Jalen raised a brow. “Um, okay.”
“I feel bad about spilling coffee on you, and I noticed you hadn’t called me with your dry-cleaning bill. So, I was wondering if I could take you out to dinner.”
Jalen smiled at him. It was sweet that he wanted to take her out to apologize for wasting coffee on her, but she couldn’t go to dinner with him. Not that she didn’t think he was attractive, because anyone with eyes could see that he was. She didn’t have time to go to dinner with anyone between work, school, and looking out for her siblings. She’d tried dating while doing thosethings, and it always became too complicated with her partner feeling neglected.
“I’m sorry. I can’t,” she told him.
“You can’t, or you won’t?” he questioned.
“I can’t, but thank you for the invite.”
“Ah, you’re breaking my heart,” he told her with a playful smile as he placed a hand over his chest.
It was cute, and the smile on his face had her smiling as well. She shook her head at him.
“How about coffee? You can replace the cup you spilled on me,” she told him.
It had been a while since she’d gone out with someone. She had learned that serious dates were not a good idea. They drifted off when they found out that she was taking care of five kids.
Coffee was safe and casual, and she could do it on her lunch break. That way, she wouldn’t have to depend on Kodi to watch the girls.
“Coffee will work,” he pulled his phone out and handed it to her.
Jalen took it and placed her number in it. She still had the card with his number on it and made a mental note to save it in her phone. She handed his phone back to him.
“I’ll see you later, Jalen,” he said, giving her another one of those smiles before turning and walking off.
“Girl, he was fine.”
Jalen turned to find Maria entering the nurse’s station. She nodded in agreement, finding no reason to deny it. The older woman was married, but liked to remind people she had eyes and could look, but only wanted her husband.
“So, are you going to go out with him?” Maria questioned.
“I’m going to get coffee with him.”
Maria raised a brow at her. “That...isn’t a proper date.”
“I know that, but I can’t afford to go out on actual dates when I know they won’t lead anywhere.”
“You can’t judge all future experiences on past ones. You’ll never find someone if you keep doing that.”
Jalen sighed. She and Maria had this conversation often. She viewed the older woman as a big sister, and she knew Maria was right, but she didn’t want to put her sisters through the trials and possible failures. She didn’t want to introduce them to someone only for that person to walk out of their lives if they got attached.
“Just think about it.”
Jalen nodded, but she wasn’t sure if she would actually do it. Taking her mind off of that, she glanced at the clock. Waiting as time ticked by.
Jalen walked into her apartment a little after six. She found all of her sisters sitting at the dining room table, doing homework. They looked up when she walked in.
“Jae? How did you get home?”
“Maria brought me,” she responded.
She had to be at work that morning at six am, so she’d allowed Kodi to take her to work and keep the car, so that Kodi could get all the girls to school since the bus ran earlier than they would be ready in the morning, and home.
“How’s the homework coming?” she questioned, walking over to the table.
They answered in various forms of okay. While they did their homework, she made dinner. Tonight, they were having breakfast for dinner, so she pulled out the bacon, eggs, and oatmeal.
