25 Chapter 20

"Wow, I had no idea, my Dad never said anything to me.", she stated.

"I haven't told him yet, I am still running it around in my head.", I answered back, "So how about you, what have you been up to ?"

"Me? Nothing much, just working full time, saving money, I hope to get my place in a year or so. My Dad said he would help.", she answered.

"Somewhere around here ?", I inquired.

"Yes, my Dad wants me to eventually take over his company, so I will have to be close to this area.", she stated.

"That makes sense.", I answered.

"So how about we get together before you head back up to school, just hang out or something ?", Courtney asked.

I didn't want to be obvious and come right out and ask what had happened, but the last thing I needed was to get caught up in any drama. I know Courtney's dating life had been less than stellar, although perhaps a lot of it had been my fault. Maybe had I been more possessive, things would be different.

"That's ok I guess, I mean as long as it doesn't cause any problems with anyone.", I answered.

"No problems, I am unattached, haven't been out in close to seven months, how about you ?", she shot back.

"Nope, no one.", I answered.

We talked for a while longer, I told her I would call next week, maybe we could go out for dinner, a movie, something like that. She answered that she would be looking forward to it. I left shortly thereafter and headed straight home.

The weekend passed quickly, Ashley went back to school on Monday she still had four days left before her break would come. I went to the gym every morning and worked out, laid around the house most of the rest of the time. It was always good to be home, taking the time to wind down from school and football. I had gone out during the early evening on Thursday, I was dying for a burger and fries. The diner wasn't very busy yet, so I sat in a booth in the back corner. I had just received my food and was preparing to eat when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Well look who it is, eating all alone. We can't let that happen.", the soft female voice said.

I turned around to see Stephanie, Ashley's co-worker from school standing there with a huge grin. I had no choice but to offer her the opportunity to sit down. She slid into the booth across from me right away. She called the waitress over and placed her order immediately.

A few short minutes later she received her food and settled in.

"So what are you up to Brian ?", she asked softly, wiping her moist lips with the napkin.

"Nothing much, just felt like a burger and fries, they monitor so much of our diet at school, it gets old.", I answered.

"By the way, I wanted to ask you, do you have a girlfriend up at school ?", she inquired without hesitation.

"No, I don't. I keep busy with football and classwork. I barely have any free time.", I replied.

"You have to be kidding me, I can't believe you're unattached. Well good then, how about before you go back to school, we go out on the town ?", she asked, smiling.

This girl didn't waste any time, she got right to it, I thought to myself. I mean how could I possibly date a teacher from my old high school, much less a close friend of Ashley's. True, she was barely two years my senior, but it was still small-town America, this would be gossip for sure.

"Oh wow, um… I don't think that would be a real good idea, I mean I know you're new in town, but people get vicious with gossip. You and I out on a date would give them material to use for months. It would probably hurt you at school as well.", I answered.

"Really ?", she asked.

"Really. You have no idea.", I answered.

"Well then, just come to my place one night, we don't have to leave. No one will see us there.", she said, winking at me.

"I don't know, this town, it's just really weird.", I told her.

Before I left she had me give her my cell phone number just in case, she said she would call me later on. As I drove home, I couldn't help but laugh at how the town would react to this. I got home that evening, Ashley was already home, her vacation starting for spring break. She was on the sofa reading some papers as I got in, I sat down in the chair across from her. I wondered if I should say anything about Stephanie, they were friends after all. I decided not to, there was no way I was going to see Stephanie anyway, why cause trouble?

Courtney called me around noon on Friday, asked me what I thought about doing something later that evening. By now I was pretty bored of sitting around, so it sounded good. I told her I would come pick her up after six or so, she agreed that would be fine. Later that evening, I took a shower and was dressing as Ashley knocked on my door. I opened it and she stepped in, a puzzled look on her face.

"You going out ?", she asked.

"Yes, for a while.", I answered.

"With who ?", she countered.

"Courtney.", I replied.

"Brian, you have got to be kidding, after all she did to you, you're going back for more ?", she asked, sternly.

"It's not a date, we are just going to hang out for a few hours.", I said, trying to defend myself.

She just turned and walked out without saying another word. I knew this was going to happen, I know that after the first time Courtney had dumped me for Darren, Ashley had written her off permanently. And I guess after it happened twice, I should have too. But odd as it was, I still felt something for Courtney. I couldn't explain it, it was just there.

I finished dressing and headed for the kitchen door, I could see Ashley on the sofa watching TV.

I picked up Courtney, we decided to go to the movies, then we grabbed a late meal at the dinner. I dropped her off about ten-thirty that evening, we had a nice time. There was absolutely no physical contact of any kind, it was almost like two friends just hanging out.

I drove off and headed straight home, walking in just about eleven o'clock. As I made my way to my bedroom, I heard the shower running in Ashley's room, then I heard the water stop. I leaned my head into her bedroom, letting her know I was home.

"Hey Ashley, I'm home. Gonna hit the shower.", I yelled.

"Ok.", I heard her yell back.

I grabbed some clothes, took a nice hot shower, took the dirty things put them in the laundry basket, and went into my room. I could hear the TV on in the family room, I figured Ashley was watching something. I decided it was much easier to just go to sleep than sitting there feeling uncomfortable.

I woke up early Saturday morning and went straight to the gym to get in an early workout. I took a shower at the gym then headed straight home. It was about nine-thirty when I entered through the rear kitchen door, Ashley was drinking coffee at the table.

"Hey, been to the gym already ?", she asked.

"Yes, I woke up early.", I answered, pouring myself a cup of coffee.

"Say, I have to ask you something. Did Stephanie really ask you out on a date ?", Ashley pondered.

"Who told you that.", I answered.

"Uh….. She did.", Ashley replied.

"Oh, well not really a date. She wants to go over to her place one night.", I stated.

"Oh, does she ?", Ashley snapped, "And I hope you know why she wants you over there ?"

"I can only guess.", I answered.

"I can't believe her, I mean…dang.", Ashley replied, shaking her head.

"Look Ash, I know how this town works, trust me. There is no way in hell, I would go over there, morning, noon, or night. I know better.", I shot back.

That seemed to calm her down for the moment, although really if you thought about it, it wasn't that far-fetched that Stephanie and I could date. We were a mere few years apart, not really that big of a deal. I was just about finished my first cup of coffee when my cell phone rang. It was Courtney, she wanted me to take a ride with her to a town about two hours away from ours to pick up some work-related material for her Dad. She didn't feel like the long drive alone, she wanted company. Since I could tell Ashley was in less than great spirits, I decided to tag along.

She picked me up a few minutes later, I met her out at the car. We drove over to the town, picked up her Dad's things then drove back. On the ride, we talked about everything in general, nothing specific. It seemed though that the more time I spent with Courtney, the more I noticed a subtle change in her. She seemed more independent, more mature, she was less clingy than she had been in the past. We decided to go out again one night during the week before I went back to school.

I guess it was three-thirty in the afternoon when I got home, Ashley's was not there. I made something to eat, cleaned the kitchen, then laid on the sofa for a few hours. I fell asleep, waking when I heard Ashley in the kitchen. I got up, walked into the kitchen to see she had been at the grocery store. I helped her put away the groceries, took out the trash, then went back to the TV. Ashley came into the room about thirty minutes later, sitting down in her usual spot in the chair.

"I feel like going to a movie tonight, maybe grab something to eat, I checked TV, nothing much is on. You wanna go with me ?", Ashley asked with her eyes on the TV.

"I dunno, what do you want to see ?", I asked, trying to give myself some time to think.

"Let me see what's playing.", she answered, heading to the kitchen to get the newspaper.

While she was gone, I was twisting things around in my head. Maybe if we went out, spent some time together, we could discuss the situation here at home. It had been pretty awkward lately, maybe a night out would ease tensions a bit. By the time she had come back, I had decided I would go.

"There's nothing much playing here in town, but Midway has two good shows playing, both starting at seven.", she informed me.

Midway was the next town over, it took about thirty minutes to get there. Obviously, she was planning to make a night of it, judging by the time.

"I guess so, nothing much else to do.", I answered.

We both showered and changed, I was out and sitting on the sofa long before Ashley appeared. When she finally came out, it was apparent why she had taken so long. She looked absolutely ravishing, beyond normal "Ashley Hot". She was wearing a short jean skirt, a tight white knit top, sneakers with long white socks pushed down around her ankles. Her hair was in a ponytail, her makeup was impeccable. She actually looked like a high school cheerleader, rather than a teacher.

We took her SUV rather than my old truck, but she wanted me to drive. As soon as we were both insides the vehicle, her incredible scent filled the air. She smelled clean, fresh, almost like a newborn baby smell.

It was extremely hard trying to concentrate on the road with her short skirt high on her thighs, her scent filling my head.

We arrived at the theatre about thirty minutes early, there was a short line for tickets. As I stood in line with Ashley, I could see every guy eyeing her up from head to toe. They would then look at me and try and figure the situation out, I guess. I let Ashley pick the movie she wanted, she paid for the tickets, we went inside.

She wanted to go get our seats first, making sure we had good ones. We entered the theatre and I followed her as she climbed the stairs to the last row against the back wall. She entered the aisle and moved exactly to the middle of the row, we were right below the opening when the projector was. We sat there for a while, then I went to the concession stand and got a large popcorn and two Coke's, returning just minutes before the show was scheduled to start.

The room was maybe half full at best, there was no one else on the aisle where we were sitting. I pushed my seat back and settled in for the show. The movie was maybe ten minutes old when I figured out this was definitely a chick flick, there was nothing here for me.

I pretended to be interested in Ashley's sake, truthfully I could have taken a nap. At a point maybe halfway through the movie, Ashley placed her arm on top of mine, which was resting on the arm of the seat between us. Her hand immediately came down upon mine, causing me to freeze in place

. I had no idea what this was about, I decided to just act as casual as I could. Her hand had been there for maybe a minute when I felt her fingers pushed down between mine, our hands were now intertwined. She was moving her thumb back and forth across the side of my hand closest to me, she was sending chills up my spine. I had a lump in my throat and one forming much, much lower.

I took my thumb and began to slowly stroke her little finger, very gently up and down. I wanted to make sure, this was, what I thought maybe it was. She didn't pull away, instead, I felt her gently squeeze my hand once, then resume her thumb movements.

We sat just like that for the remainder of the movie, our hands entwined, staring straight ahead. Once back at the car, I expected her to say something, but she acted very casually as we discussed where we would eat dinner. We decided to try an Italian restaurant that was located just a few blocks away, it was supposed to be very good.

We arrived within a few minutes, the place was very crowded, we had to wait about twenty minutes for a table. We were finally seated at the left front side of the room, our table was against the wall. We sat down, opened the menu's and starting talking about what to order.

The waiter returned and we placed our orders, he wrote quickly then turned back towards the kitchen. We had been sitting there for maybe ten minutes when I noticed several people kept glancing in our direction, some of them whispering to each other.

Ashley and I were making no physical contact so I had no clue why we were drawing such interest. As we sitting there talking a young boy in his early teens at best came up and stood right next to our table. We both turned in his direction, you could sense he was nervous.