I sat at the island in the kitchen with a cup of hot tea between my hands. I was enjoying the time alone and letting the warmth of the cup comfort me. Ashley was still sleeping the day away at mid-afternoon and Mr. Anderson sounded like he was busy in his office. I woke early to the sound of a laptop keyboard being abused. After last night's events I was not surprised that neither of them left their rooms. As for me, I gave up making sense of it all after spending a good chunk of the night in my bed battling with my brain to stop replaying the kiss and to let me sleep. It finally listened to me around three in the morning. Only five hours of sleep for this girl. I took a sip of my tea and sighed with content, replaying last night's kiss with Mr. Anderson. I wondered if there would be more to come or would he avoid me again. I closed my eyes and imagined his body up against mine and his kisses taking me over. My little daydream was soon interrupted by the one person who refused to leave my thoughts.
Mr. Anderson walked into the kitchen, straight to the coffee maker. I raised my eyebrows wondering why he would need coffee in the middle of the day. While the water boiled, he turned to the fridge and searched for food. I admired his cute butt when he reached down to grab a bagel and butter. He looked like he was about to go to the office, slacks and a button shirt, the slacks formed well around his bottom. I started to wondered if he was ignoring me, given he hasn't so much as looked at me or acknowledged my presence since he walked in.
"Good morning to you too." I finally spoke, getting tired of being ignored as he toasted his bagel, buttered it, and made a cup of coffee in a travel mug as it finished. Now he was on his phone texting away like his life depended on it.
"Good morning, Erin. I'm sorry there is something going on at work and they need me there." He made his way to me and placed a kiss on my forehead, "We need to talk later. Can we do that when I get home?"
"Uh, sure. I guess." I answered, surprised by the kiss to my forehead. He smiled at me before racing out the door to work.
With nothing better to do, I chose to go swimming and enjoy the weather outside. I cleaned the pool with the skimmer and dived right in. I was in the middle of my third round of 10 laps between tanning to cool off when I saw a pair of feet enter the water off to the side. I swam to the surface and was greeted by Ashley, who was munching on some toast, looking fresh out of bed.
"I see you decided to join me in the land of the living." I joked. She flipped me off with a smile. I made my way to her and stood in the water.
"A girl needs her beauty sleep. Besides I never went to sleep until early morning. Last night was a mess." She sighed and shook her head.
"I really want to say I told you so." I said. She ignored my comment.
"It was going great until we heard you yelling. I didn't expect dad home for another hour or so. And before you ask because I know you're going to, no, we did not have sex. Dad blew it way out of proportion. We just made out and it got kind of handsy..." she indicated at her chest and made a groping motion. I started laughing, the image of her father walking in on that was funnier than it should have been. Ashley kicked water at me, yelling that it wasn't funny but laughed too.
I got out of the pool and dried off. I updated Ashley on Zachary. I told her how we danced and talked most of the night. I never mentioned that he was gay, thinking it really wasn't my place to tell her. I really wanted to tell her about her dad kissing me, but kept it to myself. She reminded me that I should try and get with Zachary, that it would make for fun double dates and we wouldn't be third wheels when she was with Cole.
We spent the next few hours in front of the television watching reality shows and making fun of some of the crazy people and vowing to never let each other agree to go on TV now that we were living a popular rich people area.
Mr. Anderson arrived home close to dinner time. Ashley was on the phone with Cole when he walked in and became silent. He walked up to her and gave her a small hug followed by a kiss on the forehead. He whispered something to her and she nodded saying something back. They seemed to have made up in a way. Ashley soon hung up with Cole and motioned for me to come upstairs with her.
"Cole asked me to go out to dinner with him, just the two of us." She told me after she shut her bedroom door.
"Okay..." I trailed off. What did this have to do with me?
"I feel bad leaving you alone." She worried, then added, "And not just alone, but alone with my dad."
"We're not always going to be together. We will drive each other crazy. I'll be fine here, your dad doesn't bother me. Go have dinner." I insisted. This would make having a talk with her dad a whole lot easier tonight.
"Are you sure?" She questioned, not believing me.
"Yes! Go! I really would rather not be the third wheel on a date with you two." I repeated.
I helped her get ready for her dinner date by watching her rip apart her closet looking for something to wear. She finally settled on a black dress...well if you could call it that, it was very short and didn't leave much to the imagination. I watched Cole's car pull into the drive way as she finished applying makeup and strapped on some heels.
Ashley ran downstairs and opened the front door before Cole could ring the doorbell. He cleaned up nice, his hair was brushed, light button up shirt, and slacks. It must be a nice place if they were dressing up so much.
"When are you going to be home?" I asked, I didn't know what events they had planned and really had no desire to know, but wanted to know so I wouldn't worry.
"I'll be home late, mom, don't wait up for me." She joked. I rolled my eyes and wished them a fun night.
I waited until they made their way back out of the driveway before closing the door. I sat on the couch as another reality show came on but I was too lost in the thought to pay attention. I wondered if Mr. Anderson was still going to want to talk. What exactly were we going to talk about? Last night? Our attraction to each other? Was he going to tell me last night was a mistake...no, if that was the case he wouldn't have kissed my forehead this morning, right?
Speaking of the devil, Mr. Anderson walked into the room with his phone glued to his ear. He saw me sitting on the couch and indicated with a finger held up for me to wait. He kept talking to the other person, talking technical stuff that made no sense to me. He soon wrapped up the call and joined me on the couch. He turned slightly so that his body faced mine, his arm draped over the back of the seat. We were quiet for a minute, just looking at each other, I couldn't get over how handsome he was.
"We should probably find a way to talk in private. I don't want Ashley walking down here and finding us engaged in a personal conversation." He said. It took a moment to realize he had no idea she had left with Cole.
"She isn't here. It's just us." I told him. He gave me a confused look before asking where she was. I explained that she left on a date with Cole while he was on the phone. He didn't appear very happy when I said that but left it alone.
"In that case, we can talk right here if you are all right with that." He checked with me.
"I'm fine." I assured him and re-positioned to get comfortable and face him.
"I am not really sure where to begin." He stated after a moment of silence. He moved his glasses to rub his eyes and sighed.
"Why did you kiss me?" I asked referring to last night.
"I wanted to kiss you for a while, Erin. It never seemed appropriate. Not that last night was appropriate either, but you understand what I mean, right?" He placed his glasses back on and looked at me before going on, "I have been reminding myself since you got here that you are so young, my daughter's friend, and your mother would probably kill me if I touched you."
"Since day one? You have been interested in me since the morning we had breakfast?" I perked up a little, this was my proof that I was right about the little moves and signs he displayed.
"Was I not obvious? I feel like a stupid boy whenever you're around me, my brain loses all common sense and I forget what I am supposed to do." He gave a short-embarrassed laugh.
"It was a little obvious. I couldn't tell if you were just being nice to me or interested though. I've been waiting for a sure sign. Was your jealousy from last night a sure sign?" I asked him.
"I was not jealous." He answered defensively.
"You were jealous!" I told him and laughed. He shook his head at me, neither confirming or denying it but smiling. When I finished teasing him for being jealous, I asked, "So what does this mean for us then?
"That depends entirely on you. Do you want to stop this completely or do you want to see where this goes?"
"I don't know. I don't want this to ruin my friendship with Ashley, but I want to know what this is. If we decided to do this, that means not telling her until we are sure about what we are, we should tell her eventually. I am not comfortable keeping secrets from her but I don't want to hurt her either."
We sat in silence for a moment, both of us going over what we wanted to do. He took my hand in his and gave it a light squeeze. I looked at our hands and knew I wanted to go forward and discover where this could lead. The idea of not seeing this through formed a small lump in my throat. I played out scenarios in my head where this could either end well or badly.
