Behind You (gxg)

C - is for Crush

For the next few days things seemed to go by like an anxious blur. While I was excited to see Lilah again in the following week and to get to know her more, I was feeling the uneasiness of being watched more intensely. Many times throughout the following work shifts at the daycare, I had Rosie among other staff catch me spaced out. One of them even joked that it's the ghost of my future romance that's spooking me. To that I just walked away rolling my eyes. Obviously, they don't get the whole haunted feeling, but Rosie must have told them about my 'heart eyes' for the new mom.

Finally, Friday's shift came to an end and I stayed back to lock up and throw out the garbage once all the kids got picked up. I preferred opening shifts to closing honestly, no one wants to take out the reeking garbage doused in Odour de Soiled Diaper. As I let the dumpster lid slam shut, I felt that too familiar sensation of being watch. And as I did every time before, I turned my head around to try and "catch the culprit"; obviously to no avail. What I did see though, was a little boy in a green lizard helmet, cycling in a tricycle furiously down the sidewalk across from where I was. Damn he could get a speeding ticket with that speed.

As he cycled by, he turned his gaze towards me for a split second and I caught those piercing blue eyes.

"Uri!! Slow down!! Wait for me!!" I heard a familiar voice calling out moments before seeing the dark brown-haired beauty running from afar. Two thoughts crossed my mind in that instance. The first was that Lilah looked great while running, like damn those legs. The second, was that Uri was picking up a lot of speed and was heading towards the end of the sidewalk which led into an open road.

Without even thinking I took off towards the toddler, quickly way ahead of Lilah who hadn't quite caught up yet. With speed I didn't even know I possessed, I ran towards Uri and managed to catch the back of the tricycle just in time to stop it. As I huffed in relief, he turned his head towards me and gave me a strange look, as if to say "Good, you got me, I knew you would."

Lilah caught up to us moments later, out of breath. "Thank you so much for grabbing him he just started pedaling so fast out of nowhere he doesn't usually do that" she said all in one long breath as she tucked a few strands of stray hair behind her ear. Uri just stared at his mom.

"No worries, it happens" I offered with a smile and tried to think of what else to say in front of this beauty that I've been thinking about nonstop. "Do you live nearby?"

"Yeah, we moved in a street over from the daycare just a few weeks ago" She replied and helped Uri turn his tricycle in the direction of where they came from. "It definitely hasn't been easy, but this is a pretty peaceful neighbourhood."

I wondered what she meant by that, but I didn't want to press on the subject. I don't really know her yet and I didn't know if she would feel weird if I asked. For all I know, she's probably just having dumb arguments with her ex over the phone about who's keeping the toaster. But in all honesty, I've been dying to know more about her, and I won't get any information by just being coy and smiling at everything she says. So, let's get askin' Noa. C'mon.

"How has Uri been adjusting to the new neighbourhood?" I asked as we started walking together, Uri pedalling at a much calmer pace in front of the two of us.

"He's been doing okay, he's even gotten friendly with the next-door neighbour's dog, Wilbert. Honestly Wilbert is such a sophisticated name for a hyper retriever pup. But who am I to judge? My son's name is definitely on the uncommon list." She replied with a chuckle and then continued, "And you? Do you live around here too?"

"I'm a few streets over from the main road, it's a five-minute drive yet somehow still an hour's walk" I say as I remember that I need to catch the bus home soon. After a few minutes of dead silence, I finally found some courage somewhere in a back closet in my brain and said, "Do you have any fun plans for the weekend?" Gosh, could I be anymore awkward?

"Uh no actually, just hanging out here with Uri, park trips, craft stuff and the works. Why? Do you know of something that can save me from this mundane weekend?" She asked raising her eyebrow and giving me a smirk.

Caught off guard, I stammered through a response about wanting to check out a dance club downtown, blabbering about how I heard that the music is decent and upbeat. "Why do you want to j-join me?"

Lilah let out a light laugh at my awkwardness, "I mean, if I had a babysitter, I might actually take you up on the offer, if that's cool with you?" She took out her phone from her back pocket, "let me get your number and I'll text you if I find a life saver- I mean babysitter. I've kind of been dying to get out."

I typed my number into her phone hesitantly, this was progressing way faster than I thought it would. Is there actually a chance that I might be dancing with this beauty? I better make sure my looks are on point this weekend... maybe I'll also practice some dance moves. Or a lot of dance moves, my repertoire is pretty two-move only. "Well feel free to text me, and uh let me know if you find someone to look after Uri. I was planning on grabbing a cab with another friend around 10ish on Saturday."

"Sounds good, thanks again for potentially saving me. Anyways we're close to my house and I need to get Uri some dinner, I'll see you soon hopefully" She said as she pointed to her house a few blocks away. We waved goodbye and Uri just pedalled home without even looking back, interesting kid.

"Oh shit, I gotta close" I said to myself as I quickly jogged back to the daycare to finish locking up and grab my bag. Luckily there were a few buses running my route at this hour so I knew there would be another soon.

But the more pressing thought now was what the hell will I wear Saturday night?