AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stared off in the distance at the flag above the hole waving back and forth at me. It was a gloriously beautiful day for this.
“Sure,” I said. I grabbed my driver and I took a few practice swings before I lined up the shot. I waited, collected myself, and then I swung through the ball deeply. I connected solidly and drove the ball far and fairly straight towards my target. When the ball landed I was happy to see it was almost on the green, about two hundred and fifty yards away.
“Nice shot,” he said.
“I got lucky,” I replied. “I’m sure yours will be better.”
“In my dreams,” he laughed. “But thanks for the vote of confidence.”
I watched him take his swing. His ball went almost as far as mine but a bit more to the left.
We hopped onto the golf cart and started to ride down towards where our balls were headed. “So, how are you doing?” Dale asked me as we rode along. I knew what he was getting at. Whenever we were together, he always got around to that somehow. Why was he so determined to pull it out of me?
“I’m good,” I said.
“Yeah… I can see that. You may look like you have it all and, on the surface, you appear to be one of the most put together guys I’ve ever met, but you don’t fool me, Mason. I know you are hurting. It’s ok, things like this happen to good men sometimes and it sucks, but you have to find a constructive way to deal with it.”
“I have,” I said. “I’m doing well. I swear it.”
“Ok, so you’re doing well, but I know you are the loneliest guy that I know. You can’t fool me,” he said again. “You should let me and Natalie set you up. She has some great friends who are swinging single. They are beautiful, wonderfully sweet women.”
“I’m sure they are,” I said. “I just don’t want to go through dating anyone right now. I’m ok with the way things are. You can believe it or not, but I’m doing ok.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” he asked.
“I don’t know. You have some crazy desire to hook me up with some single friends.”
“Well, that’s mostly my wife’s thing, but I’m concerned about you as well. After what happened to you, after what Tiffany did, I understand you being so hesitant, but I think the best thing for you to do is to get right back out there and back in the saddle. You need that feminine touch and connection. That will heal the heartbreak faster than anything else.”
“Well, maybe I enjoy the heartbreak a bit,” I said. “Maybe it feels comforting to me to hold onto that.”
“Why? Do you feel guilty about something she did? If so then you need to stop that right now. You did nothing wrong here. You got butt surfed. That isn’t right. This isn’t what you signed up for with her. And now you are wallowing in the misery as if you should feel guilty? No, that’s wrong.”
I shrugged. “I know. But right now, that is how I feel and I just want to chill with that. I want to put most of my focus into my son and my work.”
“Ok,” he said. “I can understand that, but I’m going to tell you that you are going about this the wrong way.”
“We can agree to disagree on this.”
“Do you at least have your eye on anyone? How about that hottie at the bar you told me about?”
I had told him about Laney, hadn’t I? Shit. I had to learn to keep my thoughts and feelings to myself more.
“Yeah, she is great, but I’m not ready to make a move yet.”
“But she is single? She is interested?”
“Uh… I think… I don’t really know.”
“Jesus Christ. What in the hell do the two of you talk about then?”
“We just shoot the breeze,” I said. “Whatever is on our minds. I have a feeling there is something she isn’t telling me about.”
“Yeah? She married you think?”
I shrugged as we got out of the golf cart and walked towards our respective balls. “I don’t think so.”
“You never know. She works on tips, right?”
“Yeah, she does work on tips. That’s why we can never really know what is going through her head or what is going on with her life. It’s just something I have to guess at.”
Dale was now overly focused on his ball. He was looking at it from every single direction and trying to decide what the best attack was for this particular shot.
“I’d go with the nine iron,” I said.
He gave me a puzzled look as if he thought I might be trying to sabotage his game, as if I really needed to do that. It was laughable I was going to destroy him in this game.
