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Twelve
Summer
I agreedto see what could happen between Shaw and me in a different capacity. I asked to take it slow, and he started with a slow and tantalizing kiss that made my heart beat faster and my toes curl. It made me want more and change my stance on starting slow.
We ate breakfast together and talked about the fact that Sloane’s little game last night was purposeful, and I made a mental note to give her the what for later. While I’m happy with how the night and morning ended up, I’m also terrified.
It’s a ‘should we or shouldn’t we’ kind of worry. I’m hoping that Shaw and I diving into something new like this will not end in a disaster. After breakfast, I’m getting ready for work and Shaw is expecting his ex to bring Mason home. We’ve decided that we will not make a big deal about the change of direction of our relationship when Mason is here, when it feels right or if—we will figure out how to talk to him together.
My stomach is flipping when I change the closed sign on the store to open and I turn on the lights. I go through the motions of opening and only after a few customers come and go, do my eyes widen.
Holy shit, at some point, I will do the Humpty dance with Shaw. Like the horizontal tango, the four-legged foxtrot. We will put the banana in the fruit salad. He will dip his stinger in my honeypot. Oh my God. I will see him naked, intentionally.
I chug some of my water and look for something to keep me busy. I find the latest book delivery from a local independent author who will sign at the store next week. Perfect, I can set up the window display and create some flyers for the signing. I get to work first on the flyer and once I’m satisfied; I print.
I wheel over the book cart to the table front and center of the store once you walk in, and I unload the table with the various children's books to move to a different space. I run over to the romance section of the store, and browse the author names for more titles by the author. I notice my stock is low, so I leave what’s there to stay on those shelves and pull my phone from my back pocket.
I press for the author's agent and request an expedited order of some of her backlog titles, then resume to create a book tower with the newest release which will be the centerpiece of the table. As I’m bending to grab a few more books from the boxes, the door opens, Shaw walks through the door and gives me a smile that would melt my panties off. I awkwardly stand up and as I do, my hip nudges the table and my book tower tumbles.
“Ugh,” I groan.
“Can I help you reassemble the stack?”
“No, thank you. It was a book tower, but I can figure that out later. What’s up, what are you doing? Where’s Mason?”
“Marie last minute texted me asking if it was okay if he came over around three today, her mom had planned something for them and forgot it wasn’t Marie’s time,” he shrugs.
“Well, that was nice of you,” I smile.
“Am I being too nice? I mean, shouldn’t I be a little firmer with her and make sure that she keeps to the schedules?” he asks.
“Confession time?” I start, “I never liked her, so I would be the worst person to answer that.”
“That wasn’t a confession. That was public knowledge,” he winks.
It’s true. I never masked my distaste for her. I’m not sure if it was because she was with Shaw and deep down, I wanted to be that person. Or if I just didn’t like her as a person. But she was very vocal in her disliking me as well. She wouldn’t let Shaw and I hang out together and she would always call him when she knew I was around, and she wasn’t. Although her over protection didn’t seep into keeping her extra-curricular a secret. She was having a very public relationship when Shaw was out of town, as the only teaching job available was forty miles away. He would stay here during the weekends and during the week to ease his commute, he would stay in a shabby studio across the street from the elementary school that he was working at. Her affair with her now current boyfriend didn’t stop her from remaining the ever vigilant and over-possessive girlfriend with Shaw. She accused him of hooking up while he worked there, which was the last straw that unfolded her own affair. By this time, Mason was only a one-year-old and his parents were separated. They worked out a small custody agreement that gave Shaw time to spend with his son, and as Mason got a little older, they expanded some of the time spent with him as Marie started school again and had less time for Mason—more time to make sure she could dedicate to concentrating on school.
“Okay, so maybe not. Anyway, what are you doing here?” I ask, stacking some of the fallen books.
“I wanted to see if you wanted to do lunch?” he asks nervously.
“I can’t leave, Tasha doesn’t get here for another few hours.”
“I can grab something and come back, I’ve got time,” he offers.
I look at him and smile. This is nothing new, we’d have lunch together when time permitted, but now that we’re venturing into this new avenue of our relationship, I’m nervous and unsure if we need to act differently, but I go with my gut.
“I would kill for a meatball sub,” I say with enthusiasm to mask my nervousness.
“Yeah? Outstanding. I’ll be back in twenty,” he lingers as if trying to decide on something. He then leans in and chastely kisses me, grins, and then retreats from my shop.
While it wasn’t a romantic kiss, it was a kiss from Shaw and something that I am still wrapping my head around. I touch my lips and smile to myself as I think how things have turned from friendship to navigating a relationship in a matter of hours.
Are we ready for that, for real?
I’m drifting around the shelves when my cell phone rings, I pull my phone from my back pocket and see Sloane’s face on the screen. My finger hovers over the answer button and before I can answer, the shop door opens and Shaw waltzes in carrying a bag and a carrier with drinks. I silent the ringer and observe him.
With a wide smile on his face, he sets the items down on the counter and then looks around the shop for me. He doesn’t see me standing off to the side as he walks in, making it easy to observe him unnoticed. He’s carrying himself with confidence and looks to be in a good mood.
