F*ck Fate! (Book 3)

Chapter Thirty-Two: Fear of the Uncertain

Andy

Shawn didn't end up spending last night at my place. He didn't want to make Ivy walk all the way back to their house alone or spend the night there without him. I understood. He needed to be with his sister more than he needed to be with me.

It wasn't fair, though, that he had to be the adult to her instead of their parents.

I did, however, get Shawn to agree to a date with me tonight. Part of me expected him to try to get out of it in some way, believing that he only agreed to be my boyfriend last night for the sex. Maybe part of him was still on that mentality - that because we didn't have sex last night, one date would get him laid.

I was hoping that wasn't the case - that he was actually going to try to make this relationship work for the sake of the relationship. I would be upset if it turned out that he was only doing this for the sex.

I knew going out tonight, of all nights, probably wasn't the best idea. Not when I had an essay due at midnight that I've barely started. And with Shawn on my mind, there was very little room in there to focus on analyzing literature from the Victorian era today.

I sighed, pushing my notebook away from me across the table. "I can't focus," I muttered to myself.

"Well maybe you should think about homework before boys," Kat said from the other side of the table, not looking up from her own work. "Why is he so important to you, anyway?"

"Because he's different than any other guy I've ever liked. Why can't you just be happy for me? You're my best friend, Kat. You're supposed to be happy for me finally dating the guy I've liked for weeks now."

Kat put down her pen and looked at me. "I am glad that you're happy, I just don't want you to get hurt. Shawn seems like he's just going to break your heart, Andy. I don't want to see you broken again."

"Shawn will never hurt me as badly as Eddie did. I can promise you that." But maybe that was just that. Shawn might not hurt me like Eddie did, but he might still hurt me. I knew I was already in too deep with Shawn. What's going to happen if Shawn turns out to be just like I feared?

"I'm just saying," Kat continued, "I've known you for a long time, Andy. You deserve someone who is going to treat you like the world. I don't see that behavior in Shawn. I don't want you getting too involved with him before you realize that I was right."

I shook my head. "You don't know him. You've barely even met. You can't just make assumptions about him like that, Kat."

She shook her head. "I'm just saying, I don't want you getting hurt."

"If I get hurt, that's on me. Sure, Shawn might not be the 'perfect guy' you think I need, but I'm falling hard for him. I can't help it. He's the guy I want. And right now, he's agreed to go out with me and I am beyond thrilled."

Kat reached out and placed her hand on top of mine with a small smile. "If you really like this guy and are happy with him, I'll be happy for you, too."

I returned her smile. "Thanks, Kat."

She took back her hand. "Just know that if he does hurt you, I'mma fuck him up for you."

I laughed. "Thanks, but I'm sure that's not going to be necessary." It better not, at least. Otherwise Shawn was going to have to deal with both of us.

"Now, do your essay boy, or else you're going to have to cancel this date on him."

I shook my head. "Fine, fine. I guess you're right."

I ended up not quite finishing my essay by the time I needed to get ready to meet with Shawn. The anticipation of our date was too much for me to focus the way I normally do. I knew I'd still manage to finish it tonight, I just couldn't invite him back to my place. Otherwise nothing productive would get done.

At 6:15, I met Shawn outside a small restaurant that was halfway between our homes. I had been here a few times before, and it was probably my favorite. They had tons of healthy options, but not everything was, so I knew Shawn would be happy here too.

The first thing Shawn did when he walked up was lean over to give me a quick kiss. Then he opened the restaurant's door and held it so that I could go through first. He was being quite the gentleman tonight and I loved it.

"How was work?" I asked him as we waited for a table.

He shrugged. "We just had a lot of people coming in today. There are some really rude people out there. You'd think that if I told them their meal was one price, they wouldn't argue with me about it for ten minutes. I hate customer service."

"Damn. That's awful." I shook my head. "Other than that, was it a good day?"

We talked a bit more as we were brought to a table, at which point, we began looking at the menu more than talking.

"Oh, so I told my mom what you said last night," Shawn said after we had ordered our food.

"Oh, yeah? What did I say?" To be fair, I did say a decent amount yesterday, and not all of it should be heard by his mother.

"That she doesn't have enough stuff to go against us in court."

Right, that would make sense that he told her that. "What'd she say?" I asked, curious.

Shawn shrugged. "I think she had more to say about the fact that I actually used the word 'boyfriend' when I said the 'my boyfriend's parents are lawyers' part."

"Oh my god," I muttered. "That's awful. I'm sorry to hear that, Shawn."

For him to admit to his mom that he was dating me was a huge step, and it took courage, especially if he knew she might react that way. But him admitting that he had a boyfriend - one day after us making it official - I knew for sure that Shawn was going to try in this relationship.

He laughed. "Why? They weren't bad things, really. Not like you're thinking. More like 'why are you dating when you could be focusing more energy to helping out the family?' Nothing directly at me having a boyfriend rather than a girlfriend. I think she's known since Pat, maybe even before him that I'm attracted to both."

Now I felt like an idiot. I don't know why I assumed she would react badly. But I guess that was good news.

"Ivy's at her schools play practice right now, so hopefully Mom leaves Dad alone tonight, since it'll just be the two of them in the house. Or she's going to tear the place apart because Ivy and I aren't there to stop her."

I reached out across the table and put my hand over his. "Don't stress too much about it, okay?" I knew it was a big deal to him, but him worrying this much might end up ruining the date. I didn't want that to happen tonight. "We're here to have a nice dinner. As boyfriends. Okay?"

He smiled and turned his hand to entwine our fingers. "Okay."