Mike's 'Date' Night

After we arrived at the restaurant, Schezwan Village, I excused myself and headed straight for the bathroom while everyone else followed the waitress to our table. I had expected that Jordan and I would be sitting next to each other seeing that everyone else was pretty much a couple and Jordan always sat by me but when I returned, I found that wasn’t so; the only empty seat was between Eric and Adam, Jordan was seated across the huge round table.

As I took my seat, I glanced across the table at Jordan; he was staring right at me. I gave him a confused look and mouthed, ‘what’s wrong?’

With a shrug, he glanced at Adam before his eyes came back to rest on me. “Thought that’s what you wanted,” he said out loud.

“No,” I hissed. “That’s not what I wanted.”

Slouching in his seat, he seemed indifferent as he said, “How do you know it’s not when you claim you don’t know what you want?”

By this time everyone seated at our table was watching us. “I know what I want,” I snapped. “It’s to have my feelings and requests respected, not to have to deal with a whiny jealous jerk who can’t get his own way.” I was shaking, I hated confrontation and he knew that. My hand was so unsteady that I knocked over a glass when I reached for my menu; luckily the glass was empty since I didn’t pour myself any water yet.

“Whiny jealous jerk?” Jordan repeated as Mike told him to just drop it. “No,” he shook his head at Mike and then looked at me. “If that’s how you feel then forget about it.”

“Can we not do this here?”

Jordan glanced around the table, “If not here, where Anna? Over the phone in the middle of the night when you are-”

“Jordan!” I jumped up. “Stop it! Just stop it!” With a sob, I quickly left the table, telling them to order whatever they liked, I didn’t care. Blowing through the exterior doors of the restaurant, I just kept walking until I turned around the far corner of the building. I didn’t want to be there anymore, he ruined what should’ve been one of the best nights ever with Mike being home and Nick being able to come out before the baby is born.

Leaning against the building, I started to wonder if it would ever be possible to have a relationship with Jordan, friends or anything else with the way he was acting. Yes, I knew that it wasn’t easy for him, he was so sure of how he felt and he was ready to be with me, and I knew that I wasn’t being 100% clear with him - I knew I led him on at times - but I didn’t think that he would ever pressure me like this. I always thought that he would respect how I felt and give me time to deal with the feelings I had for Josh. Damn it, I sobbed. It’s only been a week since Josh and I broke up, what the hell does he expect from me??

Groaning, I rubbed my hands over my face and took a deep breath. As much as I wanted to go home, I wanted to stay and hang out with my friends just as much. I decided that’s what I was going to do and if Jordan didn’t like it, then too bad.

“Hey,” I was surprised to see Jordan standing just a little further down from me, watching me, when I turned to go back towards the restaurant.

“Hey,” he spoke to his feet as he stood with his head down and his hands shoved into his pockets.

“I’m not letting you ruin tonight for everyone else,” I walked by him.

He grabbed my arm and spun me back to him. “I don’t mean to ruin anything Anna, I just want some answers. You tell me you love me and then tell me you need time. You call me in the middle of the night, sounding all hot and bothered, telling me you are naked and in a tub full of bubbles but push me away. It drives me insane to see you flirting with another guy when you hold me at arm’s length. So yeah, I’m jealous and maybe a jerk but damn it woman, what the hell do you expect from me?”

“I expect you to give me time Jordan.”

“Yeah,” he nodded slowly. “But Anna, sooner or later, time will run out.”

I didn’t think much of that statement when he made it because I knew that it was dumb of me to think that he would wait forever for me. I told him that I needed some time to straighten out my feelings, “Give me a month Jordan.”

He raised a brow. “A month?”

“Yes, a month without the pressure to make a decision. A month where you are Jordy, my best friend and not the Jordy who picks fights and is impatient with me.”

He thought it over for a minute. “What happens after a month?”

“Well,” I lifted my shoulders slightly. “Hopefully I will know a little more about what I want in life and I’ll be able to give you some indication on what I would like your role in my life to be.”

“So in a month, you will decide if you just want to be friend?” I nodded, he continued, “Or if you want to be my girlfriend?”

“Yes, I’m hoping that’s how it’ll be if you give me that month Jordan.”
He told me that he needed to think about it. “I’m a little impatient,” he joked.

I smiled, “I know, I don’t really blame you either; I’d want to know if I were you too.”

“So a month?”

“Yes, a month of you being my best friend, locking your feelings for me away and living your life as if they weren’t there.” He seemed confused as to what I meant, so I told him. “I want you to explore other options Jordan - see other women - go visit Olivia like you planned on doing, stuff like that. Stuff a normal good looking single guy does.”

Even though I told him to do it, later that evening, when we were out at the club, I wanted to ring his neck for paying attention to the little blonde baby whore that damn near glued herself to his side the moment we walked in. I say baby whore because that’s what she was, just barely 18 and had a reputation around town as being super easy.

“You’re jealous, aren’t you?” Mike asked me once as I watched Jordan dance slow with her.

“No,” I shook my head nonchalantly. “If he does anything with her, I’ll never touch him.”

Mike laughed, “Isn’t that what you wanted him to do? Be the single guy?”

With a cold glare, I told Mike that there was a difference between being a single guy and being a sex starved jerk. “Whatever he does, he’s the one who has to live with the consequences.”

As the night progressed, it became pretty clear that he was enjoying her and she was bound and determined to take him home. And me, I did my best to ignore the two of them and get to know Adam.

“I’m here as a favour to Amy,” he told me when I asked how come he was back in town. “I’ve been making a decent living as a photographer - doing portraits and selling framed photos I’ve taken - when Amy told me that she was pregnant, I promised I’d be here to take a billion photos of her, Nick and the baby.”

“That was very nice of you. So you are here until the baby comes?”

He nodded, “Yes and for a week or so after wards. Of course I had to cancel a few jobs that I had scheduled but she’s the closest thing I have to a sister and I want this to be special for her.”

“I can’t think of anything that would make it more special than having your very own private photographer following you around, catching all the good with the bad.” I spotted his camera bag. “Do you have any photos that I can see?”

“It’s kind of dark in here but…” he reached into the bag and produced a smaller camera than the one he used earlier which prompted me to ask him how many cameras he carried with him. “Only two,” he chuckled. “I don’t have many pictures of Amy and Nick yet but you can scroll through those there.” He handed me his camera and watched me scroll.

The first couple photos were different shots of landscapes and buildings, the next few were taken in a park. “Who is this?” I tilted the camera towards him, showing him the up-close picture of him with a pretty redhead.

“Oh,” he grinned as he looked adorningly at the girl in the photo. “That’s Caitlin, my fiancée. She wanted to come with me but she’s a caterer so she’s really busy this time of year.”

“You’re getting married?” I was a little stun to say the least.

“Next May.”

“Wow,” I quickly turned my attention back to the photo, he looked extremely happy with her. “Congratulations, she looks nice.”

I won’t lie and say that I wasn’t a little disappointed that he was seriously involved with someone; there was always something about your first crush that made you wish he was pining away for you, even if he didn’t know you existed when you liked him and you no longer cared about him like that. Or maybe I was just being unreasonable?

We talked for a while, danced a little, laughed and joked with everyone. It was a good night on the whole…

Except for baby whore.

Jordan had come back to our table without her around 1:30. Just before two, she came bouncing over and threw her arms around his neck. I happened to glance over at them, something I had been avoiding all night, when she caught my eye as she leaned in to whisper something in Jordan’s ear. Jordan nodded, stood up and grabbed his jacket. She gave me a smug look and stuck out her tongue before dragging him away. They headed for the door.

Two o’clock, I was yawning continuously, so I make my excuses and headed out to call a cab. It was a cool summer night, the breeze felt great after being in the hot cramped bar for most of the night. Making my way towards the front of the building, I pulled my cell out of my pocket only to realize that I had a text message from Scott.

1 am. Still at work. Bored. Save me?

Instead of calling the cab that I planned on, I hit reply.

Standing outside a bar, stone cold sober, waiting for a cab. Saviour material?

As I sent the message to him, I felt that there was someone standing behind me, looking over my shoulder. Jerking my phone towards my chest, I glanced to my right and came face to face with Jordan as my phone started to ring.

Without saying anything to him, I answered it, knowing it was Scott before even looking at the caller ID.