Roger pulled her arm towards his body and gently planted a kiss on her lips.
The kiss lasted only second, and couldn't be described as anything more than an excited peck on the lips. Lindsey was obviously shocked by the advance. She blankly stared at Roger who now had now begun to panic. For the first time spending time together, there was absolute silence.
"I'm sorr-," Roger blurted, as he stared at Lindsey's shocked stare.
"No," Lindsey interrupted, finally processing what had just happened, "it's okay, really. Uhh, I really need to get home."
Lindsey turned and was quickly out the door. As the door shut, Roger's panic turned to anger.
"Why would you do something that stupid," Roger yelled at himself, "You found a woman who was fun to be around and you went and ruined it by kissing her. She is thirty years younger than you and is your best friend's daughter! Why would you ever think that kissing her was okay?"
Roger flopped onto the couch and began to take out his frustrations on a decorative pillow. He began to punch the pillow so hard, that it was likely to turn black and blue by morning.
Roger struggled to sleep that night. It had seemed obvious in his eyes that Lindsey had no interest. She hadn't reciprocated his affection. The best case scenario that played in Roger's head was that she just wouldn't tell her parents what he had done. There was no way that she would be coming around anymore. Roger would have been surprised if she even kept running through his neighborhood.
The following morning, Roger was awoken from his three hours of sleep by a text message from Tim.
"Kim is gone today. Play 36?" the message read.
It seemed as if Lindsey hadn't told her father about their kiss, at least not yet. As tired as Roger was, he hoped that some time on the golf course would take his mind off of the previous night.
Roger's plan worked. He quickly forgot about his anger from the previous night, as it was replaced with the anger of firing shot after shot into the woods.
"How many balls did you lose?" Tim asked, as the guys took a break in the clubhouse for a beer.
"I lost count after 10. I'm going to need to buy a new pack before we head out."
"You've been in a funk here lately. What's going on? I feel like you haven't been telling me something."
Roger had no idea how to approach the conversation that Tim was suggesting they have. He knew that it would feel good to talk this situation out; but the only real friend he had, would kill him if he knew what was really going on.
"Nothing," Roger muttered, staring down at his beer bottle.
"No, something is wrong. I haven't seen you this down in years. What's going on?"
"Fine," Roger said, taking a deep breath, "remember when I told you about that woman that was going to come over to my house last weekend to watch a movie? Well, she came over every night this past week to hang out. Last night as she was about to leave, I kissed her, and the reaction was not a good one."
"Look at you," Tim smiled, obviously missing the bad part of the story, "Hanging out with some sexy woman every night and trying to keep it from me. Good for you man!"
"No, you are missing the bad part. I kissed her and she doesn't like me. She rushed out of the house like I had morphed into some sort of monster."
"Dude, there is no way this chick doesn't like you. I know that you have been out of the game for a while, but women don't just come to hang out alone with a guy if they don't have some sort of feelings for him. I know you have a cool home theater, but it isn't cool enough to want to hang out every night."
"You don't understand. She is way younger than me and is way out of my league. There is no way that she would ever like me."
"Don't sell yourself short!" Tim said, trying to cheer up his buddy, "You are a very successful man who is fun to be around. Sure, you may not be as good looking as me, but you clean up well. Like I've said before, younger women love older guys. Look at George Clooney; women are still in love with him. You may just be this lady's Clooney."
The conversation hadn't changed Roger's mind. Tim had no idea what he was talking about, because he didn't fully understand the situation. If he had seen Lindsey's face after the kiss, he would have known that there was no doubt about her feelings, or lack thereof.
Roger's second round of golf went a little better than the first, but he still didn't play well. Lacking sleep and frustrated at his play, he skipped on the post-golf beer and went back home. He flopped onto the couch, laying his keys and phone on the coffee table and quickly fell asleep.
"Bing-bing"
Roger was roused by the noise of a new text on his phone. He rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his vision. Roger figured it was probably a text from Tim poking fun at his poor golf play, or someone from work texting about something that needed his signature. Tim and the office were really the only people who ever texted Roger, so he figured this time wouldn't be any different.
To his surprise, the message was from Lindsey. Based on the previous night, Roger never expected to see or hear from Lindsey ever again, let alone the evening after. He swipped his phone and pulled up her text.
"Hey! Do you have some free time tonight? I think we need to talk."
The message gave no tell about Lindsey's feelings. Roger tried to read into every word and punctuation mark, but couldn't figure out any hidden feelings. He definitely wanted to see Lindsey again. It would allow him an opportunity to try to salvage the friendship; or if nothing else, convince her to not tell her dad what happened.
"Sure. Come over whenever you have time," Roger responded.
A few seconds later, a reply appeared. "I will be with the soccer team for dinner but plan on leaving early. Is 9 too late?"
"Nine is fine," Roger responded.
