“Don’t do that.He won’t understand.Perhaps that’s just the way he ends a date that he’s having no fun at.”Gilman said that it wasn’t.“Don’t beat up on your brother simply because I got my feelings hurt.Like I said, it’s more than likely the way he does things when he’s not having a good time.You did say that he told you that we didn’t click.I don’t even know what that means.”
“Yes, you do.You clicked with him, and I can tell.Plus, he made you cry.That’s not the way you end a date.”She put her hand over his.“I’m going to have a talk with him.I won’t beat him up if you don’t want me to, but he did you wrong by leaving you at the door.”
“I’m fine.Let’s start over.I like you, Gilman.I’m to understand that you’re an electrical engineer.”She didn’t think he was going to allow her to change the subject, but he finally talked to her about his job.“I don’t know what it is you do.I’m thinking it has to do with electricity.”
“Mostly, yes.I design, develop, test, and supervise the manufacturing of electrical equipment, components, and systems.That’s the definition of what I do.But for the most part, I work with power grids.Designing them so that whole areas get electricity to their homes even when there is a power outage.I went to a tech ed school to learn the job and have been working since before I got out of high school.I love it.The way things work out so that people like us can have lights on in places like this and see better.I’ve always been fascinated by electricity.I think that’s why I’m doing so well at it.”
“I enjoy being able to turn on a switch and have electricity, too.I mean, even the lights that dim fascinate me.How does that even work in places?”She smiled at him.“Your job sounds so much better than mine.I just wait tables for a living.Or will until tomorrow night.It’s my last night at Murphy’s Place.”
“I heard that they were making changes to the place and were losing staff.My buddy went there the other day, and he had five glasses of water on his table from five different people.He said it was like they were all trying to get a piece of his table.”She told him that they probably were, as she might have been the only one with a table.They all got a cut in the tip if they helped.“That sounds like the boss has no idea what’s going on with his staff.We always enjoyed you waiting on us.You never once let our glasses get empty.To me, that shows that you were paying attention to us and nothing else.I’m going to miss you being there.”
“I’m going to miss being there.I put in ten years of my life in that place and was a good waitress.But now that the younger Murphy is running the place, he wants to make changes that he thinks will benefit everyone.All it does is piss people off and gets the customers over watered.”The two of them laughed, and she smiled too.“I shouldn’t be talking about Murphy’s Place so much.But it was the only place I’ve ever worked, and I’m having a hard time finding other employment that treated me, at first anyway, good.”
“I’ve been working for the same company for the ten years I’ve been out of school.It’s been nice knowing the people that I work with and how much I can trust them with my back.But lately I’ve been having trouble just getting up to go in.It’s like it’s all dull and without any kind of challenge.I know that I say that now, and there will be a huge storm that takes out an entire grid, and I’ll be working for five days straight trying to get the power back on.”She asked him if he really would be in charge of that.“I would be.It’s what I do when there are power outages.Sometimes it’s nothing more than rerouting the lines until we can get them repaired.But there are times when it could take up to weeks before I can get things working again.It’s a challenge then.”
“I bet it would be.”When they were finished eating, Gilman got dessert.Since she wasn’t one who ate a lot of desserts, she watched as he ate his.As soon as the check came, she told him that she’d pay since she’d been such a flop of a date.“I have the money, I feel bad because I think you were expecting more from me.”
“No, I wasn’t.As soon as I talked to my brother, I knew that we’d have a good time, and I did.I’m sorry if you didn’t.”She said it wasn’t that.“No, it wasn’t, and I’m sorry I said it like that.I meant that I’m not my brother, so you didn’t have as good a time with me.I understand.You two clicked in a way that you and I didn’t.While I’m disappointed, I understand completely.You have a thing for Penrod, and he’s being an ass about it.”
“I don’t know that I’d call him an ass.He just didn’t click with me.And that’s entirely my fault for whatever reason.”Gilman said he would love to take her out again.“I don’t think so.You’re very nice and all, but we have nothing in common.Or are you asking me out because it’s normal for you to have a second date with women you go out with?Some kind of second date rule you have.”She laughed at him when he blushed.“You do, don’t you?”
“It’s just that I’d like to have a second chance to get to know someone before I just write it off that we didn’t come together.But with you, I can see where we’d just be friends and nothing more.I think I’d like that.Just to be your friend.We can still date, but it will just be as friends.All right?”She told him that she’d love that.“Good.How about tomorrow night, I take you out after work, and we get some donuts or something.To celebrate you no longer working at Murphy’s place.”
“I usually get off around ten.Isn’t that too late for you to be out?I know that usually I’m up by four the next morning, but since I don’t have to work, then I’d be able to do that.”He said he’d even pick up the donuts for them.“I’ll make coffee then.Or tea.Whichever you prefer.It’s going to be hard on me, just so you know.I’ve been working there for a long time, and now I’m not.”
“We’ll have some sugary dessert and cry over our donuts.”He laughed when she did.“You’re all right, Lori Hamilton, and I think I’m going to enjoy you being my friend.You make me want to bea better man, and that doesn’t happen often when I go out with someone.”
“I’ll be a good friend to you, too.I like you, too, Gilman Hathaway.You’re a funny man and a good friend to have around.”He told her that she could use him as a reference on her applications when she applies for a new job.“I might take you up on that, too.I don’t have a lot of references working for the same place for so long.I can’t use the customers.Half of them wouldn’t even know my name, and the other half wouldn’t have any idea what someone was talking about when they asked them for a reference.Most of the clientele is older, and they only go out once or twice a week to Murphy’s.”
After they got the dating thing out of the way, they seemed to get along better.It was like she was trying too hard for them to be a thing when all they needed to be were friends.And she thought that she could enjoy having Gilman as a friend.He’d certainly be a lot of fun when she needed someone to go out with for a good time.
And if it didn’t go anywhere, then they would be people who would know each other and not anything more.As they were getting ready to leave the restaurant, she nearly fell off her shoes when Penrod was sitting at another table with a woman.He didn’t look as if he was having a good time either, and she hoped that she was right.
“I should go over and tell him that he’s making a mistake, but I’m pretty sure he knows it.”She asked him what he meant.“That there is not going to be anyone in his life but you, and the sooner he knows it, the less miserable he’ll be.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”He just kissed her on the cheek and told her that things would work out well for the two of them.“There isn’t going to be the two of us.He’s already told me that I’m not his type.Well, he didn’t tell me in words, but he let me know in other ways.”
“You’ll see.”Gilman guided her over to their table and said hello.The woman was clinging to Penrod like she wanted to have sex with him right there in the booth they were in and didn’t care who saw them doing it.“How’s it going, little brother?You having a good time?”
“Of course we are.”He removed her hand from his chest and set it in her lap.It might have been funny, but for the fact that she was all over Penrod in a way that made her head want to explode.“Did the two of you have a good time?This is a nice place to have dinner at.”
He looked at her, and she smiled at him.She could feel how tight it was on her face and wondered if she was more grimacing than smiling.As soon as they finished speaking, she pulled Gilman along, and they left.The man laughed all the way to the car for some reason, and she wanted to smack the silliness out of him.Whatever was wrong with him, it only made him laugh all the harder when she asked him.
“He’s jealous.”She said that she thought that he looked like he was going to get laid right there in the place.“That too.I wonder if she knows that he won’t allow her to do that much longer before he just takes her home.He’s done it before when a woman got too frisky with him.”
“Frisky?Is that what you’re calling it?She looked like a vampire and was going to drain him dry.”That made him laugh all the harder, and she couldn’t help herself; she laughed a little too.“There is something seriously wrong with you tonight.Or are you like this all the time?Finding humor in your brother’s hard times?”
“She’s one of those see-hers women.She wants people to see her with him so that she can tell them that she’s seeing a Hathaway brother.It happens all the time.Once, a woman was upset that one of us didn’t own a jet so that he could take her someplace special for a date one night.None of us owns one, by the way.We just take commercial flights when we want to go somewhere, and it’s not on a date night.”She leaned back in the car and felt her anger getting the better of her.“Don’t be mad at him, love.He’s only doing something that he thinks will work.He’s trying to wash you out of his system.The problem is, it won’t work.The two of you are a couple, no matter what happens from now on.”
“I think that you’re getting ahead of yourself.Your brother might enjoy that sort of date, for all you know.I’m not going to be clinging to him like he’s the last man on earth.I have my dignity.Besides, he’s never going to ask me out again, so that’s a moot point.”He said he bets he asks her out before the end of the week.“I’ll take you up on that since it’s almost Friday now.You’re very strange.Has anyone ever told you that before?”
“Lots, but not usually on a date.”He drove her home and walked her to her door.Just as she thought he was going to kiss her, he pulled her into his arms and gave her a hug.It was a brotherly sort of hug, and she loved it.“Good night, my dearest friend.And I’ll see you tomorrow night with donuts.”
After she unlocked her door and slipped inside her house, she watched as he pulled away.He’d at least made sure that she got inside before leaving her, and she was glad for that.After turning on the lights and making her way to the living room, she frowned.There was no way that Penrod was going to ask her out again, and it made her depressed a bit more than she thought it should have.
~*~
It took him over an hour to get her into her apartment, and not have him go in with her.She was determined; he had to give her that, and he wasn’t going to play her games.As soon as he was able to get her keys from her, he opened the door and shoved her in, and he was gone before she realized that he wasn’t staying; he was sure.As soon as he got in his car, he was spinning out of the driveway like his very life depended on it.He was sure in some way that it had been.She was determined to have him in her bed, and he wasn’t going to have anything to do with that.
