Double Clutch - Реинхардт Лиз - Страница 35
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“Really? Because I think you just asked me out.”
“No I did not. You misinterpreted. That happens a lot. My jokes are very high brow.”
“Or just not that funny.”
I jabbed him with my elbow and he laughed.
And that’s when I knew for sure we should be dating.
“I did not ask you out. But I would seriously think about not shooting you down if you asked me. Nicely.” I had to keep my pride.
He took both of my hands in his. “Brenna Blixen will you be my girlfriend, please.” He held up one of my hands and kissed my knuckles smoothly. “Pretty please. With sugar on top.”
“That was really nice.” I tried to keep my voice light and calm, but there was a knot in my throat. “I’ll do it.”
“Let’s celebrate,” he suggested, his voice low and perfect. He pulled me close and kissed me, and his mouth felt extra warm and soft in the bitter autumn wind outside of the diner. We kept it relatively quick. We were on the sidewalk outside of a diner for God’s sake!
“I like a celebration kiss, but some celebration pie would be even better. But I’m broke.” I remembered too late that I was tapped.
“Good thing your new boyfriend is a high roller.” Jake’s smile so big and happy I was starting to forget what his expression looked like when he wasn’t smiling that big, goofy grin. We sat at the table with the others, and a young waitress in extremely tight pants hurried over as soon as she saw Jake sit.
“Can I help you?” She leaned over to better expose her already overexposed cleavage.
He looked right at me and winked. Then he took a deep breath and smiled at the waitress. “The lady and I will each have a slice of apple pie a la mode. And two Cokes please.” He handed her the menus with that goofy grin still overwhelming his entire face.
Kelsie gave me a curious glance, but all I could do was mouth ‘later’ across the table. Under the glossy, black-speckled laminate booth top, Jake grabbed my hand and squeezed it in his hard. We ate our celebratory pie and joked with the others, and soon it was time to leave. I had to call Mom, even though I just wanted to stay with Jake all day. And all night, too, if I was honest about it.
But that wasn’t possible, and I knew Mom would have already been home most of today by herself. It was horrible to think about her eating all alone. So I told Jake I had to call her, and I did.
She sounded glad to hear from me, and she said she’d be happy to pick me up at the diner. She would be there in fifteen minutes. Everyone else was slowly starting to trickle out and go home, too.
Jake sat in the diner lobby with me, facing the windows so I could see Mom’s car when she pulled up. He put his arm around my shoulders.
“Awesome day.” He took a deep breath and looked very self-satisfied.
“It was pretty good.” I grabbed him and squeezed him hard. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”
“You’re not calling me tonight?” He looked surprised.
“I’ll call, but we can’t talk too long. And I have to call after Mom goes to bed. We watch shows on TV together and talk, and I can’t miss out on that.” I wanted to, and felt ridden with guilt for even thinking that way. My mother had raised me for fifteen years; I had known Jake for less than a week. It wasn’t a question of loyalty, because Mom would win hands down. It was just who I had a craving to be with. Guilty as it made me feel, that was definitely Jake.
“I wouldn’t want you to.” Suddenly he moved away from me. “Mom’s here.” He kissed my cheek quickly. “Get going.”
“How are you getting home?” I asked as I put my scarf and hat on.
“I’m getting a ride,” he said vaguely. “Take care, Brenna. I’ll talk to you later.”
I didn’t like his answer, but that was nothing new. Jake was always giving me answers I didn’t like, or I was always coming to conclusions about him that were probably right, but that made me sad.
“Take care.” I cupped his face and kissed him quickly on the lips before I hurried out to Mom’s car. When I glanced back at the windows of the diner, they were so reflective I couldn’t see anything but my own face staring back at me. That was good because it meant Mom hadn’t seen Jake or his kiss, but it also meant I couldn’t see Jake as we pulled away.
“Was it fun?” Mom asked after I slid in and buckled my seatbelt securely.
“Yeah. It was really cool to see the movies on the big screen.”
“Who went?” Mom asked.
“Kelsie and a bunch of kids from school she knows. We didn’t get to talk too much because we were in a theatre.” It was easier to lie to my mom if some of what I lied about was true.
“I’m glad you’re hanging out with friends already.” Mom paused. “Bren, I’ve been thinking about something and I wanted to run it by you.”
“Okay.” I could tell she was nervous from the way she held tight to the steering wheel.
“I think I might like to take a job at the community college.” Mom glanced in the rearview mirror, then over at me.
“Mom that’s great!” Mom had gotten her Masters in Art History before we left for Denmark, and she had been working towards her PhD for a long time. “Maybe you can work on finishing your thesis.”
“I thought that. The thing is, I would have to pick up a night class or two, and I hate for you to be alone until after nine on a school night.” Her perfect eyebrows pulled together on her forehead.
“Mom, it’s fine,” I assured her. “I’ll have homework most nights anyway. And I’ve been thinking about joining track. I might not be around all that much.”
“But you still need me,” Mom said, and I felt a lump in my throat, because I knew she loved that aspect of our relationship.
“You’re my mom.” I wanted to reassure her how much I loved her. “I’ll need you forever. But I don’t need you every minute. And you and I have cell phones. The community college is only twenty minutes away from our house. And I know all of the neighbors. You have to do this, Mom. You’re such a good teacher, and the community college kids especially need really good professors.”
Her forehead smoothed and her eyebrows returned to their rightful place like twin birds’ wings over her blue-gray eyes. “You’re the best, Bren. How’d I get such an excellent kid?”
“Good genes?”
She reached across the center console and patted me on the knee. “You got that right.”
We got home and I did some reading in my Kingsolver, since I hadn’t had a chance before. My room looked amazing. I was so impressed with how it had turned out, and having a really beautiful room made it much easier to hole up in there. Not that I needed any excuse. I’d loved being alone in my room since long before I’d had a boy to moon over. I popped open my laptop and transferred the picture of Jake from my phone to the computer, then ran it through my photoshop program. I cleaned it up and made it black and white since the color was terrible. I hooked my laptop to my photo printer and printed it out.
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