Page 10 of Jaime's Story

How about I pick you up at six-thirty at your house? Is there anything you’d like to do?

Not going to even begin to lie, I like that he’s asking for my opinion while also wanting to pick me up. I will never argue getting to ride around in comfort, especially not with him.

‘Do you like old movies?’ I reply because the old theater is doing a dinner and movie, and I’d wanted to go see it tomorrow night anyway. I’ve been trying to get Jillian to agree to come with me because I really can’t stand going by myself to things like it.

Depends on the movie why? Do you like the Myers Theater’s dinner events?

‘Yeah, I do. They’re playing “Arsenic and Old Lace” this month. I was going to see if Jillian wanted to go with me so if you’d rather not that’s fine.’

It starts at six doesn’t it?

‘It does,’ I answer, unable to hold back a smile at the thought of going to it with him. ‘I was going to flex off some of the time I worked last week and leave early if she agreed to go with me.’

How about I pick you up at five-thirty then? And if you run into any delays at work just let me know and I’ll pick you up there.

Seriously, can he possibly be any more perfect? ‘Sounds perfect.’

I’ll see you tomorrow then, princess.

‘See you tomorrow,’ I respond, and the second I get home, Jillian lets out a loud squeal clapping like an idiot drawing Maia’s attention our way. Thank god Mom and Dad aren’t in the room or they’d be asking questions for sure—especially after Jillian brought up my dinner with him last week at Sunday dinner so pretty much everyone knows we semi-quasi went out already.

“Bryan called to set up your date, didn’t he?” Jillian asks and I laugh softly as Maia’s face lights up as well at my smile.

“Texted but yes, and you’re off the hook for the movie,” I add to her, making her eyes nearly bug out of her head.

“He’s taking you to the Myers Theater to have dinner and watch that old black and white film?” Jillian asks and I nod. “Damn, the man must be in love to sit through torture like that.”

“Not everyone hates old movies,” Maia says with a little shrug as Jillian looks at her in surprise. “Sometimes it’s nice to think about living in a time when the only thing a guy wanted wasn’t sex.”

“Don’t let Jeffery hear you talking about sex, or he’ll claim we’re bad influences,” Jillian teases her, making her blush and I give her a little hug shooting a warning look at my sister.

“He thinks I’m a little kid,” Maia says with a shrug.

“Actually I’m pretty sure it’s that he doesn’t think of you as a kid that’s the issue,” I muse surprising her a bit. “He’d rather you were a kid because then he wouldn’t be interested when he doesn’t want to be because he has trouble trusting women. He is though and that creates another issue since Mom and Dad are your legal guardians now.”

“You think so?” Maia asks and I nod, making her smile a bit more while Jillian silently laughs in her chair.

The next day seems to drag by, but the clock finally rolls over to three and I slip out heading home to change. Into what is the question though. The theater can get a bit stuffy but it’s freezing out and a coat can only do so much.

I finally settle on a pair of black legging style pants that will be comfortable but still a bit stylish and a pair of heeled knee-high boots. Then slip into a soft white cami before topping that with my favorite grey cowl-neck sweater that has lace inserts which will help if it’s warm in the theater.

I don’t bother to do much more on the makeup front. I use as little as I can even at events and my daytime makeup is still holding up well.

I do curl the ends of my hair to give it a little more bounce. Mine’s not quite as stick straight as Jennie’s is, but it’s definitely straighter than Jackie’s, Jasmine’s or Jillian’s is. It’s probably the most like Julie’s but she tends to keep hers shorter than I do. Her’s is probably shoulder-length whereas mine hits more around my breasts.

I grab my coat and head downstairs when I see it’s nearly five-thirty already. Deciding on an outfit took a lot longer than I anticipated.

Bryan’s pulling up to the house when I reach the front hall, and I open the door before he can knock, not wanting to get into it with Mom and Dad right now. They know I had dinner with him last week and that we’re going out tonight, but we don’t need to do the whole greet the date thing. Not when they already know him so he’s not a total stranger and I don’t want them asking anything stupid that sends him running again.

“Everything okay?” Bryan asks, staring down at me and I’m a bit confused. “I didn’t mean to make you feel rushed by suggesting five-thirty,” he adds, and a smile crosses my lips because that’s probably one of the sweetest things anyone could possibly say. I’m always early to places and it’s at least a twenty minute drive to the theater, but that actually didn’t even cross my mind until now. “We have plenty of time to get there. I already picked up our tickets and doors don’t open until six.”

“You already got the tickets?” I ask in surprise making his brow lift my way. “Sorry, I’m just so used to paying when I suggest doing something.”

“Well, if you decide you want to take a last-minute trip to Paris, I’ll let you pick up the tab for that, but dinner and a movie, I can handle, princess,” he states making me laugh fully as he guides me to his car.

The drive is pleasant as he tells me about his week covering for Fred in the department’s robbery unit. He apparently came down with the flu after responding to a woman’s house that was robbed. It happened when she was down with the bug, but Fred was cleared yesterday to return giving Bryan the day off.

I finish telling him about the new ad I’m coming up with as we reach the theater. “I’m excited for it since it’ll be a replacement to the one currently out there that’s boring. It’s for Do-You. The program came out almost two years ago and people keep sending in requests for updates on. It’ll highlight some of the unused built-in functions it already has in hopes of generating more purchases since most of the update requests are things it can already do.

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