Tethered

Chapter Three:

My parents were full of questions when I showed up in the entry way soaking wet. My father was nonchalant about his interest but my mother was a flaming ball of energy bouncing around the kitchen begging for details.

"Did you go out on a date with Aaron?" she asked and I could feel my face fall a little bit when she mentioned his name.

"No." I said quietly. "I haven't talked to Aaron for a few days. I don't know why." But I did know why. Even though I had told him I only wanted to be friends, he had shown interest and I didn't want to tell him that I had been on a kind of date with someone else when I had been very aggressive about my not wanting to date.

"So was this with the other guy you just met at work?" my father chimed in.

"Yes it was."

"What was wrong with Aaron? He is a nice young man and you barely know this Daniel guy." My father raised an eyebrow.

"We are just getting to know each other. I like him, he is nice." I picked at my fingernails with a shrug. I could tell I was blushing just by the brief mention of him.

"Well bring him by the house sometime and I'll be the judge of that." My dad kissed me and my mother on the forehead and then headed upstairs to their bedroom.

"Now that the grump is upstairs, give me the details." My mom chittered. I smiled and sat down at the bar remembering every little detail about the evening.

"So I met him at the restaurant when I was working on Saturday. He was having a business meeting. Well, Sarah and Julia were gawking at these men and when Daniel asked why I totally blurted out that they thought the men were hot. I think Julia has been dating one of them." I said. My mom didn't look surprised.

"That Julia is very popular with the men." My mom pointed out and I nodded. "It's a shame the father of her children isn't involved." My mom shook her head.

"Anyway, the whole time they were there he just kept looking at me like I was the only person in the whole restaurant." My mom made a small cooing noise and got up to get a refill on her lemonade.

"That's how your father looked at me." She said. I tried not to show the amount of delight that hearing those words brought to me.

"When they left he gave me a huge tip and when I tried to return it he just smiled and waved me off. Then he showed up for my shift on Monday and asked me to stay after my shift and sit and talk with him. Which normally I would never do. But there is just something about him." I told her.

I could feel red creeping up my neck and onto my face. "We talked until the restaurant closed and exchanged numbers and then we went to the park today. I told him it wasn't a date but he is very straight forward and told me that he wants to be more than friends. We almost kissed but then it started raining and he drove me home." I finished.

"Wow." My mom said.

"What?" I asked raising an eyebrow to her.

"I've been trying to get you to date for years and all it took was a handsome stranger." My mom laughed and I smiled.

"I really like him, mom. I can't explain it. But I want to see where things go with him." I shrugged. There was a long pause as my mom looked at me with a face of detection. "What?"

"Is this why you haven't called Aaron?" my mom said as if she could see right through my skin into my soul.

"I can't get anything past you." I said and she gave me a knowing smile.