"See what I mean!!" Katie replied in frustration. "You are permanently in "take care of everyone else" mode and not in a healthy way!"
Becca rolled her eyes again at Katie's statement. "Ok, how about this, if you stop talking about this and tell me what happened with Lauren and Troy at school, I'll go on a date with the next guy who asks me out." she said smiling and nodding trying to get Katie to agree. "Provided he has all his teeth" she added quickly. Katie gave a big smile "Ok deal!" she said stretching out her hand to shake on it. Becca shook Katie's hand back and nodded. In her mind this deal was completely in her favor. At 4 feet 11 inches and 120 pounds, she didn't get a lot of male attention. She didn't get any male attention that she was aware of, she wasn't 100% sure Katie was telling the truth about that guy asking her out. Katie had a tendency to exaggerate.
Becca knew she wasn't hideous, she had lovely long black curly hair that reached half way down her back and large exotic eyes the color of melted chocolate that people often commented on and beautiful caramel skin. But that still left the problem in her mind of looking like an overweight midget. There was also the issue that she was a bit of a smart ass. At the home, with the kids she was super sweet, the kids respected her but they knew she'd let them get away with murder. But when she wasn't dealing with the kids or the staff at Believe, she was as cynical and sarcastic as they come. Even her family, thought of her as a bit of a bitch at times, she tended to be a little too honest for their liking. As far as she knew there wasn't much demand for a smart ass, midget on the dating scene, so she wasn't particularly worried. She took a sip of her hot chocolate and let Katie's story take her away from any thoughts of her love life or lack thereof.
It was Saturday and Alex's 9th birthday, so they had brought the kids to the Zoo for the afternoon. Becca sat on a bench reading, while the kids ran around and Lilly and the other staff played cards. After each paragraph she would glance up to make sure no one was doing anything potentially life threatening and then went back to reading.
Suddenly she felt the other side of the bench drop and looked up to see a man covered in sweat, panting and wiping the sweat from his brow. He was beautiful. And despite her brain telling her not to stare, she found she couldn't help herself. His hair was light brown and wavy and it fell over his eyes and clung to the sides of his face from the sweat he'd worked up running. He had the most interesting dark green eyes Becca had ever seen and a strong muscular jaw line. He took out a water bottle and as he drank deeply she could see the muscles in his jaw and neck working. Becca almost groaned at the sight. He was clearly a frequent runner, she thought looking at the rest of his body, she could see from the shorts he wore that his calf muscles were very defined and so were the muscles in his arms. He was tall too; he had long legs that stretched out in front of him as he leaned back against the bench. "Seriously", she thought ", how are there such hot people in the world, it's so not fair" He looked up then and caught her staring, so she quickly turned away and pretended to read her book.
It was Saturday and Isaiah decided to run in the park at the Zoo. Usually he would have just gone to the track near his house, but it was a beautiful day and he thought a change of scenery would do him good. He had been running for about 40 minutes when he decided to take a break and just watch the people walking past. He enjoyed people watching, it was always interesting. He jogged over to the bench under the tree were a young girl was sitting and reading. She looked so engrossed in her book he figured she wouldn't notice, so he took a seat at the far end of the bench. He sat for a minute hunched over trying to catch his breath. When he felt his heart beat get back to normal he leaned back and stretched his legs, glancing over at the girl on the other side of the bench. He stopped then. He could see her face now she was looking in his direction and he was mesmerized. She had the most surprising eyes he'd ever seen. They were big, made even more so by the surprised look on her face. They were a beautiful brown color, warm and inviting, like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day and she had the longest thickest eyelashes he had ever seen. Before he could take in the rest of her face she turned away from him, burying her head in her book. He continued to stare at her for a while hoping she might lift her head again. When she didn't he studied the rest of her, not really bothering to be subtle about it. She was tiny, which was why he had assumed she was a young girl, but now looking at the rest of her body her could tell she was probably older. She wore leggings that hugged her short yet shapely legs. She was wearing a long baggy shirt with the leggings which were probably supposed to cover her thighs, but it had ridden up exposing her sensual curves. The first few buttons of the shirt where undone and Isaiah was just tall enough to catch a glimpse of her cleavage, her large breasts barely contained in the white bra that he could see just peeking out. He immediately thought how amazing it would feel to palm one of those beautiful breasts while he stared at the pleasure in those exquisite eyes. He was awoken out of his fantasy by her voice. "Sir, are you ok?" she asked. He stared again at her face and those eyes. "My God, you're beautiful."
"Excuse me," she said looking confused. "Is there something wrong sir, you look a little worried," she continued.
"More like dumbfounded" Isaiah thought as he finally came out of his trance. "Oh, I'm fine. Thanks for asking, just enjoying the view." He said with a smile. Realizing what he had just said, he quickly tried to correct himself. "I mean, not that you're the view... or that I was enjoying you... Not that I wouldn't enjoy you if you were the view... I mean... uuuh.... I'm sorry.... What I meant was the view of the park." For a moment she had a surprised look on her face and then she smiled and started laughing. He smiled and started laughing too. "Sorry" he said again. She has a beautiful laugh he thought relaxing a little. Still laughing she shook her head, "Don't worry about it, I am the champion of spewing nonsense. It was a nice recovery there at the end. Well done! And for the record I knew you weren't talking about me, with the view thing. Obviously," she added. He looked at her again when she said "obviously", for some reason he didn't like the sound of that. Yet it helped him make up his mind.
"I'm Isaiah," he said offering her his hand. She stared at his hand for a second and then reached out her own hand. "Rebecca, everybody calls me Becca though." She replied. "Rebecca" he repeated, "a beautiful name to go with a beautiful girl." She smiled then and rolled her eyes. "Really?" she asked sarcastically "did you get that from an episode of how I met your mother?" Isaiah looked at her in surprise and then let out a chuckle. "That bad huh?" he said with a smile. He really liked this girl, she was feisty. "Yeah dude, but I suppose who needs good lines to hit on girls when you look the way you do," she said. As soon as the words left her mouth she went red and looked at him with big eyes. "I mean not that you were trying to hit on me.... Obviously... I just meant that you know.... Uuuuhhh....." She buried her face in her hands then. He chuckled again. She was so cute. "I see what you mean about being the champion" he said staring at the long curly hair that hand fallen forward when put her head in her hands. Again his mind went to thoughts of running his hands through those long locks while she straddled his lap and...
He snapped himself out of it and leaned a little closer to her and in a stage whisper said "and for the record, I was definitely hitting on you just there."
She looked up at him then with a skeptical look on her face. "Sure you were." She said rolling her eyes. He smiled then realizing; just how unaware she was of the effect she must have on men. "You don't believe me." he said. It was a statement, not a question, but she answered anyway, "No bro, but it was very sweet of you to pretend." He stared at her then for a while. Not quite sure what to make of their little exchange. He had to admit he was intrigued. She was right about him of course, when she said he didn't need good lines to get women. He hardly had to do any work at all, most women fell at his feet and he didn't have to lift a finger. He liked it that way, it was very convenient. He worked long hours, being lawyer at the district attorney's office, so when he was looking to get laid he needed it to be simple and easy. He had, had a few relationships in his life but none of them lasted more than 6 months. He just got bored too easily and he never felt like he was with the right person, it was usually more for convenience sake. He was not a man that was easily impressed, but for some reason this woman had him tongue tied before he even knew her name. That had surprised him too, he was always confident and smooth, but Becca had him feeling like a 14 year old kid, asking a girl to the dance. She had called him on his cheesy line, without missing a beat, proving she didn't take any shit, but at the same time she managed to be incredibly cute and vulnerable. He was fascinated.
"Will you go out with me tonight?" Isaiah blurted out, surprising even himself.
Becca looked at him as if he was crazy. "What?" she said raising her eyebrows.
"Tonight, will you go out with me, for dinner?" He asked again. Becca wasn't quite sure what to make of this guy. She stared at him for a moment and then glanced around the park looking at the kids. Just then she saw Kate standing nearby smiling enthusiastically and giving her the thumbs up. "ah crap" she thought remembering the deal she had made with Katie a week ago. She rolled her eyes and nodded at Katie, then turned back to face Isaiah who was waiting patiently for her answer. "Damn" she thought he really was ridiculously hot. She could tell that he was the kind of guy who probably had women falling at his feet and she seriously didn't want to be one of them. She decided that she'd go on one date to keep her promise but then she and Isaiah were parting ways. The last thing she needed was to lose her mind over some disgustingly handsome man, who probably couldn't keep it in his pant. She gave Isaiah one of her fake smiles and replied " Ok, What time?"
Isaiah was pleasantly surprised by her answer. "Um... Seven?" he asked. "Seven it is." He handed her his phone and she typed her number and the address of the children's home in and handed it back to him. He kept looking at her, not saying anything but smiling. Becca felt her fake smile turn into a real smile and she blushed and turned away. "crap" she thought, he's already got me acting like a love struck teenager with that stupid handsome face. This needs to stop! She stood up then and quickly blurted out " ok see you at seven, bye then," and made her way to the circle of kids playing 'ring a ring a rosie.'
It was 6:50 and although Becca had insisted she didn't want to make a fuss, Lilly and Katie and the rest of the girls at the Believe had other plans. As soon as they made it back to the home, they girls had been making her try on outfits and experimenting with hairstyle. They had finally decided on a pair of jeans that belonged to one of the younger girls that was the right length for Becca's legs but at least 2 sizes too small. She stood in front of the mirror now wearing the jeans and her bra, waiting for the girls to decide what shirt they wanted her to wear. "Guys, I really don't think these jeans are a good idea," she said. "Of course they're a good idea, you look hot" Kate yelled in reply. "But they're too small!" Becca yelled back through the bathroom door. "Ya, that's the point," Kate said her voice coming closer; she opened the door and handed Becca the black shirt they had chosen. "Those are 'get you laid' jeans" she added with a grin. Becca stared at her with a straight face. "That's not funny!" she growled throwing the shirt she had been wearing before at Kate's retreating head. The shirt they had chosen, had short sleeves and little press-stud buttons all the way up to the collar. Becca closed all of them and then walked out of the bathroom so her stylists could see their handiwork. They had decided to leave her long hair hanging lose around her shoulders and they had applied a light layer of make up to her face concentrating on bringing out her eyes with dark eyeliner and about a million layers of mascara. Everyone clapped when she walked out and she gave a bow, playing along. "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week." She said pretending to wave to the crowd. Lilly walked up to her then and gave her a big hug, "You look beautiful," she said "who knew there was a body under all those baggy clothes" she then proceeded to undo the first few button on Becca's shirt. "Cleavage is a girl's best friend sweetie" she supplied and gave a Kate a conspiratorial wink. Becca rolled her eyes and then pointed a finger at Kate "You are a bad influence!" she accused. Kate only smiled "I do what I can," she said with a shrug.
Just then the buzzer for the gate rang and Becca ran to get it before the other 30 people trying to answer could. "Hi" she said a little out of breathe. "Hi, uh it's Isaiah"
"Right" she replied "I'll be out in a minute."
"Ok" she said turning to face everyone. "Listen to Smom guys and if you're under 16 years old you better be asleep by the time I get back, capisce?"
