by Nikki Ashton
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She shook back her long, honey coloured hair and pouted.
“I tried to get on this year.”
“What, on Love Island?”
“Hmm. I didn’t hear anything though. I even emailed them and asked them to make sure they had the correct contact details for me.”
“And what did they say?” I asked, not really bothered but thought it rude not to ask.
“I didn’t hear back.” She shook her head and furrowed her brow. “I’ll try again next year.”
“I would imagine the waiting list is huge, Amy. I wouldn’t bother if I were you.”
Amy shrugged and went back to her magazine, evidently not interested in what I had to say on the matter. It didn’t bother me, my own kids ignored my opinion most of the time and so what chance did I have with her.
Contemplating whether to go and make a cup of tea, I noticed my mobile was vibrating on my desk. Switching my workstation into ‘busy’ I reached for it, seeing Dex’s name was flashing on the screen.
“H-hi, Dex,” I stammered, feeling excited and worried all at the same time.
When I’d seen him the day before, he’d said we’d speak later, but he hadn’t called. I’d tried not to get all stressed about it, but I really liked him and was praying for him to call. When he hadn’t, I wondered whether Carl’s appearance had put him off, or maybe he’d thought again about Charlie’s accident and decided I wasn’t worth the effort.
But, no – he was actually calling me.
But what if he was calling to say he wouldn’t be calling again?
“Hey Katie. How y’all doing?” His accent was broad and sexy and made me want to put on a pair of Daisy Duke’s and ride across a ranch, on a horse called Champion.
“I’m fine thanks. Just at work, so could be better.”
“You want me to call back later?” he asked, sounding concerned.
“God no,” I blurted out. “It’s okay, we’re not busy.”
“Well that’s good, because I was looking forward to talking to you.”
There was a definite smile in Dex’s voice, prompting my own face to crack into a silly grin. That was what he did to me – made me smile, and I’d not even known him a week.
“It’s lovely to talk to you too,” I responded.
“I was going to call last night, but when I got home I got a phone call from Benny, the guy who used to work for me in Dallas. He’s got his own place now, but wanted some advice. By the time we finished talkin’ I was tuckered out.”
“That’s okay,” I said, trying not to sound as though I’d been disappointed. “I had an early night anyway, after the night before I needed it.”
“How is Charlie?” he asked.
“Much better. He went back to school today, although it was difficult prising him away from his magazine.”
Dex laughed and the deep, rumbling sound sent a thrill of excitement into my ear and right down to the pit of my stomach. What the hell was this man doing to me? I was behaving like a teenager – next thing I’d be writing a diary and taking Mandy to do a walk by past his studio, eager for a glimpse of him.
“I’m glad it was the right one and that he’s better. The poor little guy was real sick.”
“Literally,” I replied with a small giggle. “For which I’ll never be able to apologise enough.”
“I told you,” Dex said, in a low, soft voice, “it wasn’t a problem.”
I smiled and turned away from Amy, who suddenly didn’t look so interested in her magazine.
“So what can I do for you?” I asked.
Dex cleared his throat. “Did you speak to Isaac last night?”
“I didn’t, no. He got home after I’d gone to bed.”
“He didn’t tell you he came in to Heaven & Ink?”
“No, he didn’t. When did he do that?” I asked, getting off my seat and moving towards the break room.
“Yesterday, early evening.”
“He never said. Did something happen? Is that why you’re calling me?”
“You could say that,” Dex replied. “I offered him the job that we talked about.”
“Oh my God,” I squealed. “No way. That would be what his text was about that he sent late last night. He said he had something to tell me, but would do it this morning, but he was still asleep when I left for work.”
Dex chuckled. “You’re pleased then?”
“Yes, I’m thrilled.” I gasped. “Was he pleased you’d asked him?”
“Said he was gonna go give his notice in at the record shop and then celebrate with his buddies. So yeah darlin’, he was happy.”
I stopped in my tracks at Dex calling me darlin’ in that drawl of his. It did funny things to my boobs and my vagina. Things that they hadn’t felt in a long time.
“That’s great,” I breathed out. “Thank you so much. I just wish he’d called me straight away.”
“I think he was excited to tell his friends. Told me he was already on his way out to meet them.”
I chewed on my lip as I thought about it, and knew Dex was right. Isaac would have been far too wired to think about telling me first. At least he’d sent me a text, even if it had been hours later.
“Well, all I can say is thank you – from both of us. I’ve been so worried about him, but I think he’ll love working with you.”
“My pleasure,” Dex replied, “but there is somethin’ else I need to talk to you about.”
He sounded a little cautious and dread thundered through me. This was it, this was when he said he didn’t want to see me again. I knew it had only been one date, but at this point I felt I was probably Dex’s biggest fan and if this was the end of our ‘relationship’, it would be awful. I would be back to spending my evenings thinking a bunch of dick heads on a reality TV show were entertaining.
“Oh, okay,” I whispered, plonking down onto a chair, waiting for the news.
“I wanted you to know, when he came in, Debbie was here and I was giving her a hug.”
“Debbie?” I asked.
The name meant something to me, but the fact that Dex was telling me he was hugging her made my brain go to mush. The name simply didn’t register with me.
“The girl I was having a thing with,” Dex explained. “The girl I was taking to dinner the night your car broke down.”
“Oh.”
My hand went to my chest, feeling the heavy drum of my heart as the woman’s pretty face came into my head. The woman who was his ‘fuck buddy’.
“Nothing was happening,” Dex continued. “It was just that – a hug – but I think Isaac thought it was somethin’ it wasn’t when he walked in. She came to ask me to give things another go, but I ain’t interested in that with her anymore, Katie.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded. “That’s fine, Dex. We’ve had one date. I wouldn’t expect you to…”
I had no idea how to finish that sentence. I wouldn’t expect him to what?
Not speak to her ever again.
Stop having sex with her.
Tell her to bugger off because you’re with me now.
I wouldn’t say any of those things, because we weren’t anything. We’d had one date that had ended with my youngest child vomiting all over his lovely shirt. I was reading much more into this than he was, and I was doing that because I was a forty-five-year-old woman who’d started to feel a smidge attractive because a devastatingly hot man had shown me some attention. I really didn’t want to go back to being that woman who felt old, past it, and undesirable – I hated being that woman.
“I want you to expect me to, Katie,” Dex answered, his soft and gentle tone breaking through my inner voice of turmoil. “I want you to expect that I won’t hug her ever again. I want you to expect me to never contact her again.”
“But, I don’t. I wouldn’t.”
“But you should, Katie,” he replied. “Because if we’re dating, I would expect that you’re not doing tho
se things with any other guy.”
“We’re dating?” I asked, my voice squeaking with surprise.
Dex laughed and followed it up with a sigh. “Yeah darlin, we are.”
“We are?”
Another laugh, rich and deep. “I would say so. I know you were thinking too much the other night, but I thought I’d cleared that up with my text messages.”
“Your text messages,” I repeated, realising I was starting to sound a little bit moronic.
Thankfully, Dex evidently thought my idiocy and repetition of everything he said wasn’t so bad, because he laughed again.
“Yeah, the late night ones I sent. The ones that were supposed to calm your nerves about us.”
“But I have so much baggage, I wonder why you’d actually want to go out with me.”
“Like I said on my text,” he replied. “I like you and everything that you bring with you. It ain’t baggage, Katie, it’s your life and I want to be a part of it. Yeah it’s early, but I think we’re gonna get along just fine.”
I couldn’t speak because my breath had been taken away by his words.
What the hell was happening to me?
How the hell had this man dropped into my life?
Had I landed in an episode of Dr Who?
“You okay?” Dex asked. “Have I said too much?”
“No,” I whispered. “I just wish you were in front of me so I could kiss you.”
As my brain registered what I’d just said, I let out a strangled groan.
“You do eh?” Dex chuckled. “Well maybe I can see you later and you can do it then. How does that sound?”
With the noise of my heart pounding in my ears, I nodded. “That would be nice.”
“Oh, it’ll be more than nice, darlin’.”
I let out a long exhale as Dex’s words wrapped around me and I pushed my thighs together. He was the sexiest man I’d ever met, and he didn’t even need to try. All he had to do was speak to me in that sexy accent of his and look at me with his sparkling eyes and I was like jelly.
“Okay.”
“Good. So,” he said, “what do you want to do tonight?”
All sorts of things sprung to mind, but I had to remember it would only be our second date. I evidently wasn’t a virgin, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to let Dex see my body just yet. As well as the stretch marks, saggy boobs, and belly that with a little less exercise and a few more bars of chocolate, would resemble the bonnet of an old style Volkswagen Beetle, I probably needed to trim my lady garden if Mandy’s horror of a few nights before had been anything to go by. I also needed to consider whether I’d dye my pubes to hide the grey ones.
“I could just come around and spend time with you and the kids, if you’d prefer,” Dex said, interrupting my thought process on whether hair dye or running mascara through them would be the best option.
“That would be great,” I began. “But unfortunately, Carl feels we should have some sort of ‘get-together’ before you spend any time with the kids.”
“Oh okay. Understandable.”
There was no hesitation in Dex’s response and he didn’t sound at all perturbed by Carl’s request. I breathed out an inaudible sigh of relief. He was so easy going, I had to think he probably wouldn’t fit into my chaotic life. Problem was, I wanted him in it and he seemed to want to be there.
“I suppose he’s got a point, but the simple fact Charlie has puked on you and you’ve given a job to Isaac kind of negates the need.”
“Maybe I should have spoken to Carl before offering Isaac a job,” Dex said, sounding a little worried. “You think I should give him a call?”
I thought about it and the simple fact that he was willing to do that, made me think that perhaps I should tell Carl to forget a meeting and just accept the fact that I was seeing Dex. I had to think of my kids though, and for once Carl was putting them first too. He wanted to be sure Dex wasn’t going to be any danger to them and I respected that. The problem was, I thought it was far too soon for Carl to be thinking of meeting Dex, but as he’d met the kids already, maybe Carl was right to want a meeting so soon.
Shit, I had no idea about all this ‘dating’ palaver, what the correct etiquette was when kids and ex-husbands were involved. Come to think of it, what the hell was dating anyway? When I was younger you found a boy you liked, snogged his face off, let him feel your boobs while dry humping your leg and he was your boyfriend. Unless of course he was your Friday night hook-up. They were the ones you only met up with on a Friday night in a club, usually because they didn’t want to be your boyfriend but wanted to snog your face off, feel your boobs and dry hump your leg once a week.
Maybe that was what Dex meant – I was his once a week hook up. But hadn’t that been what Debbie was and she’d been having sex with him. Surely he wouldn’t finish things with her for a non-sexual hook up with me? I’m not saying I’d never have sex with him, I most definitely would, but not just yet – although it had been four years. As well as finding Smarmy Morgan slightly alluring, I’d started sitting on the seat over the wheel on the bus, and I didn’t even need to take a bus.
Oh hell, I didn’t know what to think. What I did know was that it was giving me a bloody headache thinking about it.
“I’m sorry about this, Dex,” I sighed, getting my head back into the conversation. “I’m sure you’ve never had to meet a woman’s ex before, after just one date.”
“Our first date was a little different though,” he laughed. “I kinda bonded over puke with your kid. I ain’t never had that before.”
“I suppose so,” I replied with a laugh. “How about I call him and ask him to meet us tonight. I think he’d appreciate you telling him about offering Isaac a job.”
“He likely to hate the idea?”
I thought about it for a second. “No. He’ll just be pleased Isaac is finally out of the record shop. I think he’s open enough to see what a great opportunity this is for Isaac.”
“Okay, well give him a call,” he replied.
“Shall I suggest an early drink and then we could go and do something afterwards?”
I waited with bated breath, wondering if Dex would cry off, but he didn’t.
“Sounds good to me, darlin’. Text me the time and I’ll come and pick you up.”
“I can meet you, it’s fine,” I replied.
“No way. No date of mine makes her own way there. I’ll pick you up and to keep to Carl’s request, I’ll text you when I get there. That way I don’t even need to come up the drive.”
There was some humor in his voice and I couldn’t help but smile. Thankfully, he found some amusement in what could have been an awkward situation. Exes meeting new partners was never easy – my first meeting with Sophie had been extremely tense. I couldn’t get out of my head how much younger and prettier she was than me for a start.
“Dex,” I whispered.
“Yeah.”
“You know, if this is all too much. Meeting Carl and dealing with my kids-.”
“Hey,” he said, stopping me. “I’ve told you, it’s not. I totally get his concerns and maybe if I hadn’t already met the kids this meeting would be happening further down the line, but I have and it ain’t. Make the call darlin’ and let me know the details. Okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” I said on a long breath.
“Good girl. Now I’ll let you get back to work and Katie.”
“Yes.”
“Quit overthinking things. We are where we are and I’m just fine with that.”
As I floated back to my desk on a cloud of happiness, Amy and Ellie looked up at me.
“Was that your boyfriend?” Amy asked with a grin that said ‘you wish you had a boyfriend’.
“No,” I replied, grinning widely. “That was my man. There’s nothing boyish about him whatsoever.”
Ellie squealed and clapped her hands like a seal, while Amy looked at me a little perplexed, evidently wondering if old people still had sex.
&nbs
p; Well, this old person hadn’t in a while, but my hopes were high for the future.
Dex
I picked Katie up, as promised, at the end of the drive, and a lesser man might have blown off the meeting with the ex and taken her back to his apartment; she looked so freaking hot. She was wearing brown and white striped pants that ended at her ankles, brown, high shoes, and a sage green t-shirt that hung off one shoulder, with her gorgeous, blonde hair down and wavy.
How the hell hadn’t this woman been taken before now, I’d never know. I had a big enough ego to consider that how she was looking may well have been down to me. The first time I’d met her she wasn’t exactly put together, and then there’d been the crazy tee she’d been wearing at the gym – but I liked that side of her; the messy ‘I just threw this on’, Katie. The polished Katie was pretty special too, it had to be said, and she smelled amazing. The light, flowery, yet sexy smell of her perfume invaded my air as she got into the car and made me feel all sorts of things I probably shouldn’t on a second date. If you could call it a date when I was going to be officially meeting her ex-husband.
“Hi,” Katie said, eyeing me warily. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, but to be honest I’m disappointed,” I replied, pouting a little.
“You are? Why?” She looked down at her clothes. “Is it what I’m wearing?”
“What? No way.” I shook my head and took Katie’s hand in mine. “You look beautiful, why would you think I’d be disappointed in what you’re wearing?”
Katie shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s just been a long time since I dressed for anyone but myself. I’ve kind of got out of the habit of it.”
“You should only ever dress for you, because if a man is disappointed in what you’re wearing then he’s a douche if you ask me.” I leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “It’s you I’m interested in Katie, not the contents of your closet.”
She frowned, narrowing her eyes at me. “You would tell me if something didn’t suit me though, wouldn’t you? I mean there’s nothing worse than someone wearing something that everyone except them can see looks awful.”
“Okay,” I replied with a laugh. “If something doesn’t suit you, I’ll tell you, but only then. Anyways, I reckon you’re pretty good at knowing what you look good in.”