“Everyone’s been really great.” It’s mostly not a lie, even. Not for Edwin and not Eddie, either.
“You never visited your aunt while she was alive?”
“Didn’t know I had one to visit.”
“I don’t want to invade your privacy, or anything, but how is that possible, dude? I see my entire family at Christmas.”
Eddie picks at the label on his bottle, nerves jangling to life. He had the lies all planned, of course; make it as close to real life as possible, so he’s never totally off his guard. Still, something about Carver asking hits wrong, like biting down on a cavity.
“Mom died when I was ten, and my dad took off, sent me to live with his brother. Never knew mom had any family, let alone wealthy ones.”
“Sorry.” Jason reaches out and grips Eddie’s hand. He only barely doesn’t flinch away. “I shouldn’t have intruded.”
Eddie waves it away with the hand Carver isn’t holding. “It was a long time ago. How’s your family?”
Jason laughs. “Okay, fair. They’re good. Parents still married. Got a couple sisters. Can’t complain.”
Of course he can’t.
The waitress comes back, then, to take their order, and the conversation momentarily dies.
“So. Steve Harrington.” Jason starts as soon as she’s gone.
Chapter drop time! Forever is the Sweetest Con Chapter 14 live now!
Hey readers, today I’d like to talk about a rule that I established for myself long ago: Always take your own car to a first date. Regardless of your gender, if you have never met a person (such as in a blind date, Tinder date, dating website), ALWAYS take your own car. This is an experience that I had while going through a “I’m a single girl who can date whomever she wants” phase, henceforth known as SGP (Single Girl Phase).
While it is true that dating is fun and everyone is free to date whomever they want, I was doing it in a slightly unhealthy way. When I got out of high school, I had only had one boyfriend, and it had been very serious. Well, as serious as a high school relationship can be. And even though my high school boyfriend was not, by any means, a horrible person, I always had a constant fear, that one day it was all going to turn out to be an elaborate prank, and he was just dating me as part of some kind of dare. Sort of a Carrie, Dogfight, Pig Party kind of thing. Of course this wasn’t true, but it is a good illustration of my self-esteem in and coming out of high school.
Alright, now that my dating attitude has been established, let’s get into the story. I once met a guy on Tinder, let’s call him Jacob. Jacob came to pick me up from my house, came to the door, and picked me up. I was living with my parents at the time, so he met my parents, nothing too interesting happened there. Then we went out to the car.
As soon as we got in the car, the truck actually, things started to go weird. I got into the passenger seat, and I heard a weird elongated whoosh sound. I looked over, and there was Jacob, breathing as hard as he could, into the breathalyzer that the police had installed on his car. He then lit up a cigarette and started the car, as the breathalyzer had come up alcohol-free. Now at this point, I feel like a reasonable person would’ve gotten out of the car, but I was so flattered that someone on Tinder had liked me, and there was a voice in the back of my head telling me that I was lucky to even be on this date, so I stayed put.
The rest of the date was very strange. We went to Sonic, which was closed, because he was not hungry so he didn’t think we needed to stop and eat. So we just parked at an empty Sonic and we sat on the tailgate of his truck and he started talking. And when I say talking, what I really mean is excruciatingly oversharing. By the end of the date I knew all about his very dark childhood, and his relationship with his parents, and his brothers and sisters, his drug and alcohol problem, not to mention all of the cigarettes he smoked while we were sitting there. By the way, he talked about his drug and alcohol problem not as a problem for his health or his lifestyle, but more as a problem of getting caught and further bothered by the police.
We then kissed, and Jacob took me home and did not walk me to the door. Nope, he stayed in his truck and drove away as soon as I got out, not even checking to make sure I could get into the house.
It was a terrible date, and I had an absolutely terrible time. But due to my views of myself, when he asked for a second date, I went. We went on two more dates in fact, until I finally came to my senses and realized that if I wasn’t having a good time with him, I should just not spend time with him.
But the point of the story is that low self-esteem can lead us to settle for people who don’t treat us well, situations we’re not comfortable in, and lifestyles that make us unhappy. Never date someone that doesn’t make you feel better about yourself, and ALWAYS TAKE YOUR OWN CAR TO A FIRST DATE!
Brock expected that Darcy Lewis would hate him. Maybe snub him at work. But to his surprise, she went out of her way to be friendly. Of course, her efforts at friendliness included things like bringing brownies by the STRIKE office, tying balloons to his desk on his birthday, and generally talking his ears off whenever they met. Usually about the oddest subjects: A puppy she’d rescued in New Mexico. How great warm tortilla chips were compared to room-temperature ones when they ran into each other at his favorite place. Socks. She caught him having coffee near work, in the elevators, at SHIELD parties, even once at a drugstore. If he wasn’t scrupulous about personal security, he’d have been paranoid that she bugged his vehicle with a GPS tracker or some shit. But no. It just seemed like they happened to like the same coffee place, salsa, dogs, and keeping their feet warm. He expressed as much to Jack and the Australian gave him a look. “What?” Brock said.
“Did you think I bloody set you up with her because I thought you wouldn’t get along?” Jack asked.
“It would never work,” Brock insisted. Jack still wanted him to get out there. So, he went out with older women instead, women who were in public relations, or SHIELD’s legal department. Appropriate women, he thought. Age-appropriate, career-appropriate, clothes-appropriate, the whole package. Somehow, it never seemed to work quite right, though; the public relations specialist had wanted him to spend Thanksgiving with her in the Caribbean, not at his mother’s. Brock had promised his Ma that he would spend more time with his family, now that he was able to. He picked his mother. That ended his brief attempt at a tidy, PR-friendly, grown up relationship. Then there was a rougher breakup with Miranda from SHIELD’s legal department, once he realized she was uncomfortable with the way people stared at his burns in public or said things. He buried himself in work and swore off dating again.
He was working late at his desk one night when Darcy passed the door, stopped, and trotted in. Grabbing Jack’s rolling chair and spinning it around, she did a little turn before she rolled next to him and put her feet on his desk. “Wheeeeee!” she said. “That was fun.”
“Hi,” he said dryly, eyeing her chunky boots. She was wearing socks with pretzels on them. Typical.
“Brock, do you know Kris Jensen’s music?” she asked. She tended to start mid-thought with him now. “From the sixties?”
“I’m not that fucking old, Lewis.”
“But listen to this,” she insisted, making him take an earbud. A male voice warbled in his ear. He blinked as Darcy shimmied in her chair.
“Who are you torturing?” Brock teased. “Me?” That was what the song was about.
“Pffht, excuse me. I’m the one being unfairly tortured here,” she said, blowing out air in mock-affront.
“Oh yeah?” he said. “By who?”
“You!” she said, grinning at him.
“Me?” he said, feeling incredulous.
“You stubbornly refuse to cooperate with my plans,” she said.
“Your plans?” he said.
“I want you to take me to the office Christmas party,” she said.
“Oh. That,” he said, frowning. “I hate that party.”
“I know, I thought we could go together, actually have fun. But you persist in not falling in love with me, which is really disrupting how this all went in my head,” she told him.
“How’s that again?” he asked, tilting his head curiously.
“You become smitten with me on our first date, I comfort you with my ample bosoms, everyone’s happy,” she said. “There’s a lot of naked and happy at the same time.” He chuckled.
“Uh-huh,” he said. “You don’t lack for imagination.”
“We’re weeks behind schedule,” she told him. He frowned.
“Why do you want me to be your date, really?” he asked. He couldn’t see what she’d want with him, either. Sure, his abs were sturdy, underneath their scars, but people cringed at his face now. Visibly. No one like her could handle that kind of pressure. When he looked up, she was grinning at him.
“I have an astonishing weakness for older men,” she said, drawling out the words. “Especially broodingly attractive STRIKE commanders who make me feel like I’m a delicate woman in need of their protection from the big, dangerous world.” Brock looked at her wryly. “What?” Darcy said. He raised an eyebrow.
“Lewis, you’re wearing pretzel socks and you tased Thor,” he said.
“So?” she said. “I’ve got a good dress for the Christmas party. No pretzels. You’ll be impressed--” she was saying, as Phil Coulson walked into the office. He was in town briefly for a meeting with Fury.
“Commander Rumlow,” he said. “Darcy Lewis.”
“Phil!” Darcy said. “Make him take me to the Christmas party!”
“No,” Phil said.
“Why don’t you go with Phil, Miss ‘I Like Older Men’?” Brock asked. “He’s an older man.” He gestured at Phil.
“I’m not sure I like where this is going,” Phil said. Darcy scoffed.
“Because Melinda knows a bajillion ways to kill me, duh,” Darcy said.
“Yes,” Phil said, looking relieved. “She does.”
“I’m not stupid,” Darcy said. “I want a single date, too. That seems like a basic requirement for a Christmas party.”
“Eh,” Rumlow said, shrugging. “I’ve had some good dates with non-single women.” Darcy frowned.
“That’s very cynical,” she told him. “Was he always this jaded?”
“Yes,” Rumlow cut in quickly. Phil made a funny face, cleared his throat, and then sat down his paperwork.
“Shouldn’t you people be at home? Your own, individual homes?” he asked awkwardly.
“Reports,” Rumlow said grimly.
“Yeah,” Phil said, nodding. Then he looked at Darcy.
“Jane has a new doohickey,” Darcy said. “I’ll be here until the end of time, unless I sneak some benadryl into her snacks.”
“You do that?” Brock said.
“You’ve never really talked to Jane, have you?” Phil said.
“She’s started finding them,” Darcy confided, looking sad. “Because they’re so pink.”
“That is unfortunate,” Phil told her. “Goodnight.”
“Night, Phil!” Darcy called, turning in her chair to watch him leave. When she turned back and couldn’t see his face, Phil paused.
“Take her,” he mouthed at Brock. Brock gave him a look.
okay but how did i scare the guy off so bad that in 3 hours he went from saying things like 'idk i'm just really drawn to you' to not even walking me to the bus stop like what did i DO
My 1000 Word Project #3 #romance #writer #novel #blogger #first1000words #chapter1 #writing #badfirstdates #writingprompt #newbiewriter
So I decided this week to try to write a romance story. It’s a hard genre for me to share as I feel like there is an assumption that it must be about me, something that has happened to me and it must be real, well more real than a story about aliens and fairies. I don’t think that you always need to bear bare bear (?) bare your soul with everything that you write but you need to put a part of…
