by Ryan Green
Chapter Five
Blaine and Megan slip back into their carefully selected outfits for the evening and check themselves in the mirror and head out of their house and into the car on route to the restaurant.
“I really hope they kept our table, I want you to love this place and this date and I hope us being late didn’t ruin it.”
“Why would us being late ruin it for me? So we might have to wait or sit at a different table, that’s not a big deal. After what we both just experienced in that bedroom I don’t think anything could ruin this date.”
“Yeah but I feel like I kind of sprung the sex onto you and because of it our table might be gone now.”
“Blaine please stop worrying so much, really, it is not a big deal if we have to wait or the table is gone. All that matters is that we are going to be there together.”
“I think I’m gonna stop and get an energy drink to calm my nerves from 7/11 before we get there, do you want anything? Blaine asks Megan.
“Umm sure, I’ll take a sugar free red bull too, I’m not sure how much being pumped full of caffeine is going to calm you down but you can try.” Megan sarcastically says to Blaine.
Blaine gets out of the car and heads into the store.
Megan pulls out her cell phone and scrolls through her contacts. She taps the name “Mother” and sends a text.
“We are on our way, sorry we are running late. Blaine couldn’t keep his hands off of me.”
“That’s why we chose you Megan, you are a beautiful woman.”
Megan looks up and sees Blaine at the register checking out and looks over at her and smiles, she smiles back at him.
Megan highlights the text conversation and deletes it.
Blaine gets back in the car “They only had these giant red bulls, I hope that’s okay.”
Megan smiles at Blaine “Sure I can probably make this one last the rest of the month.”
“Alright, we got our much needed caffeine, let's go, I’m starving.”
Blaine parks in a spot directly in front of the restaurant.
“Usually this whole street is full, it must be our lucky night” Blaine says to Megan.
He gets out of the car and walks around the back and opens Megan’s car door.
Blaine and Megan walk into the restaurant, it is an upscale French restaurant that Megan has been hinting about wanting to try ever since the couple had met.
They walk up to the lady waiting at the check in desk.
“Reservation?” she asks them.
“Yes, the name for the reservation is Blaine. I know we are late and I’m sorry something just happened to come up. We will literally take any table that you have open right now if the one that I had reserved is taken.”
“I see. Your table is ready now, follow me.”
Blaine looks at Megan “Wow that is lucky, I’m surprised they kept the table for us, we’re like almost an hour late.”
Megan winks at Blaine “I know, weird, huh?”
“Did you have something to do with this?”
“I may have called ahead and told them we were going to be a little late.”
The waitress walks them through the front end of the building where the majority of the general public is sitting and through a curtain to a dimly lit room. There are candles on the table and on the walls and there is a faint orchestra type music playing in the background.
Blaine scheduled this dinner months in advance, he knew everything had to be just right for the night. This type of table at this restaurant was not easy to secure and the price tag that went along with it matched it.
Blaine pulls out Megan’s chair and she has a seat at the table. He scoots her closer to the table and she turns around and she thanks him.
Blaine’s walks to the other side of the table and he takes a seat across from her.
“This place is really nice,” Megan tells him.
“I figured we haven't really had a lot of free time to go out lately so why not make it somewhere really nice now that we have a chance.”
The waiter comes to the table and brings them a bottle of sparkling water.
“Sir and ma’am, your plates have been pre selected for you as per your request and we promise to bring you the ultimate romantic dining experience. Your appetizer shall be out soon and we hope that you enjoy” the waiter says as he walks away from the table.
“Wow you really pulled out all the stops for this didn’t you Blaine?”
“I told you that I wanted to make tonight special. What better way to make a night special for a woman than to completely disregard her opinions and take away from her any say in what she eats or drinks for the night” Blaine playfully tells Megan.
“Judging by the super fancy sparkling water I would say you probably did a good job.”
“By the way Blaine, while you were on your way home I called up to the restaurant and I told them to push our reservation back by about an hour.”
“They were okay with that? Also how did you know that we would be late?”
“Because I explained to the manager that tonight was a special night and that when you got home I would be waiting for you in the shower, inevitably that would lead to us having a very intimate session of sex either in the shower or on the bed and then I would inquire of you the story of the day that we first met.”
“That is oddly specific and I was almost starting to buy your story until you got into all of the details.”
“No seriously, the manager of this restaurant is a woman and I explained everything to her, every single detail and she completely understood. She told me to make sure that we take our time and come here completely relaxed and carefree so that we could enjoy our night.”
Blaine stares at Megan for a second “I’m not good enough for you and I don’t know If I’ll ever be good enough for you.”
“Oh shut up Blaine.”
“Megan, we've been together for a very long time. I know you are wondering when I plan on proposing. I know that and I am sorry that I have taken this long. I am just extremely fucked up from things in my past. I have been working on getting past all of that and you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. It is only because of you that I think I am even still here today. My life was on a really horrible path before I met you. I've wanted to tell you for a long time but the timing never seemed right.”
“I know all of that Blaine, I am not rushing you. I’m just really surprised that was the subject matter you decided to bring up as soon as we sat down,”
“No, no, listen Megan I am sorry. I think maybe after I explain to you all that is wrong with me, maybe you will have a better
understanding of who I am. If you decide you want to leave then I will completely understand. I don’t really even know where to start. I know I 've told you my name is Blaine Tyler and if you married me that's the name you'd take if you wanted to take my name.”
“So that is not really your name?”
“My name is actually Blaine Tyler Holly. Well my birth name was Blaine Tyler Acadia. I just kept my middle name because it was the only other constant in my life since birth. My parents adopted me when I was ten years old and they changed my name.”
“So you were adopted? That really isn't that big of a deal. That isn’t something that you need to be ashamed of or anything Blaine, there are thousands if not millions of people that have been adopted and are perfectly normal and good, productive members of society.”
The waiter brings out a plate of charcuterie and escargot and sets it on the table.
“I hope you both enjoy it,” the waiter tells them as he walks away again to the back.
“So? You were adopted Blaine, is that it? That’s the big shocker to your life story? I’m sorry I’m not more appalled or terrified, I guess I’m not sure of which response you were looking to get out of me. Blaine if this is your way of breaking up with me or like lowering my expectations softly then just do it. You don’t have to take me out to this super fancy
restaurant to let me down and soften the blow. You know that I am not that kind of girl.”
“No! No Megan, that’s not it at all. Leaving you is the absolute last thing on my mind, that is the last thing that this dinner was supposed to be about. Let me just start from the beginning, I want you to understand why I’ve been so slow moving on all of the steps in our relationship.”
“Fine, go ahead Blaine. Tell me why.”
“It all really happened about four years ago now. That’s when everything started to spiral downward for me.”
Blaine waves the waiter over and he asks him to bring them a bottle of wine.
“You might want to have a glass of wine or two while I tell you this. It's all kind of a long and fucked up story Megan.”
“Well now you really have me interested, and still slightly perturbed. I hope you’re not trying to get me drunk just so you can take advantage of me later and kick me out in the morning. After that little introduction you gave me I think there’s a chance you might be in the doghouse for a few nights.”
Chapter Six
I was sitting at my desk pretending to be looking through files on my laptop. My desk was made of that cheap particle board covered in some type of faux plastic wrap. It was the typical shitty desk you would find in every office building in the world when a business opens up, they must get a pretty great deal on these shitty desks because everyone has one it seems.
I had an impending deadline for a presentation due in the next couple of days about phishing and email fraud. When it comes to large companies like the one that I work for, the topic often becomes a very hot issue. It seems that the larger a company gets the more susceptible they are to being compromised.
Is it because they have more employees and the chances of some dumbass doing something stupid grows or do they just become an easy target because of their growth?
My presentation would tell you that company cyber security is compromised in the majority of cases because of novice users clicking links and opening emails they have no business opening.
The internet has been around and widely available at that point for over twenty years. It was not a new toy, why are people so ignorant towards its capabilities still?
People approach the internet with an uncharacteristic amount of positivity and trust. People who wouldn’t normally approach a person on the street and say hello to them then they log onto a computer and they all of a sudden want to welcome them into their lives via social media.
It seems as if these people were to receive a letter in the mail from a company or a person that they were unsure of then they would either shred it or throw it away. That is the normal thing to do, especially in a day and age where anthrax and other poisons are being mailed to people on a regular basis.
However, on the internet they just open the mail and follow whatever link is contained. Without any regard for their personal safety or the safety of the computers they are using.
On the internet all common sense is disregarded it seems. People are much more brave, they are much more adventurous, they are willing to sample a little bit of everything.
I myself was truly no exception either when it comes to the internet.
I knew that I was possibly contributing to a security breach by using a proxy server to access a torrent website and pirating a movie on my work laptop nearly every single day but I was in charge of everything so I know how to cover for myself if anything were to happen.
I at least had the decency to put my web browser into incognito mode and delete my history after I did these things.
I heard my phone ringing and I picked it up and looked at it, it was my Mom.
My Mother and Father are both retired police officers, well they were. My Mother was a police officer for only a few years
in her twenties and that's how she met my Father, my Father stuck with the job a little longer.
She says she quit the job when I was born because she couldn’t stand it if I lost both of my parents to that line of work. It is a dangerous job and after doing it for a handful of years she had encountered more close calls than she was truly comfortable with.
She would explain to me that was not the kind of world that she wanted to bring a child into. I needed stability and I needed certainty that I could count on my Mother being there for me as long as possible. She wanted her son to know that he could come home after school and my Mother would be there waiting for him. She would be there to make me lunch and put me to bed.
She would be there for my high school and college graduations, she would be there to take pictures of me at my prom, she would be there at my wedding.
She told me all of that several times throughout my life and she lived up to all of the promises. She never missed a single day or event that was meaningful to me. She didn’t want her son to have to grow up an orphan after both of his parents were killed trying to stop gangbangers and low lives. She would tell me that she loved her son more than anything and she wasn’t willing to risk her life and mine to try and protect the general public from themselves.
My Father was forced to retire after he was shot after he responded to a domestic abuse call. The irony is that it was the wife that shot him. It was the woman that he went there to protect. He was only 33 years old when it happened but I didn’t really remember anything from before when it happened, I can only remember the stories.
It's fairly obvious that I didn’t inherit a whole lot from them except for my last name. They were both extremely outgoing, adventurous, motivated and extroverted. I am very much an introvert. I am frequently nervous, anxious and not very social.
But anyway, I knew that she wasn’t calling me just to say hi or anything, I’m sure she just wanted me to come by and perform some kind of task for her. I don't mind performing these little odd jobs around her house but my Father lives there too, he is fully capable of doing those things as well you know?
Why does she always have to bother me with her household chores instead of my father? I would ask myself. It was like she didn’t choose to marry him, but she chose to give birth to me so why was I always in debt to her?
She married my Father because she saw something in him. She saw a man she could build a family and a home with, a man who could perform small odd jobs and meaningless tasks for her.
My Father told me that she likes having me do them because it gives her a reason to make me come over every now and then. She isn’t doing it because she wants to make me work or because I owe her anything. She thinks that by telling me she needs help that I will feel obligated to come over.
Just inviting me over for dinner or to talk had never done the trick to entice me into stopping by. I know this all sounds shitty to me.
It's not that I hated going over there to see my parents or disliked it even really, it’s just that I spent twenty years of my life in that house. Now I just preferred being away from it.
I like having my own privacy and my own life away from them.
I knew that my parents wouldn't be around forever and I know that I should have appreciated the time that I had left with them but it’s not like they’re dying tomorrow I always told myself.
As far as I know, they are more than likely in better health than I am. They are more than capable of going on vacation several times a year, they go to spin classes together, they take walks together every night, they take care of themselves much better than I do and it’s obvious.
Every night they are sitting down together at the dinner table and eating a nice, healthy, home cooked meal. They are getting proper servings of fruits and vegetables, they are following the antiquated food pyramid to a tee and they are probably the healthiest people that I know.
I, on the other hand, was eating cold raviolis straight from the can for dinner. I get the majority of my vegetables in the form of pizza sauce. I get my servings of fruit from whatever percentage of fruit comes in energy drinks and pop, most likely zero. The only food pyramid I see are tortilla chips.<
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I know all of this about my parents. But I know that my Mother probably hounds me just because she misses me and she wants the best for me.
I tell myself that it is the dynamic between almost every normal Mother and son.
So I decided to answer the phone.
“Blaine, your Father and I have decided that we want to sell the house. So would you be able to come by tonight or tomorrow and come help sort through some things in the garage? We want to have a yard sale and get rid of a bunch of things in there. We’ve found some of those really nice condos nearby and we just won’t have the room anymore” she asks me.
