Page 23 of Poles Apart
Jacob
Jacob was gutted he’d have to miss Thursday’s dance session and even more frustrated that the only person who was free to take Abby was Lindsay.
He couldn’t get out of the emergency meeting, unfortunately, and had to sit through an hour-long session with Colin, Kieran, the PE teacher, and Jodie Innocent. Yes, that was her name, the head teacher.
Jodie wanted to discuss her idea for a weekend stay at a local outdoor centre. She asked Jacob to organise it and for Colin and Kieran to go along too. They would also need a female teacher to go, but none of them could make it to the meeting. He was thinking of suggesting Lisa go along with them. The centre had had a cancellation, so this would all be last minute. He was going to struggle to get it all sorted on time, but with help, he’d get the job done.
By the time he got home, he was exhausted and sat with a cup of tea while he waited for Abby to return. He just knew Lindsay would have something to say about Dom, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
Half an hour later, the front door opened. Abby came in, closely followed by Lindsay and little Ivy. Jacob prepared himself for the onslaught he knew was to come.
“We’re not staying,” Lindsay announced. “I wanted to let you know that I approve. Dom is wonderful. He danced with Ivy at the end of the session, and you know how shy she normally is. She loved him.”
Jacob didn’t quite know what to say. “Er, thank you? I think?”
“When are you seeing him next? We need to go over the plan, what you need to do to get him back.” She scooped Ivy back up from the floor and turned to leave. “Anyway, I must dash. I’m hoping Colin’s got the tea on.”
“Thank you for taking Abby today,” Jacob said to her. “I know it was last minute, and I’m sure Colin will fill you in on what the meeting was about. Don’t worry. It was nothing serious.”
“Oh, thank God. I couldn’t stand it if he lost his job. He’d be under my feet all day.” She reached across and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Ciao, ciao, sweetie.”
She walked out the door, and Jacob finally took a breath. She was exhausting when she was like this.
He found Abby in the kitchen, putting together some bread and ham. “Hey, don’t fill up on that. Dinner will be ready soon.”
She bobbed her tongue out at him and bit into her sandwich defiantly. She was getting far too sassy lately, but he supposed that was due to her age. She was sixteen now, but to him, she looked no older than fourteen. Her hair was similar in colour to Jacob’s light brown, and her eyes were the same blue. She was a few inches shorter, but he had no doubt that she’d be taller than him at some point. Despite her appetite, she was slight in build, and he was at a loss to see where she put all the food she ate.
“I’m starving. Dom worked me hard today. He was teaching me some hip-hop. What a dancer! He knows all the styles, but I think I like hip-hop best.” She paused speaking while she took another bite. “He was asking if you were bringing me next time. I think he missed you.”
Abby continued to eat and picked up her bags, moving towards the stairs.
“Did he say anything else?” Jacob couldn’t believe how desperate he was to hear if Dom had even been thinking about him.
“Maybe,” Abby replied and stomped up the stairs.
“Be down in half an hour,” he shouted after her. “Dinner will be ready then.”
The only problem with not having seen Dom this afternoon was that they’d not been able to work anything out for the weekend. He hoped Dom hadn’t forgotten and that he’d still want to meet up with him. He considered texting him but decided to wait until tomorrow. He didn’t want to seem too eager.
He set to the task of preparing dinner for the two of them, putting some music on to fill the silence Abby had left when she went upstairs.
Seeing Dom again had reminded him how little he’d gone out over the last six years. Ever since he’d taken sole care of Abby. He’d managed the odd hook-up but had been thinking more recently that he wanted something more. Someone he could love, who’d take care of him when he needed it. Everyone else seemed to have someone; Colin, Lisa, even Kieran had a partner. At age twenty-six, he had no one.
When he’d moved back to Chester, all he’d done was look after Abby, look after the house, look after the children at school. He didn’t regret any of these things and would do them all again in a heartbeat. But when had anyone looked after him, seen to his needs, not just his sexual needs, but his emotional ones too?
He was the one people looked to, this upcoming trip at school being another case in point. The head had saddled him with the task of organising it, not anyone else. Probably because he had nothing else to do. Other than going to the gym, he had no social life. He realised that now.
Maybe meeting Dom was the push he’d needed to get back out there. He was going to try his hardest to ‘woo’ Dom, as Lindsay put it. He just hoped Dom would go along with it.
Speaking of the school trip, he’d need to start with the arrangements after dinner, and he’d need to find somewhere to take Dom on Saturday.
During dinner, Jacob tried to not interrogate Abby too much about her session with Dom that afternoon. She talked about how enamoured he was with Ivy and how he had danced with her a little at the end of the lesson.
“He was so good with her, and she loved dancing with Dom. He held onto her at first, but then he put her on the floor and held her hands. It was so cute to watch.” Jacob waited while she continued to feed her face, watching as she fed forkful after forkful into her mouth.
“Did he say anything else?” He was so fucked when it came to Dom.
“No, but I know you want to go out with him this weekend. I can go and stay with Lindsay and Colin if you want.”
