The Solo Dating Experiment

Chapter Eight

"Did you sit out here and wait for me?" I ask Ed as I climb into the back of the black sedan. Conner and I ended up talking for hours, and then we had pizza and wine. 

"No, ma'am, my place is close by. I went home until I heard from Mr. Fields." 

"Never call a woman ma'am. It makes us feel old," I chide, and Ed smirks a bit.

"You sound like my daughter. She hates that too."

"How old is your daughter?" I ask. 

"Twenty-Seven just turned," he says. 

"Did you have her when you were ten?" I ask, and Ed finally cracks a real smile as he chuckles. 

"You are too kind, ma-- er miss--"

"Just call me Rissa," I direct him. 

"Okay then, Rissa," Ed agrees. "No, I didn't have her when I was ten, but we were very young. I was just eighteen and fresh out of school, and my lovely wife was only seventeen."

"Wow, that's so young," I muse. 

"Her parents were fit to be tied. They didn't like me much back then."

"What did you do?" I ask him.

"The only thing that made sense to us was we ran off and got married."

"Oh my gosh!" I gush. "That is so romantic!"

"Her parents didn't think so," he chuckles. "It took all my savings and then some to rent us a little studio apartment in Saint Paul. Two people and a baby in a tiny box of an apartment."

"I know about small apartments," I empathize. "That must've been so hard."

"Actually, I look back with fond memories. The tuna melt sandwiches because it was what we could afford,  the one channel that came in on our old TV, the baby's crib within an arm's reach of our bed, when she fussed, we'd pull her in, and she'd sleep between us. Only we'd never fall back asleep after that. We'd chat quietly over her little head, both of us too nervous to fall asleep with her in the bed. The next day, Gloria, my wife, would make the coffee extra strong for me. We didn't have much, and I worked two jobs, but we had each other, and that was all we needed."

"Ed! I never pegged you as a romantic. You all are still together, right?" 

"Of course, Gloria is still the absolute light in my life, and so is my daughter Nani." The emotion in his voice is thick with love, and it brings tears to my eyes. 

Suddenly, a year doesn't seem so bad... not if I end up with a love like that in the end. 

***** 

"I'm still confused about this, so you go on a bunch of dates alone?" Candice asks as she happily shoves popcorn in her face. She lit up like the Fourth of July when I brought that in today. Calls have been slow this afternoon, and once again, Diane is nowhere to be found. I'm a little glad about that; I haven't decided yet whether to talk to her about what I saw on Friday night. 

"It's kind of like I'm emulating a relationship, but—"

"Emulating? That's a big word," Katie teased as she stopped by my desk.

I shoot Candice a keep it quiet look. I don't need anyone at work to know about this. They all pick on me enough.

"Is that my dress? You didn't wash it?" I cringe as Katie hands me my wrinkly black dress that smells like booze.

"I was running late, and I didn't know if it was dry clean only."

Saturday's talk comes rearing into my head... and a surge of anger gives me confidence.