Seth
"I'm gonna be honest, I really did have my doubts but she seems great." Embry says as we get into my truck to head back to our job site. No part of me wants to leave Jess right now and I could tell she didn't want me to go either.
"Of course she's great." I snap at Embry.
"Testy." Embry tsks, shaking his head. "I just mean that she's refusing to date you but wants to string you along like you're her boyfriend — what are the rest of us supposed to think?"
"That's not what she's doing." I shake my head. "She just got out of a six year relationship with a guy who cheated on her with her best friend, of course she doesn't want to just start dating the first guy she meets."
"Yeah, but still." Embry rolls his eyes.
"She doesn't have to call me her boyfriend if she doesn't want to." I respond.
"But shouldn't what you want matter too?" Embry asks. I can tell he's just curious and is trying to understand. Since he hadn't imprinted I knew he wasn't going to one hundred percent get it.
"She does give me what I want." I try to make him understand. "She is so excited to see me at the end of everyday — I just want someone to come home to that gives a fuck."
"But she can't do that as your girlfriend?" He asks skeptically.
"If she told me tomorrow that she didn't want to be with me and wanted to go back to Mike, yeah I'd be really upset, but I wouldn't force her to be with me." I explain. "I really don't think she's going to do that and she's not seeing anyone else so it doesn't really matter. Being her boyfriend is just an adjective."
"Okay, okay." He concedes. "Well, either way, she seems really great. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't that."
"Yeah, I just feel bad, she's way too lonely." I admit as we pull back up to the house we had been working on half the morning and get out of the vehicle. "She needs to get a job so she has something to do."
"Why don't you have your mom hire her at the general store?" Embry suggests.
"Oh, yeah, that's a great idea." I give him a look of annoyance. "Let's lock my mother and my not-girlfriend in a store together."
"Well either Sue would convince her to be your girlfriend or would convince her that she never wants to see you again." He laughs. "Do you want to take that chance?"
"No." I scowl at him, giving him a shove. He laughs as we head back over to the hedges that need to be trimmed.
"So you're really gonna do the friends with benefits thing with your imprint?" Embry asks. "And you think that's gonna end well?"
"It will be fine." I groan, trying to ignore his goading and focus on the job. Only another hour at this house and then three hours at another and then I would be back at Jess's, hopefully doing more of what we were doing last night.
"What will be fine?" Matt, one of our other coworkers comes up to us.
"Seth agreed to do the friends with benefits thing with a girl he wants to marry." Embry explains, looking all too eager to share.
"Shut up, I never said I want to marry her." I snap at him. "I just want to spend everyday exclusively with her." Embry and Matt both laugh.
"Yeah, good luck with that, Seth." Matt shakes his head. "If she doesn't want to date you now, she's probably not gonna want to date you in a month."
Work drags on but thankfully Embry drops the topic of Jessica and I not-dating. I hadn't felt stressed about not having the title of boyfriend until Embry brought it up. She had told me a few nights ago she didn't want a boyfriend and I really didn't have a problem with that. Her being my imprint didn't mean we were forced to date each other. Did I want to date her? Yes. Did I need to date her in order for both of us both to be happy? No. I was plenty happy with going to her apartment for dinner every night and texting her during the day. If things progressed further with us hooking up, I'd be plenty happy with that too.
But now, I was wondering if I was making a mistake not being clear about what I wanted. I was worried that if I did tell her that I wanted to be more than friends, she would stop our entire friendship and then I wouldn't be able to see her at all. At least now I got to see her everyday and she was fine with me touching her. A bigger part of me was worried she didn't want to date me because I wasn't good enough for her. I hadn't gone to college and I worked a landscaping job. I made enough money for me and I did have a decent savings since I still lived at home but I would never make enough for a fancy apartment and a white couch. She hadn't seemed embarrassed to be with me at the diner earlier but I really didn't know where I stood with her.
I drop Embry off at the office and grab the bag with the spare clothes I had been keeping in my locker. I'm glad she offered to let me just shower at her place and I wonder if I'll be able to keep doing that. Showering at her place would give us an extra hour together and would also mean I didn't have to deal with my mom's questions about where I was going and what I was doing. Of course she knew where I was going and who Jess was but she didn't get the just friends thing. My mom kept asking when she could meet Jess and had taken to questioning me about my imprint at any chance she got. If I didn't want to scare Jess away, keeping her far from my mom was probably my best bet.
I park and head into the apartment building, holding the door for the man behind me and scan my phone to be able to enter the main building.
"Do you live here?" The man asks. I know it's very obvious that I don't fit in at this apartment complex. My shirt is dirty from working outside all day and my work boots are a dead giveaway that I don't make enough to live here.
"My girlfriend does." I explain, trying the word out in my mouth for Jess and glancing over at the man. I am the opposite of this man who is in a button-up shirt and dress pants, wheeling a suitcase. He doesn't look disgusted by my presence though and offers me a smile.
"You work for Chuck at Olympic Greenhouse?" He asks, nodding to the logo on my shirt.
"Yeah."
"He's a good man, runs a good company." The man says earnestly. "Well, you have a nice night."
"Thanks, you too." I say, starting to head down the hall towards Jessica's apartment. "My girlfriend is making dinner for the first time ever so if the fire alarms go off, I'm so sorry."
"Maybe order a pizza?" He suggests, laughing.
"Nah." I shake my head. "I'm going to eat whatever she made, she's definitely proud of herself."
I knock on the apartment door and Jess opens it almost immediately, throwing both her arms around me and standing on her toes to press her mouth mine.
"Hi." I mumble against her lips.
"So this is your girlfriend?" The man's voice says. I pull back from Jess in surprise, assuming he would have continued down the hall to his apartment.
"Daddy?" Jessica asks, leaning around me.
"Shit." I mutter. Not only had I just called Jessica my girlfriend to him when she wasn't, I had also just let him know she was spending time with a loser who works a landscaping job and then let him see us make out.
Fuck.
Yikes! Wonder what Mr. Stanley will think! :)
