Constructive criticism is welcome!
At forty-three years old I was nearing late adulthood and while I enjoyed the company of various women in my life, I enjoyed my single status and bachelorhood even more. That was until the partners at my firm made it abundantly clear that they respected and upheld family values. Simply put: if I were to ever advance any further than where I was in my career, I needed to get married. Fast.
They were all hypocrites. I knew of three of them who were cheating on their spouses and the other one flirted openly with anything in a skirt. They had the nerve to talk to me about family values. But suggestions were suggestions and I found myself increasing the age range on my dating app from twenty-eight to a whopping thirty-nine. I scrolled through a few matches on the way home and by the time I let myself into my penthouse apartment uptown, I had three dinner dates with three different yet equally gorgeous women.
Katie Georges was a redhead with a light smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her eyes were a deep green, and her hands were soft. According to her profile, she liked long walks on the beach, romance novels and intelligent conversation. We made idle chitchat but by the end of the hour, I knew she wasn't the one for me.
Scarlett Shaw was a blonde-haired blue-eyed sex kitten. She had full lips and a heart shaped face. There was a twinkle in her eyes that promised fun and mischief. We hit it off immediately, but being a widow, she was only interested in casual sex and vacation getaways. I said my goodbyes and copped a feel of her phenomenal double D tits on my way out. She blushed and swatted my arm with no serious objections. I saved her number. If my last date was a bust, I knew where I'd be headed at the end of the night.
Finally, Nadine Franklin walked into the bar. She was a vision. Jet black hair, startling gray eyes. She was almost as tall as I was with legs that went on for miles. Fifteen minutes later, we deduced that we wanted the same things. She was a wedding planner who had begun to lose clients due to her unmarried status. She was going into debt trying to keep her business afloat and she had a young daughter to take care of and send to college in a matter of months. She was the one.
Things move relatively quickly after that. Nadine and I went on a variety of dates all over the city and by the end of the week we were practically inseparable. There was just one more obstacle to overcome. That of her eighteen-year-old daughter.
"She's very protective of me." Nadine confessed as we pulled up to her modest one-story clapboard house on the outskirts of town. "She has managed to chase away almost every guy she's seen me with." I turned the engine off and stared up at the house. "I don't know how she does it, but one day we're a perfectly fine couple and then the next, I never hear from them again."
"Very curious..." I wanted to frown. How was she pulling this off? Did she do background checks on all of her mom's boyfriends and then blackmail them into ghosting? It would be interesting to find out. "I hope she knows I'm in this for the long run."
"We'll see." I stepped out first to open the door for Nadine and we walked up to the house hand in hand. Something was cooking and it smelled divine. I couldn't help but inhale deeply as I walked through their front door.
"I left something special in the slow cooker. Seems like it's almost done." Nadine dropped her coat, scarf and gloves by to door and led me to the kitchen. Nadine's daughter was seated at the small kitchen table.
Natalie Franklin was almost a carbon copy of her mother. She was considerably shorter, but the same jet-black hair, same gray eyes. She was scribbling furiously in a notebook and barely spared me a look as we walked in.
"Nat, this is my friend, Daniel, that I was telling you about." Nadine began tentatively. "He's here to have dinner with us." Natalie kept her eyes on her book but waved halfheartedly.
"Hi."
"Hi." I answered. I took a seat opposite her. "What are you writing?" She lifted her eyes to mine, and I saw nothing but annoyance. I liked a challenge. "Something for school?"
"It's a report." She shut the notebook firmly. "Not that it's any of your business."
"Natalie!" Nadine scolded. "I know you're upset about the party but that's no excuse to be rude to our guest." Natalie rolled her eyes and stood up. "Go get ready for dinner." The second she was out of the room, Nadine heaved a sigh and explained. "There was some kind of pool party at the neighbors' to celebrate the end of senior year."
"You should have let her go." I told her. "This dinner could have easily been rescheduled." Nadine shook her head, glancing at the slow cooker pensively.
"Her grades were awful! She only just scraped the required GPA for graduation."
"Ah."
"She has a lot of growing up to do this summer." We heard the shower turn on. Nadine sighed again and stood up to push open the kitchen window. "I'm going to go freshen up. Please, make yourself at home."
She left the kitchen and ducked into what I presumed was her bedroom. The door clicked shut. I glanced out of the window. This was a wonderful neighborhood. The air was certainly cleaner than that of the city. If we did indeed get married, I wondered if Nadine would insist on staying here.
