Page 40 of Mr. Principal

Chapter Seven

“You know, we could have gone bowling or something.”

“Nope,” Carter said as he held the car door open for me. “This is our first date and I’m determined to make it as romantic and impressive as possible.”

What wasn’t said was that I was already impressed. He had texted me back that same night and between Meredith’s ribbings, I’d found myself agreeing to dinner and a movie with Carter.

I’d been nervous all week. I hadn’t known what to wear or how to dress. I didn’t know if I should wear makeup and perfume.

I’d decided on both at the last minute and I think Carter approved. Who was I kidding? I knew he approved. He couldn’t stop looking at how long my legs were in my mini-dress.

I’d gotten it shortly after my divorce. It had been an impulse buy once I’d heard from my very innocent daughter that she now had two mommies. If I hadn’t needed to be a functional adult that weekend Meredith had told me her dad had remarried, I would have certainly gotten drunk and woken up in my own vomit in an alley. But because I was a mom, I’d just bought some expensive clothes that I could no longer afford.

I’d returned almost all of them when I’d returned to my senses, but I’d kept this one as a token of perseverance. That’s what it had meant to me. And now I was actually wearing it on a date. A date with my best friend.

Who would have thought the day would come when that would happen?

“Well, I’m impressed so far.” I shyly cast a glance in his direction. “You look amazing.”

He laughed.

I bit my lip. “Sorry, if that doesn’t sound like a very masculine compliment. I could say that you look handsome, but that sounds ways too tame.”

“Amazing sounds good to me. A woman has never described me as amazing before.” He then winked dramatically at me. “At least not outside of bed.”

I couldn’t help myself. I laughed so hard my sides began to hurt. “You’re ridiculous.”

He smiled. “Of course, I am. And if that’s what it takes to get you to go on date number two with me, then ridiculous it is.”

“Date number two, huh? What makes you think you’ll get a second date?”

“I don’t know, I just have a feeling.”

I smiled to myself as I leaned back against the headrest. Ensconced in the darkness of the car, I let myself relax. It was sort of nice being courted, going on a date, having someone genuinely interested in me, and I was lucky that it was someone that was also a friend. Maybe this would work out after all.

We chatted about his experiences abroad and my new job. I told him how nice the people were and how being fired had actually been a good thing, it seemed.

“Yeah, sometimes you have to be forced to make a change, you know? Like your life has to be disrupted first before you wake up and realize you can do better.”

I considered his words and thought of where I would be if Tom hadn’t divorced me. I would still be sitting at home, hungry for love, overweight, and unhappy. I could admit that now. I’d been unhappy. And maybe so had Tom.

But I wasn’t going to focus on my divorce tonight. I wasn’t going to dwell in the past, especially when my future looked so promising.

I looked over at Carter then. He paused at a stop light and looked back at me.

“What?” he said with a small smile.

I shrugged. “Oh, nothing. I’m just thinking about how much things have changed.”

“Sometimes change is good,” he said as he pulled off.

I nodded. “But I’m a Capricorn, so I’m not a big fan of change and I have the bad habit of self-sabotaging.”

Oh, I’d just admitted more to him in the last few seconds than I’d admitted to myself in the last ten years.

“I think most people, more or less, are afraid to embrace change,” he said kindly. “If you think about it, the familiar is safe. Change is scary. Sometimes it’s important to be a little scared though, not everything in life should be easy.”

“Ha! I wholeheartedly disagree,” I said as we pulled up to a funky looking restaurant. I could hear music already and it sounded like reggae.