Common Sense Doesn't Become Me (7 page)

"Ah. Ouch. That must have hurt." He said it
with such compassion instead of the typical response of well some
men are like that. Although with my dad, I think it had become a
lifetime habit of deciding to stay married to my mom for the sake
of us girls and then when we moved out, I don't think either of
them could decide to do anything different about it. All of a
sudden, I felt his hand touch my face gently.

"You ok? You kind of faded off there,
thinking of something? Listen. I'm sure that had to hurt knowing
your dad was making a bad decision but not all good men are like
that. Not that I'm saying your dad's not a good man, it's just a
bad decision to do something like that."

Could you cue in the ark angels singing here?
Because this raised Catholic girl just found herself a man that
didn't think cheating was out of necessity or ok. Unlike Steve and
a few other guy's I knew. "I'm ok." I replied. Just then, the
waitress showed up with our long neck bottle beers, two waters and
two menus. I didn't want to talk about my dad, but I didn't want
Mason thinking he was a jerk either, so I quickly informed him of
something he needed to know. "My dad's a great guy; you'd love him.
He is a drinker though, but he seems to have called it quits on the
extracurricular junk, so please don't hold it against him when you
meet him." Oops, I just let Mason know that I was assuming he would
meet my parents soon. A bit early for that, but oh well, he seemed
to be taking it in stride.

"Glad to hear he's a great guy, and that he's
trying. What do you want to eat? Their hot wings are spicy, but
they are my favorite. Want to share an order?"

I never picked up my menu. I just stared in
awe of him. "Sure that would be great." He seemed so casual about
making this thing we have going on, turning it into a relationship.
As badly as I wanted an evening nightcap, I also knew that was
almost a fast track way of blowing a good thing. When he finally
looked over at me and put the menu down, I watched his hand
instinctively reach out for mine, and he smiled. What he said next
about put me into a melted mess on to the floor.

"Amber Jones, you are the best thing that has
happened to me in a long time. I'm really glad I picked this
building to do my hands-on employment time and even happier that
you ended up being my neighbor. Couldn't have worked out better.
Thanks for the show the other night, by the way." He let out a
little chuckle while looking down at his beer. When he looked back
up with his sexy as sin eyes, he looked at me straight in the face
and said the next thing very serious. "Best entertainment I have
had in a long time."

Without hesitation, but a bit of blushing to
my face, I held up my beer to his, clinked in a cheer's fashion and
said the next thing with a dead-on sexy smile to my face before I
took a long drawl of the house beer. "Right back at cha champ.
Really nice ass by the way."

He choked on a sip of his beer and started to
laugh. "About that. How much naked did I show you?"

"All. And if I am not mistaken, you were a
bit excited to get undressed or is that his relaxed state?" Now I
was really turning the conversation to slutty. He laughed and made
a quick turnaround in the conversation.

"I guess that is why you weren't so focused
on my eye color. Although, I was told to get some curtains up by
the old lady next to you. I guess she likes to sit with her cat in
the window seat and has a view into my place as well."

"Hmm. That would be a terrible thing. Putting
window coverings up in your bedroom. How would I be able to see
you, you know, before you get undressed to take a shower?" I took
another sip of my beer and looked at him with a sultry smile while
holding the tip of the beer bottle up to my lips.

"That can be arranged. Sorry to say, though,
curtains are already up. I guess I just have to remember to close
them." Then he set his bottle down on the table, reached over, and
whispered into my ear. "I don't plan on closing them anytime soon.
Just so you know."

"Hmm. That's a good thing." Then I took a
deep breath in and out, realizing that in all this time in the bar,
it felt like we were the only two people in the room. I liked that.
I liked that feeling a lot. I wasn't worried about who was looking
at me, was my hair ok, was the cute guy at the bar looking at me,
or Marion. Usually, men were looking at Marion.

By the time the food came, we had settled
into an easy conversation about our lives. I told him about my job
as an administrative assistant of the production line down at
Crawley's, and my mother's aspirations for me to go to college, any
college, any course, just to say I had a degree. He told me about
his business degree from CU Boulder and that his dad had great
plans for him, yet he kept alluding to what they were. Therefore, I
talked about Marion and her husband Carl, and I gleamed over her
pregnancy. I talked about my Aunt Heather, who is a perpetual party
girl even in her mid-forties, never married, no kids and how she
says she doesn't need them when she has me as her favorite niece to
spoil. Mason told me about his two sisters already married with
kids, yet he was the oldest of the four kids, and his youngest
sister just finished up her first year in college. It felt as if we
could talk on and on all night, but we didn't.

It was the last kiss that he dropped on me
right before saying that it doesn't matter what you do in life,
just that you are happy with the one you love that caused me to
realize my smart brain of learn all about him, just lost. I wanted
nothing more than to get him naked back at my place. I was in love
with his Latin bad-boy moves and his great outlook on life. The two
combined were lethal to my heart, because I was falling hard into
the canyon of love.

After he excused himself for a moment to go
to the men's room, I grabbed the waitress as she was walking by
with a quick yank of her arm. After a profuse apology to my
briskness, I pleaded with her that she gives us the check right
away. She smiled as she walked away. She was either going to take
her sweet time or have sympathy for a woman who is falling madly in
love with the man in front of her.

By the time Mason came back, the check was
being laid on the table before him, and our waitress was telling us
to have a great night. I intended to. I raised my eyebrows and
smiled while a loud 'thanks' left my mouth. Mason glanced over at
me with an inquisitive look of what was that about, and I simply
replied. "Girl talk, while you were in the bathroom. She likes my
shoes." I held my foot out and did a little foot modeling as if I
was showing a woman my spectacular footwear.

"Ok. They're nice. So are you ready to get
out of here? It's been a long day for me, and I'm sure you still
need to catch up on your missed out sleep from last night. You have
work tomorrow?"

If I wasn't mistaken, he seemed to be making
an exit to our date. No mention of nightcap or hanging out anymore.
The night was still young as it was only six o'clock. Was I reading
him wrong? Did he need to get to another date or had other plans? I
blatantly answered with a nonchalant answer as I shrugged my
shoulders. "Yup. Back to the old grindstone tomorrow."

As I stood up, he dropped cash on the table,
stood behind me and then put his hand to the lower part of my back
again. "So do you have plans for your actual birthday then?" He
asked.

We started to walk out of the bar, and then
it suddenly dawned on me that maybe he didn't want this thing to go
too fast either. That perhaps, I should not assume he just wants to
take me back to my place for anything more. We just had an early
happy hour adventure and after both our long nights, that maybe he
was just as tired as I was. I decided to answer him with an invite.
"Yes, actually. Well, I ordered a small cake from the bakery around
the corner. I had ordered a large one to bring back for leftovers
from my family restaurant party, but in my drunk stupor, the cab
driver got it. I was planning on having the small cake by myself,
after I got home from an after work thing we do with all the
employees. If it's someone's birthday, we round up any available
crew for a drink after work. Marion is coming, would you like to
come?"

Without hesitation, he answered me, which
made my heart float. "Sure. What time and where? Maybe we could
share some of that cake afterwards." He sounded excited so I had to
assume he was just trying to slow things down a bit, so we didn't
jump the gun on this one.

"Five o'clock. Down on sixth at that little
dive bar, do you know the one I am talking about."

"Yeah. Pete's. Pete's Bar and Grill I think,
but I don't ever remember seeing menus there. They've got a rank
happy hour buffet. Wouldn't eat from it, but they do a mean
karaoke, and the drinks are cheap."

"So you know the place?" I beamed with
excitement.

"Yeah. Right by your work. Makes sense."

I looked at him with a scrunched inquisitive
face for a moment. "How did you know where I worked?" Forgetting
for a moment, that I had mentioned in our earlier kaleidoscope of
exchanged life stories, where I worked.

Then he smiled seductively, stopped our
walking hand in hand business, and pulled my head in close to his
as he whispered in my ear. "I know a lot about you Amber Jones, and
I like everything I know."

Oh triple gulp. I about melted through the
street grate right there on the sidewalk.

By the time we made it back to my place, the
door barely closed, as we were right back to the same spot kissing
that we were at when he first came to pick me up. At this point,
stopping was going to be a hard endeavored option.

Chapter Six

The whole day at work, I
could think of nothing other than the sweet words of Mason telling
me that he wanted nothing more than to be with me, but it would be
wise for both of us to have at least a few dates under our belts
first. I agreed, reluctantly, but knew it was for the best.
However, his mention of other dates, held so much promise that I
was excited to finish work and get home. Even though, it was only
nine thirty, and I had a long production meeting to trudge through.
This was going to be a long day.

On my lunch hour, I saw a text from Mason. It
simple read, have a great day at work. It was enough that he was
thinking of me that I had a smile on my face the rest of the day
that got everyone I worked with to ask me what was up. I felt it
was too soon to exaggerate about Mason when I had just been
boasting about Steve. However, if he came to my work party tomorrow
night, I did not want there to be any confusion. Therefore, I
simply replied that my new boyfriend Mason had put it there. Only
two out of all the other females gave me the evil eye and reply of;
I thought his name was Steve. I just looked at them as if they were
confused. Luckily, for me, I did not work with people that bothered
to remember my boyfriend's names nor did they really care who I was
seeing or dating. They just cared if I got their digital time cards
inputted correctly for HR and if their vacation request time was
put in.

The drive home was tedious with traffic due
to the baseball game going on in the Rockies Stadium. Thinking of
Mason had made me completely forget that I needed to take an
alternate route home to make my drive easier. However, I would not
give up living downtown for anything, so I puttered through the
constant stop and go while thinking about Mason. I kept thinking
about his eyes and the way they spoke their own language of love;
his smile, which often exposed these two cute dimples on his
cheeks, and the most important memory of all, the way that he
kissed me and how it sent me into a tailspin of elation.

I only got three car horns to 'move it lady',
while I was lost in thought over Mason. So when I pulled into the
apartment building parking lot to my assigned spot, I felt
overjoyed when I could see his apartment from the lot, and his
light was on. That meant he was home and hopefully done with his
work. Maybe he would want to stop by for a drink or watch a movie.
As I took the elevator in my building up to my floor, I wondered
things like, what is his favorite movie, color, food, and the
all-time silly girl notion of what does he dream his perfect wife
to be? I know, a bit too soon for all these thoughts. Well at
least, the last one was a bit too serious, too soon.

When I got off the elevator, from thinking
about Mason, I felt as if I was walking on air all the way to my
door. As soon as I unlocked the door and walked in, I stood there
with my door wide open and a deer caught in headlight look. There
on my small kitchen table for two, was my bakery cake out of the
box, two small plates with forks on them, two unlit white candles
in crystal holders and two glasses of milk. My kitchen table is
just off the view of my doorway, ten steps or so from my window
seat, the very seat that now held a gorgeous seat cushion with a
huge blue bow and a note. I called out. "Mason? Marion? Aunt
Heather?" Any one of them could have done this. However, I said
Mason's name first because he had joked about sharing the cake and
getting me a window seat cushion so that I could watch his 'naked
dance' as he called it.

I finally closed my front door behind me when
no one answered out. I dropped my purse on my side table, walked
over, and picked up the note, which was obviously written by a man.
'Something soft to rest your butt on while you watch me.' With a
smiley face.

I walked over to the kitchen table and there
was another note on a small white piece of paper, it simple read.
Call me if you want to share that cake tonight.

I rushed over to my cordless phone and dialed
in the direct number to the building maintenance. Mason answered on
the second ring. "That didn't take long. You just got home. I saw
you pull up and park while I was fixing a tenants stuck window that
overlooks the lot."