Page 37 of Shameless
I rolled my eyes and chuckled slightly. “Hell no, and I wouldn’t answer if he called me.” There was no reason for Trey ever to call me again, but I knew my aunt and knew she wanted to keep the focus off of herself.
“His loss.”
“Exactly.”
“When are you going to start dating again?”
“Who says I haven’t?” I deadpanned.
“Have you?” she questioned.
Blake and I weren’t dating, and I had worried he would never call, but since he had, I was also hopeful we’d see each other again and not just talk about seeing each other. However, I wasn’t ready to tell my aunt that either. “Not yet, but Mexico opened my eyes.”
“Good. It took some time for me to start dating after Jeff died. Blake actually helped with that.”
“He did?” I sat up straighter, intrigued by her admission.
“This will sound silly, but he took me on a practice date.”
I was speechless. Blake was eighteen that summer and he took my aunt on a date?
“I was scared because it had been so long since I’d dated anyone,” she continued. “We did a little practice run to help me prepare. He opened my car door, but then …” she paused.
“Yeah?” I asked, needing more of the story.
It took her a few moments and then she said, “We ate pizza, and when we came home, you were crying on the couch. It was the night Arkin first broke up with you.”
“Oh,” I breathed and remembered that day and night all too well. I thought Arkin was the love of my life, but then he broke up with me because I was living in New York for school and he was still in Texas. We’d ended up getting back together, but that night, my heart had been shattered into a million pieces by the boy I first gave it to.
“Yeah, but anyway, the real date was horrible, but it got me back out there and now I have Roger. Don’t be scared to get back in the saddle, honey.”
I smiled and thought about riding Blake. “I won’t.”
* * *
A few hours later,my phone rang again, but this time it was the man who I couldn’t stop thinking about.
“Well, hello there.”
“Hey, sweet thing,” Blake greeted with his slight Texas drawl. “What’s up?”
I smiled and replied, “Not much. I’m surprised you don’t sound hungover.”
He chuckled. “Why would I be hungover?”
“You sounded drunk when you called me and left a voicemail.”
“Oh, that,” he laughed slightly. “I just needed to get my mind off of shit, but I always bounce back.”
“That’s good.” I was dying to know what Stacey had said to him, but I wasn’t going to bring it up. “Did you have a good day?”
“I did, actually. You?”
“Absolutely. But after listening to your voicemail, I wasn’t sure you would.”
He exhaled on the other end of the line. “Yeah. Found out some shit.”
“Oh yeah?” I prompted.
