She’d betrayed him. Damn, that hurt, Jason thought, unable to help but grin. She really was coming along rather nicely.
“Oh, God, I love him!” the girl, Cindy or something, wailed loudly, making Jason shift nervously. He’d never dealt well with emotions, especially female emotions. He looked around nervously and damn near sighed with relief when he spotted a small group of girls descend on her.
“He’s such a jerk!” one of them said.
“Don’t say that! I love him!” Cindy cried.
“Oh, I know you do, but he’s not good enough for you,” a slightly chubby girl said as she put her arm around the girl.
Good. Everything was fine. He could go back to chaperoning a bunch of hormone-crazed teenagers to god-awful music. Yup, he was truly going to kill Haley, Jason thought as he stepped away.
“Mr. Bradford, why would he do this to me?” the girl demanded.
He froze mid-step and looked around nervously, hoping that another Mr. Bradford was standing close by and willing to handle this. No such luck.
Jason cleared his throat before he asked, “Do what exactly?”
She scoffed at him with a look of utter disbelief that told him that she thought he should be aware of everything going on in her life. Considering he’d never paid much attention to any woman’s life, she was in for a hell of a rude awakening. Thankfully, one of her friends took pity on him.
“Marc Griswold. They ate at the same table two times in the last two weeks! He talked to her during study hall and asked to borrow her chemistry notes. Now he’s here with her,” she said, pursing her face up in disgust, making him curious so that he couldn’t help but follow her glare.
He spotted Marc dancing with a very pretty brunette. Her name he remembered, Janie. She was a smart girl and funny as hell. If memory served him correctly, Marc had been in love with the girl for the last two years. The poor guy, who was normally so sure of himself and easy-going, turned into a stuttering fool when the girl was around. He’d been wondering when the kid was going to work up the courage to finally ask her out.
“Hmmm, good for him,” Jason mumbled, earning a collective gasp of outrage.
“How could you, Mr. Bradford?” the girl wailed even louder, making him cringe.
Oh, he was going to kill Haley for this shit.
“I had a really nice time,” Jonathan said, probably for the tenth time.
Haley forced herself to smile and, of course, lie. “I did, too,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t ask her to elaborate because she would be hard-pressed to find something nice to say about this evening, except that it was finally ending.
This was definitely the last time that she went on a date with anyone that Mary, one of her oldest and dearest friends, suggested. After Mary set her up with the taxidermist, who liked to carry his projects with him, she should have learned her lesson, but instead, here she was.
The date didn’t start off badly. In fact, he’d been on time and she’d thought he was cute in a nerdish way. He was tall, a bit thin, but still, he looked nice. His clothes were clean and he smelled good. The first clue that something just wasn’t right occurred when they arrived at the restaurant.
That’s when his mother called for the first time.
During their four-hour date, it lasted that long because he believed in taking small bites and chewing each bite a total of twenty-five times for proper digestion, she’d called a total of twenty-three times. Yes, Haley was sure that it was his mother because he stayed at the table when he took the calls so that she was able to hear every soul-crushing word.
The reasons for the calls ranged from she missed him, wanted to know if he’d rather come home and eat what she cooked, reminded him to clean his room tomorrow, and her personal favorite, she wanted to know if he was still with “her.” Judging by her tone and the number of calls, his mommy was not a happy camper that her little boy was on a date.
Granted, her little boy was thirty-five years old, and according to him had never lived on his own. Why would he when he lived with his best friend? Meaning, mommy dearest. Of course, he did spend a good amount of time complaining about how unfair his mother could be. Who knew that a thirty-five-year-old man could still be grounded for not picking up his dirty socks? She certainly hadn’t.
Haley couldn’t wait to get inside her house and change into a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt and have a good laugh about this with Jason. Then again, Jason may not have forgiven her yet for what happened earlier, hence the large piece of chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting in the doggy container she was currently holding. Jason was a big baby, but a big baby that could be bought with food.
“Well, here we are,” Haley said brightly as they pulled into her driveway, only to add, “It’s been fun. Thank you again,” as she practically ran from the car.
“This is a really nice house,” Jonathan said from somewhere close by, too close. Haley looked back and bit back the curse that threatened to leave her lips when she saw him. He was following her to the door. She wanted to cry, really, she did. When would this nightmare end?
She walked up to her door and plastered another fake smile on her face. “Well, thanks again.”
“You’re welcome,” Jonathan said as he gave her a shy smile before he leaned in to kiss her. Thankfully, she saw that one coming and turned her head in time to receive a wet kiss on her cheek.
Ew…
She barely stopped herself from wiping her face. She’d scrub it off in a scalding hot shower as soon as she got inside, Haley promised herself.
