Treasure Box

Chapter 11

“What is it?”

I snapped out of my thoughts at Pat’s question and grinned, “Mikey wants to know that this is about as much as I do.”

He looked back at Michael and giggled softly, “He’ll find out soon. I actually wanted to ask you,” he hesitated, a look of fear passed over his countenance, “If you want to go on a date.”

I stared at him blankly for a good two to three minutes then cleared my voice and asked, “I’m sorry, what?”

He bit his lip nervously, “Do you want to go on a date with me?”

I blinked at him, shocked that he was asking exactly what I thought he was asking. This was literally a first for me. I had never been the one asked out by someone else. I thought back to what the guys had said about getting out there and dating. “Okay,” I nodded, “Sure.”

“Really?” his eyes widened, “You will?”

I nodded again, “Yeah. Unless you were joking or something.”

“No, no, no,” he shook his head frantically, “I just didn’t think you’d say yes. I’m kind of awestruck right now.”

I grinned, “No need to be. I’m just an ordinary guy and I’m flattered that you asked me out. How about after school this Friday? I can pick you up from your place and we’ll have dinner?”

“Sure,” he agreed, grinning brightly. “Around seven, maybe?”

“Around seven,” I patted his shoulder reassuringly as I passed him to walk to Michael. As Michael jumped into my arms, I lifted him up. Instinctively, he wrapped his legs around my waist and hugged my neck, nuzzling it like a puppy.

I love my son. Do I say that often enough? “I love you, princess.”

He giggled, “I love you too, daddy.”

“You better,” I joked.

We waved good bye to Pat and his classmates and walked to the car. Michael managed to patiently strap himself in before he bombarded me with questions about Pat like ‘is he okay?’ and ‘was it about my grades?’ Surprisingly, none of anything were remotely close to the actual topic. I figured Michael would be the first to pick up on this type of thing.

“I’ll tell you what he said,” I assured him, “But you have to promise to keep it to yourself. Keep your mouth zipped, okay?”

Michael mimed zipping and locking his mouth and bounced at the edge of his seat.

I chuckled and wondered how long it was going to stay locked. “Well, Pat asked me out on a date.”

He practically shouted in my ear, “What?”

I groaned and hissed, “Mikey.”

“Sorry, daddy,” he sat back but continued, “But he can’t ask you out. Only Louis can ask you out. Why is he asking you out?”

This was a problem I should have expected. “Mikey, Louis obviously doesn’t want to date me,” I ignored the sharp spike in my chest, “And it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t give Pat a chance. He seems nice and you like him as your teacher so why not?”

“Louis totally wants to date you,” Mikey argued, “He just doesn’t know how to tell you.”

“Well you can tell him that a good ol’ invitation to have tea would be perfectly fine,” I smiled slightly so he knew I was joking. Well, joking for the most part. I knew that if Louis, of all people, asked me out on a date, I probably wouldn’t hesitate to say yes just to see how it turned out.