Page 24 of The Blessing

As she slips into another dress, I grab hold of one of her arms to stop her. “Don’t play with me.”

“Are you looking out for me as your best friend?” she challenges.

“No, Ronnie, I’m not.” I take a step forward, trapping her in the corner of the closet. “If you want to go on a date, I’ll take you out.”

She tries to hide a smile but fails. “A real date?”

“Well, we could just fake it and see how it goes,” I tease her.

She snorts and hits my chest. “No, Trevor. I think you should try asking me out again.”

“Cancel your date tonight, and I’ll take you out.”

Ronnie gives me a knowing grin that has me wondering if this was her plan all along. “Okay, Trev. I’ll go out with you. But only because you begged me.”

“I didn’t beg you,” I say, rolling my eyes at her.

“Well, I won’t tell anyone about it, it will be our little secret,” she teases me before pushing me out of her closet. “Now give me a chance to get ready, will you? I don’t need you breathing down all of the time.”

This girl has me wrapped around her little finger.

Ronnie comes out in a cotton dress that shows off her stems and the top of her tits, as well as a sweater, draped over her arm, to keep her warm as we venture out into the cool, end of summer night. I want to kiss her. It just feels like such a natural thing to do, but I resist.

“You look beautiful,” I comment as I leisurely rake my eyes over her curvy frame. She beams at me and bounces over to the bed to pick up Grey. “Do you mind if I run over to my apartment to change? I don’t want to wear this to dinner,” I say, gesturing the clothes I had worn to work.

“That’s fine, but hurry back. I’m starving,” she says as she bounces Grey in her arms.

I quickly cross the hall to my apartment and wash up before changing into a fresh pair of jeans and a black button up shirt. It’s by far the nicest one I have; it’s the one I wore to every job interview since it covered up the majority of my tattoos. I roll the sleeves up to my forearms to show off my rose tattoo which is intertwined with black and gray illustrations which stop at my wrists. I run a comb through my unruly hair, but I’m quick to give up, because I know taming my hair tonight is going to be a lost cause. Women love that “sex hair” look anyway, so what’s the use?

Instead of letting myself back into Ronnie’s apartment, I knock on her door. I wait for her to answer it, as if I were picking her up for a real date. I want to go through all the motions, as silly as they may be. I really care for Ronnie and I can’t fuck this up. She’s already way out of my league, so I’m lucky I’m getting a date with her. Unfortunately, I couldn’t plan ahead so I could take her someplace really nice. With my limited budget, we’re going to have to go someplace that’s around ten dollars a person max. I feel cheap, but I’ve got a baby to care for and I can’t spend my money as frivolously as I once did. No more splurging on alcohol and tattoos, and no more piercing everything I can get pierced. I wonder what Ronnie will think when she sees the extent of my piercings and tattoos. Hell, I’m acting like we’re definitely going to fuck one day.

Before I can chastise myself a moment longer, Ronnie opens the door looking flushed and absolutely stunning. Grey squeals as soon as he sees me and reaches for me as though he hadn’t just seen me moments before. “You ready for our date?” I ask as we walk towards the flight of stairs.

“I guess it is too late to back out,” she teases. “Have you thought about where’d you like to go?”

“I thought I’d figure it out on the way. I’m sure there’s plenty of places around town.”

While there are plenty of places to choose from—most of them are packed this time of night. Everyone’s getting off work and eating out with their families, which leads me to choose pizza place on the edge of town. It’s not a fancy Italian restaurant or someplace men usually take women on dates, but it’s nice and well within my price range, and Ronnie doesn’t seem to mind. Hell, she’s such a down-to-earth girl, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind anything I chose. She seems more interested in my company than where I take her.

After Grey screamed in his high chair for several minutes, I finally relented and allowed him to sit on my lap. Here I am on my first ever proper date and I’ve got a baby in my arms. If anyone told me this was how this shit would go down a few years ago, I would’ve laughed in their face. I would’ve imagined taking the girl out to dinner, maybe to a movie or something like that before taking her right back to my place. Since she would’ve been my date, I’d have taken her to my bed instead of bagging her on the couch like I’ve done with so many other girls. While that had been the image of the perfect date in my mind—none of that seems good enough for Ronnie. She deserves so much more than any of the ideas I could ever come up with. Even as she sits across from me now, I can scarcely believe she’s actually here with me.

“So, is this how you envisioned the night going?” I tease her as Grey babbles loudly from my lap.

She blushes and is very quiet as she plays with the napkin on her lap. “Yes,” she says, giving me a coy, little reply.

Did she plan this? Was this her idea all along? I stare at her in shock. This girl just hustled me and I had no idea. I can’t describe how much that turns me on. If this wasn’t our first date—and my nephew wasn’t sitting on my lap—I would pull her out to my truck and nail her into next week. “So, did the guy take it pretty hard when you canceled?” I want to know that this guy is real and she hadn’t been completely messing with me.

“He was hoping to reschedule for another time, but I left him hanging,” she tells me with a wink.

“I’m sure he’s heartbroken.”

“I’m sure we wouldn’t have been right together.”

“Why’s that? Is there someone else in your life that you see yourself with?” I ask, giving her my signature cocky grin.

Our waitress interrupts us before she can answer, causing my entire mood to deflate for a moment. As the waitress goes over her usual spiel, I watch Ronnie, trying to read her expression to give me some clue to what she was about to say. As soon as the waitress leaves with our order, Ronnie remains silent, not offering up a single answer. Maybe she wants me to be the one to make the first move and tell her about my feelings? However, I don’t know what the fuck I feel. I can barely put what I feel into words. I know I care about her more than I’ve ever cared about any woman before—but is it love? Do I love Ronnie? Fuck, I barely know the girl and I’m already asking myself this question. What is she doing to me?

“This is nice, Trev. I never thought you’d ask me out.”