Love Her Madly

Chapter 6. Spewing all kinds of

"Look at you, making all that sweet money. David the rainmaker" said Avery with a laugh. He nudged me a little in the side and cracked me a brilliant smile. This guy.

"What's the pay increase like?" Art asked.

Now this, I was very happy about. I was actually beaming. "Triple."

"Eeeehhhhhh" They cheered collectively, slapping each other across the ass. It was a thing we did whenever one of us accomplished something great.

"Man, I feel so behind guys," Avery started. "J's wife's about to pop anytime soon, Art's about to pop the question to Reah, David just made partner, and I'm -"

"A great doctor that has half the nurses in the hospital in love with him." I deadpanned.

He laughed and waved me off, picking up a set of barbells and heading over to the curling station.

"Man, all I'm saying is that I'm starting to feel like I need to settle down. I can't keep playing around with girls."

Art laughed, giving me a taunting, goofy smile. "At least you aren't scaring them all away like David."

I glared at him. "Hey, I never scared away any girls. I'm doing just fine in the woman department thank you."

Jansen smirked at me, wiping his forehead with a clean towel. "What about Zara?"

I wacked Art with my sweaty towel. That inglorious bastard! Of course he would tell everyone!

"You are fired from being my best friend Artur! You're the worst!" I chided.

Art looked at me sheepishly. "Sorry, I couldn't help it! Besides, I only told the guys and Reah. I didn't even tell my mom!" he said defensively.

Well, I'll admit, that was pretty good for Artur. I knew if I ever needed him to actually keep a secret he would. He just wasn't good at keeping my embarrassing moments to himself.

I got up and went to grab a bottle of water. The gym wasn't too busy, which is why we usually went around that time of day. It was intimate enough, had all the machines and weights we needed, and the towel service was great.

Registering that our workout was over, we headed to the locker room to pack up. I didn't take a shower there (I had a thing with showers that did not belong to me) so I grabbed my bag from my locker.

"Well boys, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have a phone date with Zara at 9:30 and I'd like to be fed and clean before I call her." I said smugly.

"Wait what?! When did this happen?!" Art spluttered. "What aren't you telling me?"

I slammed my locker shut and leaned against it smugly. "She's working with my mom at the university. I believe Hydro and her also have a partnership. Anyways, she was over at my mom's for a formal meeting and a dinner when I was there on Sunday so I was able to clear my name."

Art looked at me skeptically.

"A phone date?" Avery asked, making the idea sound absolutely insane. "What are you, twelve? People still do that?"

"Kay and I texted a lot before we went on an official date," Jansen defended.

"Yeah, but J, that was texting. Not actually talking on the phone."

"And I really think David ought to text so he can at least look over what he's saying before it's sent and put out into the universe." Art pipped in.

Well, if they were all going to be Negative Nelly's I was by no means going to entertain them.

"Thanks for your vote of confidence guys," I drawled, grabbing my bag and heading towards the door. "anyways, like I said, I've got to go. See you losers later."

"Oooh come on boo! Don't be like that!" Avery called.

"Let me attack that crack!" And that one was Artur, of course.

This boy.

After grabbing some takeout from one of my favorite restaurants I finally made my way home. I could feel the anticipation coursing within me as I ate my dinner on the couch. Everything that could possibly go wrong was racing through my mind. I don't know why I hadn't just stuck with texting until I'd eventually asked her out.

What did 22 year olds talk about anyways? She was educated, she was already in her career of choice, and she seemed relatively responsible. So obviously, she wasn't like most 22 year olds. But that only made things more difficult.

I needed to relax. I need to stop overthinking everything and just go with it. Obviously she was interested in me, and she didn't think I was too old for me otherwise she wouldn't have given me the go ahead. And seven years was not so large an age gap, I told myself again. There was no more time to mull over anything anyways; it was time to call her.

I went into my bedroom and made myself comfortable on the bed. Grabbing my cellphone I found her contact and eventually had the nerve to hit the call button. It rung a few times until the call was answered and I was greeted by her cheerful, teasing voice.

"You're late, Reimer. How long did you have to stare at that phone of yours before you finally worked up the nerve to call me?"

I chuckled at her playful taunt. I knew things were going to be good tonight, and that the conversation would be good; it had been an extremely good day thus far. I was very ready to charm Zara beyond comprehension, and to be equally charmed by her in turn.

After all, didn't Shakespeare say all's well that flirts well?