Drifting into Darkness

by La Rocca, J. M.

  “Just humor me, Sadie,” she chastised. “What’s his name?” she asked as she took a sip of her coffee.

  That got my dad’s attention and he looked from me to her, then back to me. “What’s whose name?” He looked lost. Maybe he really wasn’t paying attention.

  I let out a sigh and set my spoon in my bowl. “Landon. The guy I mentioned a while ago.”

  She smiled. “Oh, well next time you have him over, bring him down here so we can meet him first. I’d feel more comfortable meeting your friends first before you take them up to your little hideaway.” She gave me a soft smile and got up from her stool.

  I sighed again. This was not how I wanted to start out my exciting day. Now, I’d have to bring Landon down to meet my parents before we had movie night. Great. “He’s actually coming over tonight. We are going to have a movie marathon and eat pizza.”

  “How old is this boy?” Dad finally chimed in.

  I laughed. “He’s not a boy, Dad. He’s a man. He’s twenty-four. And yes, I know he’s older than me, but girls mature faster than boys,” I smiled at my dad.

  “What time is he coming over?” Dad questioned, drinking his coffee.

  “Six,” I replied as I continued to eat my cereal. Might as well eat. There was no getting out of it now. Dad wouldn’t have to deal with it though, Mom did.

  Mom stood at the sink and rinsed some dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. “Okay, just bring him by so I can meet him.” She walked over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “I just want to meet him, okay? I won’t embarrass you or anything.” She knew that if I was talking to a guy, let alone having him over, that this was a big deal to me. We talked a lot over the last couple of weeks as we’ve reconnected so she knew I had reserved feelings about seeing someone again.

  I nodded my head and pushed my bowl away.

  “I’m going up to shower,” she stated as she headed off down the hall.

  I picked up my bowl and dumped the contents down the disposable before rinsing it out and setting it into the dishwasher. I needed to head back to my place and take a shower too, but before I walked out of the kitchen my dad called my name.

  “I was wondering if you had any plans Wednesday evening?” he asked, scratching at his jawline. It was a clue for him, the scratching of the jaw. I knew that whatever he was about to say made him feel uncomfortable or out of his element.

  I shook my head.

  “I’d like for us to go to dinner Wednesday night if you’re up to it. I don’t have any cases and it’s been a long time since we’ve done anything like that.”

  I looked at him surprised. I wasn’t expecting that. It had been a very long time since we’d gone to dinner together, probably ten or twelve years. I couldn’t remember. He would always ask me what I wanted to eat and take me there, and then we’d go for ice cream. He wasn’t busy then like he was now so we did it often. “Sure,” I nodded with a smile. I would actually look forward to this. Maybe Mom was right. Maybe he really was trying to make things right.

  He smiled at me and nodded. “Great, we’ll probably go around seven or so. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “I’m going to head up and go take a shower myself. Have a good day, Dad.”

  “You too,” he replied, as I walked off down the hall to the front door.

  I had a smile on my face as I made it into my place and headed into the bathroom for a shower. It was weird, but I was actually really happy my dad asked me to go to dinner. I figured with everything going on, I’d be the least of his worries. I knew deep down I was still his little girl, but so much had changed over the past couple of months.

  I took a shower and put on some comfy clothes to wear around the house. I had no other plans for the day besides cleaning up and watching crappy TV. I did need to call Erin though, and tell her all about my night. I knew that if I didn’t call her by at least one in the afternoon, she’d end up calling me.

  I pulled up her contact info in my phone and called her as I sat on the couch.

  “Hello,” she drawled. “I’ve been waiting for you to call me.”

  I laughed. “I know. I was actually going to wait and see how long it would take you to call me, but I figured I do it myself since I was bored.”

  “Whatever,” she retorted. “How did it go last night? Did you get over your nervousness?”

  I rolled my eyes and smiled. “It was great. I had fun.”

  “That’s it? It wasn’t spectacular? You didn’t see fireworks or anything? It must have definitely been a friend thing then,” she said, sounding disappointed.

  “It definitely wasn’t just a friend thing.” I laughed and she gasped.

  “What the hell, Sadie, spill it. I want to know all the details.”

  I told her everything that happened the night before, leaving out our flirty texting after he left. She didn’t need to know all the details. I had to keep some things to myself.

  “So you really like him, huh?”

  I smiled to myself. “Yeah, so far I do. He seems like a great guy. He obviously has a past reputation though and it worries me, but I don’t want to judge him for his past. I need to focus on the now.” I reiterated the speech I had with myself earlier. “If I keep worrying about the past, I’ll never see the good that can happen in the future.”

  “Well, look at you being all philosophical.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, well, I’ve just been thinking about it a lot. How would I ever be happy if I can’t get past my hurt?”

  “You’re a strong and smart person, Sadie. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. You can get past all this crap and you are. I’m happy for you. I’m glad you are moving forward.”

  “Me too. But now I need to let Landon know he has to meet my mom before we have movie night.”

  She laughed. “Nice. Nothing kills the mood like meeting the parents before date night.” She laughed some more.

  “Shut up. You’re not helping.” I sighed. “Okay, well, I’m going to let you go. I need to clean up a bit. I don’t even remember the last time I cleaned. I’m actually kind of embarrassed that I let him come up last night. You should see the layer of dust on my TV.”

  “Yeah, we all know your awesome cleaning skills. Have fun with all that.”

  “Whatever. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Ha, bye.”

  I hung up the phone and rested my head on the back of the couch. I really didn’t feel like doing anything for the rest of the day, but I knew I had to clean. I was a procrastinator when it came to cleaning. I usually put it off to the point where I couldn’t stand the filth any longer. It was something I needed to work on. I wasn’t proud of it, but old habits die hard.

  Picking up my phone, I sent a quick text to Landon, letting him know he’d have to meet my mom before movie night.

  Me: Hey, my mom wants to meet you when you get here, if that’s okay?

  Landon: That’s fine. I’ll see you in a little bit.

  I tossed the phone to the side, onto a cushion, and stared up at the ceiling. I’d better get up and get motivated. The house wouldn’t clean itself, unfortunately.

  ~*~

  I cleaned the house for half the day. It was silly on my part to take a shower before I cleaned, but I wasn’t thinking at the time. I had to retake another shower because I felt gross after dusting, sweeping, and cleaning the bathroom, which was the worst chore ever.

  When I was done with my second shower, I lay on the couch for a while and watched TV. I made the mistake of putting on the Lifetime Movie Network and got sucked into two ‘love gone wrong’ movies. I was so absorbed that I didn’t realize what time it was until there was a knock at the door.

  I looked over at the clock and jumped up from the couch, frantic. It was already five fifty-seven. How the hell did I not realize what time it was? Shit. I wasn’t even dressed. I had on yoga pants and a t-shirt with my hair piled on the top of my head. Ugh, damn you LMN.

&n
bsp; There was nothing I could do except answer the door looking like I was, unless I wanted him to stand outside until I got presentable.

  Sighing, I walked to the door. I wish he’d at least sent me a text letting me know he was on his way. At least then I would have had time to change.

  Plastering on a smile, I opened the door. He stood there with a pizza box and a grocery bag.

  “Hey,” he smiled, as he looked me over.

  I felt my cheeks flush. “Hey, come on in.” Moving to the side, I let him walk past me. He walked straight into the kitchen and set the pizza box and bag on the counter then he turned to me.

  I stood behind the couch facing him. “So, I kind of lost track of time,” I pointed behind me to the TV and bit my lip smiling. “If you don’t mind waiting for a few minutes, I’m going to go and get dressed.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “Sadie, you already are dressed. You look beautiful to me. You don’t need to change.”

  “I feel like such a mess,” I said as I looked over my clothes.

  “You forget that I see you almost every day dripping in sweat,” he chuckled.

  I scrunched up my nose. “Okay, you have a point.” I walked toward the door and stopped to look at him. “Let’s go ahead and get this introduction over with so we can get to our marathon.”

  He smiled and walked toward me as I slipped on a pair of flip-flops. “Am I only meeting your mom?” he asked as we headed down the stairs.

  “Yeah. My dad has a consultation or some kind of case at the hospital this evening.” I shrugged. “He usually doesn’t work late, so he shouldn’t be gone all night.” I smiled. “But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll meet him soon enough.”

  We walked up to the front door to the main house. I opened it and walked in calling out to my mom. “Mom, we’re here.”

  She peeked out from the kitchen and smiled. “Go on into the sitting room. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  I knew she had to be cooking, so I walked to the left into the sitting area. It was a small room that she decorated in an ocean theme. The walls were white, but there were a couple of bright blue pictures of the ocean and a couple of pictures of seashells and fish. There was a tan leather couch against the far wall with two wicker chairs facing it and a table in the middle. I didn’t think any of it matched, but this was her project room, or so she said.

  “This is a nice house,” Landon complimented, as he looked around the room.

  I smiled. “Yeah. It’s got that homey feel to it.”

  Mom walked into the room with two glasses of sweet tea and Landon immediately stood up. She’d been perfecting her sweet tea making since we moved to the south. It wasn’t a beverage we drank often in Chicago.

  I set two coasters down on the table as Landon took the glasses from my mom and set them down.

  “So, you must be Landon,” my mom said, greeting him in a handshake. “I haven’t heard much about you except that you work on the farm your parents own,” she added, as she sat in a chair and we took our seat on the couch.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he answered in his sweet southern accent.

  My mom smiled and looked over at me before looking back at Landon. I knew exactly what that look was. She already approved and she didn’t even know the guy. I didn’t have much room to talk though. I definitely approved and hardly knew him either.

  “Are you still in school?” she asked Landon casually.

  I looked over at him as she was talking to him. I could see the tension in the way he was sitting. He looked kind of nervous, which made me smile. Landon had this cool persona about him, so it was funny to me that he seemed nervous to meet my harmless mother.

  “No, ma’am. I work on the farm full time and help my dad run the business.”

  “Landon, really, you don’t need to call me ma’am. You can call me Sheila. Ma’am makes me feel old.”

  I rolled my eyes at her. She was old.

  Landon laughed softly. “Sorry, it’s the way I was raised.”

  I smiled and moved closer to him on the couch. He turned with a smile and winked at me as my mother continued on with her questions.

  After fifteen minutes of my mom drilling him on his family, we were finally able to leave. I sighed with relief when we finally made it out the door.

  “I’m so sorry about that,” I said as we walked up the stairs to my place. “She’s never done that before. I don’t know what has gotten into her.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It was no big deal. Your mom seems nice. She just wants to make sure I’m a nice guy,” he said. I turned to look at him as we walked in the door and he smiled at me with a mischievous grin.

  I laughed. “And are you a nice guy?” I asked with a small smirk, raising an eyebrow at him.

  “Only time will tell.” He winked as he walked toward the pizza box.

  I smiled. What a little flirt.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked me as he opened up the box. “Because I’m starving.”

  “Yes, I am actually. I haven’t eaten since breakfast,” I confessed, while opening a cabinet door and pulling out some paper plates.

  “Well, then, what movie shall we start with?” he asked as he piled three pieces of pizza on his plate. “I’ve got my movie in the bag,” he added, nodding toward the bag on the counter.

  I walked to the counter and picked up the bag. Inside was the movie and five candy bars. “I see you brought snacks.” I pulled them out and placed them on the counter.

  “Just in case I start to fall asleep while watching your movie,” he laughed as he took a huge bite of pizza.

  “Ha, ha.” I left the movie and candy on the counter and grabbed a paper plate. “We’ll watch your movie first, since mine’s the longest.” I grabbed two pieces of pizza and walked toward the living room after grabbing the movie. I knew he was trying to be funny, but I was sure he wouldn’t laugh when he found out how long the movie really was.

  Landon followed behind me and we both sat down on the couch. “How long is this movie exactly,” he asked in between bites.

  I smiled. “Three and a half hours.”

  He stopped chewing and looked at me with a stunned expression. “Three and a half hours?” I nodded. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you doing this so I’ll fall asleep?”

  I laughed out loud. “No. I promise it’s a good movie. Plus, you said yourself you brought all that candy so you wouldn’t fall asleep.”

  “Okay, but I vote to watch your movie first. It’s only fair, since it’s so long.”

  He had a point. At least if we watched Titanic first, we could end the night with a comedy, even though I didn’t think Billy Madison was all that funny.

  “You win. Let me get the movie.”

  I set my plate down and picked up my DVD case from the entertainment center. I placed the movie into the DVD player and grabbed the remote from on top of the TV.

  “Okay, there is a rule during movie time,” I stated as I sat down and picked up my pizza.

  “A rule?”

  “Yes, a rule. There is no talking during movie time. As in, no snarky remarks. I know how guys get during chick flicks.”

  He nodded. “I can do it. It’ll be a challenge, but I can do it.”

  Now I just needed to sit through three and a half hours of this movie with Landon sitting next to me.

  Fourteen

  Half-eaten slices of pizza lay on plates on the table and our water bottles sat at our feet. We were half way through the movie and neither one of us had said a word.

  I was surprised to see that he was actually following along with the movie. I half expected him to show no interest at all and pick at his fingernails or something.

  I, on the other hand, was the one not paying attention. The hardest part of the whole situation was being so aware of Landon sitting next to me. I could smell his cologne. And although we weren’t sitting extremely close together, I could still feel him next to me. I couldn’t keep my eyes from straying either. This ma
gnetic force was pulling my eyes to him. I’d look over his features, watch his eyes move as they followed along with the movie, stare at his plump lips and wonder when he might kiss me again. I was doing everything except paying attention to the movie. I had no idea why I thought this was a good idea.

  The movie was at the part where Jack and Rose were in the sitting room and he’s about to draw her. I turned to look at Landon and he looked at me with a smirk as Rose started swinging the straps of her robe around. I knew what was coming next, but he didn’t. As soon as she disrobed, he looked at me with wide eyes and I laughed.

  Landon looked back at the screen and watched and she slowly laid on the couch to get in position for Jack. Obviously, he didn’t want to miss any of that.

  He reached over and entwined his fingers with mine, in my lap, without breaking eye contact from the screen. I was sitting Indian style on the couch and I had my hands pretty close to the inside of my thigh. So his hand was very close to something that hadn’t had any attention in a long time.

  I could feel my breaths quicken and my body flush as I thought about it. If I thought I wasn’t paying attention before, then I was in La La Land at the moment. I thought about scenarios that would happen if I let go of his hand and placed it down in the same spot my hand had already been. What would he do? Or what if I deliberately placed his hands between my legs. Could I actually do that? What would he do if I did? All these fantasies were flowing through my head causing my nether region to pulsate with need.

  These fantasies were completely out of the norm for me. Yes, I’d had many fantasies about Jason when we were together, but what I was picturing now, how I wouldn’t mind if he took me on the couch at that very moment; I didn’t move that fast with guys. Not counting my month of bad judgment calls with Jason’s friends.

  I was definitely attracted to Landon. Maybe our chemistry was stronger than I thought it was. I mean, I knew it was there and that it was strong from the day we met, but…I lost my train of thought as soon as Landon started rubbing circles on my thigh with this thumb. I bit my lip and tried very hard to focus on the movie, but I couldn’t. My body had a mind of its own. It was overexcited and wanted some type of physical contact.