A Little Big Crush

Declaration

The rest of the dinner went rather well, with David's parents telling her embarrassing but adorable stories from his childhood- including his hatred of eating tomatoes, the various scrapes he'd get himself into, and his shared love of football with his mother.

David and his mother immediately invited Lizzie to go to a Giants game once the season began and though Lizzie stated her lack of knowledge about sports, Ruth quickly pointed out how it was an event to welcome her to the family and that she would be a huge fan in no time.

At the end of the evening, David volunteered to take Lizzie home and after hugs and feather kisses were given, the young couple were finally alone.

"So, what did you think of them?" he asked, making a point to walk slowly.

Lizzie matched his pace. "They're great, David. Your mom is so sweet and your step dad is nice."

He smiled. "I'm glad you guys got along. I know that my dad will love you once he meets you."

Though Lizzie thought she shouldn't, Robert's comment about David's ex-girlfriend stuck with her, and she was eager for clarification on what he meant.

So she cleared her throat, her mind racing with how she can bring up the subject delicately. " It's so easy to get along with your mom. She's a total sweetheart. She seemed totally impressed with what I do for a living and what I studied."

"She sees that as a relief considering what happened in the past," David said.

"Oh? " Lizzie asked.

David stopped and turned to face her. " You're trying to find out about my ex, right?" He smirked. "I think I know you pretty well by now, Elizabeth Garcia, to know when you are trying to be slick and get information," he joked.

Lizzie put up her hands in mock defense. "Yeah, you totally got me. Since your stepdad dropped that bomb at dinner, I've been curious. You just don't talk about her much."

"You don't talk about your exes either."

"It's never really come up but I have no problem talking about them," she said.

David turned and continued walking. "It's your lucky day, 'cause I have no problem talking about her either."

Lizzie didn't respond.

Taking that as a cue to continue, David said, " I dated my ex for about three years. Mom didn't like her the minute she met her. She thought that she was... ugh, too low-class and uneducated. She didn't come from a good family and had a hard childhood growing up. Mom never approved of the clothes she wore, saying they were too low cut so my mom never invited her to any of our favorite restaurants and always hated when I took her as my date for family weddings because of the clothing she chose."

"Ok... was she a bad person?" Lizzie asked, hoping that there was a deeper reason for Ruth's dislike rather than her looks.

" I didn't think so. We always had a good time together and I think I was attracted to her because she was a bad girl of sorts. When I was younger, I kind of liked that. You know... breaking away from the mold, trying to piss off my parents because I was stupid, young, and rebellious. I thought I was over that, but for some reason, I was twenty- five years old and attracted to her." He sighed and ran a hand over his face, shaking his head. " I was so taken in with her that I even asked her to move in with me after only six months. I was crazy."

Lizzie grabbed his hand. " We've all done crazy things sometimes." Though secretly, she wondered how this nice, down-to-Earth, professional guy with intelligence and so many similarities to her can fall for someone like the person that he just described. But she had to remember, that opposites attract.