now that they are going to adopt Peter and Hailey are you going to be using them as well? I don’t like you using my grandkids for your own bidding.” I rolled my eyes at him.

“No it’s not going to be necessary, I already got the date. Now all I have to do is just charm him off his feet.”

“Yeah he is going to make a run for it the first chance he can.”

“Shut up, no he isn’t. You don’t know everything Craig!” I flicked some of my cereal at him and he did the same.

“Hey you two cut it out, you two are grown men and act like it.” Emily scolded us. “So Matt what do you have in mind for your date?”

“Um yeah I don’t know yet, I don’t really know much about the city.” Craig laughed, “What is so funny?”

“You have been after this guy for how long and you haven’t even thought about where you are taking him. Then to top it off the date is tonight, what kind of Staff Sergeant  are you, where’s the leadership they taught you?” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Shut up Craig, like I said I don’t know the city.”

“You been here for almost a month and you don’t know nothing?”

“Well I have been kind of busy, if you haven’t noticed. I have been spending that time trying to get Raul to go out on a date with me. So stop being such an ass and help me, come on be a good big brother.”

“Just take him to Portland City Grill, or anywhere they serve alcohol. He is going to need a drink when he finds out you’re in the Marine Corp.”

“He isn’t going to find out just yet.”

“You can’t keep that from him Matt.”

“I know, but I’m just hoping I can put off telling him about it.”

“Oh yeah, just how do you plan on doing that?”

“I’m going to tell him I want to know about him first, just distract him from asking what I do for a living. Just prolong it long enough for him to fall in love with me.”

“Matt that’s not fair to him, to have him fall for you and them just be thrown back with the fact you are in the Marine Corp.” Emily said.

“I know it’s not fair, but every time I go on a date and they find out what I do. I never see them again, nobody wants to date someone in the military. Everyone knows it’s a hard thing to do, knowing your loves life is always in danger and the possibility of them not coming back.” I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, it’s a thought that always crossed my mind. It was hard for it not too, we all know that it could happen.

“Don’t you see, he does deserve to know before he falls in love with you. You know nobody should be lied to that way, besides you never know, he might not even care. Even if doesn’t stick around, you will find that guy that won’t care what you do for a living.” That was Emily for you, she always talked to you like if you were one of her patients.

 “I know that and for the longest time I accepted that. That the right guy will come along and he won’t care, but you just don’t understand. I just feel like Raul is the one, just something about him is pulling me towards him. Like I need him and he needs me, I was meant to meet him that day.”

“I know Matt, but just think of it if the roles were reverse. Wouldn’t you want to know?”

“Well yeah but sometimes things are left better off not said.”

“Matt, if he is the one you say he is then he isn’t going to care. So just be honest with him, because you lie to him, he is going to feel hurt and betrayed. Like you said you were meant to meet him that day.”  

“So then really I hitting you on the head was going to happen either way. That means it was fate for me to hit and therefore not my fault.” Craig said. “So really you should be thanking me for that, even though it wasn’t my fault. I just want to make it clear I didn’t do that on purpose like you claim.”

“Whatever Craig you still hit me on the head, but you do have a point. So you being a mean older brother finally paid off.”

“Hey it’s the job of an older brother to treat his younger siblings like that.”

“No that’s just you,” I got up and placed my bowl in the sink. “Jesse is an older brother but he doesn’t treat his siblings the way you do.”

“Yeah dad why are you so mean to Uncle Matt?” Holly said as she walked into the kitchen. She hugged me, “So I heard you had a hot date tonight?”

“Yes I do, which reminds me I need to figure out what I’m going to do. So I will see ya’ll later to help set up for the coming home party for Peter and Hailey.”

“By the way I’m not always mean to him, somebody has to make sure his head doesn’t get too big.”

“If anyone has a big head it’s you.”

“Oh by the way Uncle Matt, why don’t you just ask Jesse where you should take your date?”

“Well duh right, should have just called him instead of wasting time arguing with your dad.”

“Well you better hurry before they take off to pick up Peter and Hailey.” I looked at the clock, it was almost nine thirty and they had to be over there at ten.

“Ok yeah I’ll call him right quick and we can go do what we need to do.” I went to my room and grabbed my phone to call Jesse, he answered on the third ring.

“Hey Uncle Matt, what can I do for you?”

“Sorry to bother you, I know you are on your way to pick up Peter and Hailey but I need help.”

“You know it's no problem and sure what do you need?” I told him and he gave me a couple of good places to go. He even told me I should ask Raul what his favorite food was, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. So I was going to just pick a place and hope he likes it, I just wanted this first date to go smoothly and hopefully it’s the first of many to come.