A Will To Change (Hope) (23 page)

“Did you eat, Will?” I asked as I walked out into the living room to find him deep in a game of
Call of Duty
.

“Nah. I guess I'll just eat cold pizza all by myself.”

“Aw, poor baby. I can heat up some of the pasta that I made last night if you want.”

“You're the best, Gabby girl.” He quickly looked up from his game to give me a quick smile. “Aw, fuck!” he screamed as I walked away. I didn't even bother to ask what had happened. I already knew. Clearly, he must have gotten blown up in the game.

I took the pasta from the fridge, adding extra sauce to it and splattering it all over my shirt in the process. “Shit,” I whispered. After popping the plate into the microwave, I tried my best to blot up the mess that I made on myself, without much success. I quickly ran into my room and switched into the black top that was on my bed. As I looked in the full-length mirror, I realized that it looked much better anyway. That's what I get for listening to Will's sense of fashion. Then it finally dawned on me. He chose that sweater on purpose. I looked down at the ballet flats on my feet, then at my black suede boots on the floor and quickly changed into them instead.

“Much better,” I said, looking myself over one last time. The microwave was buzzing at the same time as the doorbell and my stomach dropped ever so slightly. Will started to get up from his game. “You! Go get your pasta from the microwave!” I demanded as I whisked past him to answer the door.

“Hey, why'd you change?”

I turned around, giving him a sarcastic grin. “Nice try!”

He held up his hands in defense. “Hey, I was just trying to save you from wasting a sexy outfit on a dud, but suit yourself.”

“Oh, just go get your food before it gets cold!”

I grabbed my coat, deciding that I would save myself the torment of introducing my date to Will and having him rub it in afterwards about how he was right. As I flung the door open, I was pleasantly surprised at the very tall, very well built, and
very handsome
man standing on the other side. He was dressed in jeans and a cream-colored cable knit sweater. His dirty blond hair was perfectly tousled and it offset his light brown eyes.

“Hey. Are you Gabby?” he asked.

“Yes. You must be Gene?” I smiled.

He smiled back, revealing his perfect teeth and adorable dimples.
On second thought…
“I'll see ya, Will!” I shouted, hoping that would get his attention so he could see for himself that Gene was a total stud and not a dud.

He walked out of the kitchen with a plate in his hand and a mouthful of pasta. I bit my lip to prevent myself from giggling as I watched him eye Gene up and down. “Oh, Gene, this is my roommate, Will. Will, this is Gene.” I gave him a sarcastic grin.

“How you doing?” Gene said, extending his hand first.

“What's up?” Will said, hesitantly shaking it. 

“Well, you enjoy your pasta!” I said as I was about to exit.

“Wait, Gabby!” Will shouted. “Where's the parmesan cheese?”

I slowly turned around. “It's in the fridge where it always is.” My eyes widened at him.

“Well, I can't find it. Can you help me for just one second?” His eyes widened back at me.

“Could you please just give me one second?” I asked Gene.

“Sure. Take your time,” he answered, stepping out into the hallway.

“Hey, nice meeting you, Eugene,” Will said with a devilish grin.

“Actually, it’s just Gene,” Gene corrected him.

I was going to kill him! I immediately regretted not making my quick escape like I had originally intended. I yanked his arm and pulled him into the kitchen, flinging open the refrigerator door. Was he kidding me? The container of cheese was dead center on the top shelf! “Here! Maybe you should think about getting glasses,” I said, slamming it down on the counter.

“Yeah. I don't really want that.”

“What?! Oh, my god, Will. You -.”

“Here, take this,” he said, slipping something into my purse.

“What the heck was that?” I opened up my purse and dug around inside, trying to figure out what he had just slipped inside

“A can of mace.”

“Are you crazy?!”

“Hey, just because he's a pretty boy doesn't mean he won't try something.”

“You are insane, you know that?” I started to walk away before turning back around and planting a kiss on his cheek. “Have a good night and maybe if I get lucky, we'll get to see if you were right.”

“About what?”

“If he recites his math facts before he…well, you know.” I giggled. The look on his face was priceless as I walked out the door.

Gene and I settled on a small intimate Italian restaurant not far from Will’s place, which I was glad about just in case he
did
turn out to be some psychopath. At least, that way, I knew Will would be close by. I was angry at myself for letting him make me so paranoid. Everything about Gene so far seemed really nice, except for the fact the he hadn’t stopped talking about his ex the entire time we were eating. Cleary, he still was not over this girl.

“So, how long did you guys go out?” I asked.

“Five years,” he replied.

My eyes widened. “Wow, five years?! That’s a long time.”

“Yeah. Diane didn’t believe in marriage. She said it was just a piece of paper that didn’t prove anything. Guess it was a good thing because it would have cost me loads of money when we broke -.” He choked back a sob.
Oh, my god. This is not happening. Was I really on a date with a guy who was about to cry over his ex? Why me?

“That Vodka Rig is the best I ever had,” I said, trying to change the subject.

“Yeah, Vodka Rigatoni was always Diane’s favorite.”
Dude, come on! Snap the fuck out of it!
“I’m really sorry, Gabby. You must think I’m some kind of idiot.”

Just a little.
“No, that’s okay,” I said, playing it off.

“You remind me so much of her. Your lips, your eyes, your smile.” His tongue swept over his lip as he glared at me.

I was so happy when the waiter brought the check. “So, did you want to go back to my place?” he asked as he signed the credit card receipt.

As much as I wanted to get back in the action, I knew this was not the guy to do that with. He clearly had ex-girlfriend issues and I didn’t want to be his “rebound” girl, having him imagine that I was Diane the whole time that we were doing it. As much as I hated to admit it, Will was right. I wasn’t
that type
of girl.

“Umm, you know what, Gene? I’m really tired and I’m starting to get a headache. Happens to me every time I drink red wine,” I lied.

He slammed his fist on the table and stood up. “You’re all evil bitches! Nothing but cock teases!” he shouted before storming out the door.

What the hell?!
My jaw dropped at his sudden outburst as the couple at the table next to me looked over. “Blind date,” I said.

The woman looked at me and smiled before nodding her head. “Well, I hope there’s not going to be a second one,” she chuckled.

“Oh, hell no!” I smiled before getting up and walking out of the restaurant.

I wrapped my coat tightly around me and pulled my can of mace from my purse. Will’s apartment was only two blocks away, but he had me paranoid. It turns out that Gene was a little “weird”, and I wasn’t quite sure to where he had stormed off. My first date after three years was an epic fail. If that’s what was out there, I now knew why so many women kept an extra set of AA batteries in their nightstand for their battery-operated boyfriends.

I breathed a sigh of relief once I was safe in Will’s apartment building. Now I was going to have to admit to him that he was right, but not without a little fun first. I ran my hands through my hair, messing it up and trying my best to make it look like “just fucked” hair. I silently giggled as I unlocked the door.
Scene 1, take 1, and…action!

“Hey, what brings you back so early?” I didn’t try to hide the happiness in my voice as Gabby entered the kitchen.

She was grinning from ear to ear as she walked over to the drawer and took out a spoon. “Well, how long do you think it takes?” she asked, sticking her spoon into the bowl of ice cream that I was eating.

“How long does
what
take?”

She raised her eyebrow at me. “S - E - X.” I could feel the ice cream that I had just swallowed churning in my stomach. “Oh, and just for the record, he doesn’t recite his math facts beforehand.” She smirked.

I was speechless. I couldn’t believe that she actually went through with it. That guy was
so
not worthy of her. She took off her coat and went into the living room. I followed behind her, trying my best to hide my laughter when I noticed that her shirt was still on inside out. I had noticed the tag when she had whisked past me to answer the door earlier, but being the
nice guy
that I was, I didn’t want to embarrass her in front of her date. I figured what would it hurt if she went out with her shirt on inside out? I found it hard to believe that she had sex and put her shirt on the same way again. She was totally playing me so I was going to play right along with her. I sat down beside her on the couch. “So, give me details.” I had to bite my bottom lip to stop myself from laughing at the stunned look that stretched across her face.

“What!? No, I’m
not
giving you details.”

“Why not?”

“Umm, because I’m just not!” she said, picking up the remote, nervously flicking through the channels.

“Well, I know one thing. He must not be much of a boob man.”

“Why?” she asked, crinkling her forehead.

“Because you obviously didn’t take off your shirt.”

“Umm…yeah, I did, if you
must
know!” she replied with an overly animated jerk of her head.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really!”

“Oh, so I guess the shirt you have on is
meant
to be worn inside out then? Because it was inside out when you left, too.”

Her jaw and head dropped as she looked down at her shirt. I couldn’t contain my laughter. “Will! You let me walk out of here with my shirt on inside out?!”

I held my hand up in defense. “Well, I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of Eugene.” She pushed me back on the couch and was no longer able to hold back her own laughter. She began to tell me all about her failed date, and I did my best to try and not seem happy about it.

“Go ahead, have at it!” she said.

“Have at what?”

“Telling me ‘I told you so’.”

“Now, Gabby, I would never do that to you.” I busted out with laughter once again.

“That’s okay. You won’t be laughing when I become a lonely old cat lady. I’m going to start collecting one cat for each year that I don’t have sex. At this rate, I’ll have twenty-nine by the time I’m sixty.”

“Gabby, you kill me!” She sighed heavily. “Movie?” I asked.

“Sure. I just want to get into my pajamas,” she said, standing up from the couch and sounding a little defeated.

“Hey, Gabby?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think you’ll have twenty-nine cats. Twenty, maybe, but not twenty-nine.”