Page 60 of Love, Rekindled

“Ready?” I ask.

“Yes.”

I’m glad one of us is.

* * *

“You’re takingme to a chick flick?”

“Of course I am.”

“You’re nuts!”

Did this guy never take her to a fucking movie? It was bad enough that through dinner she kept talking about how weird it was to be in public.

I’ve never wanted to kill someone as much as I want to with this guy. He not only made her doubt herself, but also gave her the lowest expectations possible. I want her to get everything she could ever want. She deserves that and more.

“No, I’m being a dude hoping at the end of the night you’d let me stick my tongue in your mouth. This is what happens on a date,” I say with a hint of sarcasm laced in truth.

Gretchen laughs. “Most guys I know don’t want to see this.”

“You think I do?”

Hell no do I want to sit through two hours of some stupid movie where I’m going to want to punch not only the “hero” of the movie but myself by the end. However, this is what guys do for girls they want to woo.

And wooing is what is happening here.

“I feel bad for the guy who takes me out after tonight,” she says and rests her head on my arm as we walk into the theater.

Yeah, me too because I’m going to kill him. No one else should ever get to know her like this, only me.

I stop moving when I think the last part. I’m not the right guy for her. I’m far from worthy. She’s perfect, unmarred, not scarred or broken. Gretchen isn’t walking around with a life’s worth of anger because she’s alive.

Nope. That’s me.

“You okay?”

Shit. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“We can see something else.” Her voice is soft with a hint of sadness.

Damn it. Me and my fucking issues. “No. No way. I’m excited to see all this love and smiles.”

Gretchen’s smile is timid. “Seriously, Ben, we don’t?—”

“Stop it. This is a date. We’re going to see a date movie and you’re not going to try to fix this. You’re going to just enjoy it, got it?”

I can see that it’s eating her up inside. She wants to make everyone else happy but herself. I bet right now, if I said we were going to see some action movie, she’d do it just because it’s what I wanted.

She’s spent her entire life, and relationship to the douchefucker, worrying about everyone else’s happiness instead of her own.

“Fine. You seem really firm on it, so we’ll go see the sappy movie.”

Good.

“Let’s go. The previews are the best part and you need to experience the awkward pre-date sitting.”

She hooks her arm through mine and we make our way to our seats. One thing that the movie companies finally did right was reserved seating. It’s nice not to have to try to get here thirty minutes early just to not be stuck in the front row.

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