He hadn’t even been willing to eat dinner with me.
After scraping at the wall for about a half hour, I had a thought. Something I would have tried first if I hadn’t been so distracted with planning my trip out of town.
Water.
Some wallpaper glue dissolved with just plain water. Of course, that might not be a good idea for a bathroom, but the fact was, by only letting guests use the room, and basically that meant people over for holiday meals because if they actually stayed over, they’d have been bathing upstairs, the wallpaper had never been subjected to a lot of steam. I didn’t have a steamer gun, but it was worth a try.
A few clicks on my phone and the device would be on my porch the next day.
Chapter Five
Hal
To celebrate the end of my first full week at work, Ridge and Ernie promised me a little night out. I wasn’t in the mood for going to a club. That required too much effort. I didn’t want to get ready, get in the headspace, only to come home again and be alone.
Instead, we opted to go to our favorite arcade and pizza place. It was loud and fun, and we could act like kids without standing out. It wasn’t the same as being little, but we always had a good time. There was something special about trying to win enough tickets for a real prize, not something you’d get out of a prize bin at the dentist. We still hadn’t managed to. Thegoodprizes cost thousands of tickets, when the most I’d ever won in one evening was a hundred. We still loved it, though, and came every few months.
I checked my wallet to make sure I had my player card and hopped on the bus. One nice thing about this new apartment was that I didn’t have to drive into the city to have a fun night out with my friends, which meant I wanted to have some beers. Before, I’d have to figure out whose house I’d be staying at before considering a drink.
Ernie was already there when I arrived, with his daddy, Jovan, who promised to come get him at the end of the night or when he called to let him know he was ready. Whichever came first. He wasn’t a demanding daddy. This wasn’t about control. Ernie didn’t love traveling late at night alone, and Jovan recognized that. This was the plan they had come up with.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit jealous of how Ernie’s life had changed after meeting his daddy, but I was also thrilled for my friend. He deserved to be loved for who he was, and he hadthat now. They were literally living the dream. And bythedream, I meantmydream.
One day, I wanted a daddy who saw me as his one and only. Not someone to do scenes with at the club, although that was fun from time to time. I wanted someone who woke up, saw my face, and thought, “How did I get so lucky?” And for me to do the same back.
Like I said, a dream.
“Did Ridge text at all?” I asked after seeing nothing on mine.
“Nah, but we can catch some Skee-Ball before he gets here.”
Worked for me. Ridge was the only one of the three of us who didn’t like Skee-Ball. He’d play, but it always frustrated him because he rarely got any decent points. That was kind of how I felt about basketball throws. The only game we all agreed on was the claw machine, which was funny because all three of us sucked at it.
We finished our first game and were about to start another, when Ernie asked all the questions. He’d surprised me by waiting that long.
“You’re gonna have to say it all over again when Ridge gets here, but tell me about the dinner,” he said.
I’d mentioned ordering dinner for one of the bosses when the three of us FaceTimed earlier that week. We used to FaceTime a lot more than we did, now that Ernie had his daddy. The three of us parallel played in our own spaces via the internet. It wasn’t the same as going to a club, but it was a nice in-between.
They would have badgered me until I gave them all the details right then and there, but Ridge got a call from a prospective client, and we all went about our nights. It was surprising they hadn’t blown up my phone for details before now.
“Tell me about this person you bought dinner for. Are they tall? Are they short? Are they sexy?” He waggled his eyebrows, thinking he was quite funny.
“Who’s sexy?” Ridge clapped both our shoulders. “Sorry I was late. I couldn’t find a parking spot.”
“No worries,” Ernie said. “We were just getting into the good stuff.”
“Finding out who the mystery date was?” Ridge was having too much fun, and he’d just arrived.
“It wasn’t a date,” I insisted. “Remember when my tire blew?” I hadn’t told them the story, only asking them if they knew a tire place. I wasn’t big into sharing personal stories over the phone and figured we’d chat about it next night out.
They nodded.
“Well, someone stopped to help me, and he works in my office. I had dinner delivered to him.”
Ridge grabbed me by the hand and dragged me toward the dining tables. “It’s time to eat and talk because you skipped all the good parts of this story, and don’t pretend you didn’t.”
He wasn’t wrong.
