Chapter 3
Tim's Point of View
This is the most awkward moment of my life, I thought as I found myself sitting in Julia's apartment waiting for her to "freshen up" for our dinner date. Across from me was Ryan Paris Remington, Julia's younger brother, who glared at me with the persona of an overprotective father. He held a toy gun in his hands, and appeared to be cleaning it with a dish rag. Every few seconds, Ryan would gesture towards me with the gun with the intent to intimidate. To be honest, I would have been frighten but considering Ryan was only an eight year old boy, it border-lined ridiculousness.
As we had planned, I picked Julia up from the coffee shop at five. Since Julia wanted change before we had dinner, we stopped by her apartment. It was a small, two-bedroom apartment that was moderately clean except for the various toys strewn about the living room. Upon our arrival, Ryan appeared joyfully to greet Julia with a hug and a kiss. I was slightly jealous of him at that moment. However when Ryan saw me, his face fell into the menacing glare that I been the recipient of for the last fifteen minutes. Julia led me to the couch to wait while Ryan took his current position. She said she would be only a "bit"; however I had begun to believe that she was lying. He glares just like the Demon Spawn, I theorized. At least I know he doesn't have skills to brutally murder me. As I wondered whether or not I had something in my essence of being that caused children to automatically dislike me, Ryan began to speak.
"So…Timothy," Ryan spoke with a suspicious tone, "what do you do for a living?" He widen his eyes as if daring me to answer him.
"You can call me Tim, Ryan," I said lightly in hopes of soothing the situation. It didn't work.
"That's Mr. Remington to you, Timothy. Now, answer the question." Ryan repositioned himself in his chair in an attempt to appear taller. He continued to clean his toy gun.
I cleared my throat before humoring him, "I work for Wayne Tech…"
"As what…a janitor," Ryan mocked interrupting me. He seemed to have the intent to find fault with me.
"No," I calmly answered, "As a junior financial officer. My adoptive father owns the company."
"So, you live off your family. Disappointing…," Ryan shot back, attempting to angry me.
I took a deep breath before responding, "No, I simply help with the family business."
Seeing that his attempts to aggravate me were failing, Ryan tried a different tactic, "How old are you, Timothy?"
"I turned nineteen last July," I answered with an internal smirk as I knew where he was planning to go with this.
"At nineteen, you probably don't have a college degree," Ryan guessed as the glee of possibly casting me in a negative light crossed his face. Oh Ryan, you are sadly mistaken.
Smiling, I stated, "Actually, I recently finished my college education. I graduated with a degree in business and economics from Gotham University."
"Well," Ryan muttered as his face fell into scowl, "You lead a pretty boring life, Timothy. What do you do in your free time, besides stalking my Julia, of course?"
"I don't stalk Julia," I interjected, offended. Well, I actually do stalk Julia since I watch her through security cameras all day long but it's not like what he is suggesting.
Discovering weakness to exploit, Ryan argued, "Really, then why are you here?"
Okay, enough, I thought as I decided to just get down to the problem at hand. "Ryan…"
"That's Mr. Remington to you."
"Sorry, Mr. Remington, but I realize what the issue is here. I know you don't want anyone to date your sister because you are afraid you'll lose her. You're afraid that she will be hurt, and you want to protect her, I understand that. I want you to know I will never intentionally hurt your sister, and I want her to be part of my life. Can we stop this charade now?"
After the heartfelt speech I had given, Ryan stared at me in silent shock. Maybe I actually got through to him. "How…" Ryan's face morphed from shock to rage in seconds as he shouted, "How dare you assume things about me?" Ryan raised his toy gun, which I had forgotten about until this point, and preceded to fire it at me. The tinny sound of fake gun shots filled the air as Ryan continued to shoot me. I buried my head in my hands when Ryan began to shout insults, some of which I was surprised that an eight year old child would know. This situation could not get worse, I thought as Julia walked into the room.
Julia's Point of View
I knew that Ryan had a protective streak after what happened with my last boyfriend, but this was ridiculous. When I left Handsome Tim sitting out in the living room with Ryan so I could shower and change for our date, I thought that Ryan would just ignore him, but I was wrong. I walked into the room ready to apologize to Tim for taking so long only to find Ryan screaming profanities and shooting Tim with that toy gun of his. Poor Tim was still sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, looking so depressed and upset with himself.
I sprang into action, grabbing Ryan and dragged him into his bedroom. I closed the door, speaking as I went, "Sorry Tim, I'll be back in a moment." After pushing Ryan to sit on the bed, I snapped, "What were you doing? You don't treat guests like that, even if you don't like them."
Ryan's face melted from rage into a standard pout, "I disapprove of Timothy."
"Why do you disapprove of Tim, you only spent about twenty minutes with him," I asked crossly. I can't let Ryan get away with treating people this way.
"He is suspicious," Ryan stated as if it were a fact like Tim was a murderer or something as drastic as that. "Timothy looked funny when I claimed he stalked you."
Anger burned through my body as I replied hotly, "He was probably shocked with the claim that he stalks me. You can't do this every time I bring someone home, Ryan. Now tell me the truth, is there any real reason to explain why you acted so horribly towards Tim?"
Tears began to fall down Ryan's cheeks, "I don't trust him."
"Ryan…"I soothed as I calmed down a bit due to his tears, "I know what happened last time when I brought a boy home was scary, but we can't let that event dictate our lives. I really like Tim, and even though we just met, I trust him." I sat down on the bed next to Ryan.
"You trusted James too, and he hurt you," Ryan mumbled as he snuggled into my side. "I don't want you to get hurt again."
"Oh, Ry…," I sighed putting my arm around him, "I don't want to get hurt again either, but you see if we live our lives trying not to get hurt, we might miss out on so many wonderful things. That's why I am trying things out with Tim. Do you understand?"
Sniffing, Ryan answered, "Yes, but I still don't trust him."
I handed Ryan a tissue from the box on his bedside table as I kneeled down in front of him, "It's okay if you don't trust him right away, but just try to be nice to him, okay? I have the feeling he has been hurt before too."
"Okay," Ryan agreed wiping away his tears with remorse.
"Alright," I stated as I rose to stand, holding out my hand to Ryan, "Let's go apologize to Tim, then you have to head over to Miss Jean's." Taking my hand, Ryan and I walked out of the room to find Tim pacing back and forth nervously in our living room. Upon seeing our arrival, Tim stopped and opened his mouth, but I silenced him by holding a finger to my lips as I pushed Ryan gently towards him.
"I'm sorry for my behavior," Ryan apologized with his head hanging down.
Tim looked surprised by Ryan's apology. "I…," Tim stuttered, "I accept your apology, Mr. Remington." The name of "Mr. Remington" made Ryan crack a smile as he turned toward me for a good-bye kiss and hug. I watched as Tim's body relaxed with the appearance of Ryan's smile. He actually cares about what Ryan thinks of him, so sweet, I thought as Ryan grabbed his backpack and left to go next door to Miss Jean's apartment. Miss Jean is a retired nurse who babysits Ryan when I am away at night. She watches him for free, which is a big help on our household budget.
I approached Tim when the front door closed after Ryan as Tim began to ramble, "I'm sorry I upset Ryan so much. It was my fault that he got so upset. I understand if you want me to leave and never come back…"
Hushing him, I soothed "It's okay, Tim." I gently took his hand in mine as I continued, "It's not your fault. Ryan was just upset because he was concerned for me, that's all. You didn't do anything wrong. Actually, you handled yourself quite well since I understand that Ryan can be frustrating at times."
"Are you sure?" Tim asked uncertainly, gazing at me with eyes that were weary of rejection. My Handsome Tim, who hurt you so much that you think that an eight year old's temper tantrum would cause me to reject you.
"I'm sure," I stated smiling, "Since we are getting all the apologies out of the way here, I am sorry I kept you waiting so long. I just wanted to make sure didn't still smell of coffee." As I spoke, I lightly squeezed his hand. Handsome Tim's posture relaxed completely from the rigid stature that had come over him during Ryan's tantrum.
"You look beautiful," Tim complemented appearing to be a little dazzled, "And you don't smell of coffee, not that I would have minded anyway." I blushed, nervously flicking my hair over my shoulder. I had chosen to wear a knee-length red dress with a white buttoned sweater over it since I had no idea where we were going for dinner. Better be on the safe side by being in-between formal and causal. While I wanted to look my best for our first date, I actually chose the red dress because it matched Tim's red button-down shirt. I'm not going to tell him that though, it might scare him off.
"You're pretty handsome, yourself," I complemented back at him. Handsome Tim. "So…should we get going?" I moved to grab my coat which had been resting over the back of the couch, only to be stopped by Tim who took my coat for me. He held it out for me to slip into, which I have to admit, has never happened to me before.
"Yes, we should go. Are you still sure you want to?" Tim asked carefully as if expecting me to change my mind and refuse to go. Oh, Handsome Tim…do you believe everyone will so willingly abandon you? I wouldn't do that to you, Tim even if you did do something wrong.
Nodding my head, I answered, "I'm ready when you are." Putting on his own coat, Tim opened the door for me as we left the apartment. He's such a gentleman.
