Struggles of a Single Father (Book 1 of the Struggle Puff Series)

Chapter 9

Edited 02/20/2020

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November – Three-years-old

After my conversation with Jake, I was unable to look Amy in the eyes. I suddenly felt uncomfortable around her. Every time I tried to speak, it would come out as a jumbled mess. Even my texting was awkward!

Eventually she recognized that I was being weird and finally brought it up.

"Why have you been acting so weird?"

I stopped cutting lettuce and looked at her with wide eyes.

"What are you talking about?" I asked as I nervously returned to cutting.

She had asked me to help her with her thanksgiving prep, so I was standing in the kitchen of her rather large penthouse.

"You're doing it now." She said exasperatedly, "You haven't hardly looked at me or even spoken about anything except for food."

She was right. I hadn't even tried to start a different conversation and it was our first time hanging out alone.

"Ah, well..." I struggled for an excuse, but I couldn't think of one fast enough, "Do you want me to be honest?"

"When you say it like that, I'm not sure if I do..."

"In that case, don't ask me."

"Ugh, wait. Just tell me what's going on with you. Please?"

I thought about it for a moment. I didn't want things to get weird between us if I told her why I was acting weird, but I also knew it would stay the same if I didn't mention it.

"Okay... well, Jake and I were talking after we drove away from the Harvest Festival, and well, uh... I guess the topic of you and I came up and well, yeah..."

"That explained literally nothing, Carter."

"Ah... it was about us maybe... ya know... dating?"

"Oh..."

She went silent and the air between us became extremely awkward. I turned back to the half-cut lettuce that sat before me and continued to chop, unsure of what else to say.

To my surprise, Amy spoke up first.

"I'll be honest, I've thought about it too." She admitted.

I was shocked. I turned to her with wide eyes again.

"Huh?"

"I mean, it's natural. We see a lot of each other, so it'd be more surprising if neither of us had thought about it."

"I guess... but I've never felt like that about Jake and we see each other all the time. Have you thought about him like that too?"

"Of course not! Jake is like that little brother that I love but want to punch in the face all the time."

I laughed at her analogy, but straightened up soon after, "So what does that mean for us?"

"Huh... well, do you want to go out on a date?"

"Right now?"

"Right now."

She was clearly serious, and I was a little intimidated, but I also felt challenged so I couldn't back down either.

"Yeah sure." I answered while taking off my apron.

"You pick. I'm going to change first though."