"So, are you doing anything special today?" Candi-Rose asked over breakfast, a knowing grin on her face.
Jody cast a brief glance around the dining table, resisting the urge to roll her eyes when she spotted a few smirks, before turning her gaze back on Candi-Rose. "Why would I? I didn't do it last year. Or the year before that. Or ever."
"But you didn't have a boyfriend back then."
"I still don't. I broke up with Brandon two whole months ago."
Candi-Rose raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't talking about Brandon and you know it."
"I don't," Jody insisted, shrugging her shoulders. In all honesty, she didn't understand why Candi-Rose was playing this game; the girl already knew that she and Tyler weren't official and that they were waiting until they were a little older to begin a proper relationship. After all, there was no need to tell anyone anything until there was something to actually tell.
Luckily for her, before Candi-Rose could continue her line of questioning, May-Li breezed into the kitchen, announcing that Charlie and Jody had both received mail. Charlie immediately rose from her seat and snapped her square-shaped envelope up just as May-Li placed it on the breakfast bar, but Jody hung back, continuing to eat breakfast. Kingsley had already written this month and she hadn't been told to expect mail by anyone else so whatever it was couldn't be important and could therefore wait. Besides, it wasn't as if she was going to receive a Valentine anytime soon.
"Oooh, is it from someone special?" Candi-Rose teased, nudging Charlie who just smiled, giving nothing away. Looking up from her bowl, Jody couldn't help but notice that Alex was conveniently sitting at the breakfast bar, facing away from her and everyone else. He didn't strike her as the romantic type but then again, Ryan had never struck her as someone with a nice side.
As if on cue, Ryan pointed out that Charlie hadn't even opened the envelope yet, regarding Candi-Rose as if she was stupid. Candi-Rose glared at him in return, telling him to stay out of it. Of course, Ryan's nice side had vanished as quickly as it'd appeared; he'd reverted to his usual self a mere couple of hours after helping Floss out with her noisy hobby, and that had been weeks ago. Bizarrely, instead of ignoring Candi-Rose as if she was an inconvenient a piece of gum under his shoe like he usually did, Ryan actually responded to her scathing retort, and their slight exchange over Charlie's mail speedily escalated into a full-blown quarrel. Stranger still, some of the others sitting at the table began to join in and take sides. Charlie herself didn't stick around for long, shooting Jody a bewildered look before leaving the kitchen with Alex.
"Guys!" Chloe exclaimed, trying and failing to get the others' attention. "Stop!"
"What's wrong with them?" Sid asked, clutching his creepy puppet doll thing. "I'm a bit scared."
Jody momentarily stared at the seven squabbling idiots in disbelief before shaking her head. "Let's just get out of here," she said, picking her bowl up and rising to her feet in an instant. Chloe and Sid nodded fervently.
On her way out of the kitchen, she swiftly grabbed her mail from the counter. Noting its rectangular shape, she was relieved; Candi-Rose's interrogation had her a little that Tyler would expect them to celebrate Valentine's Day, even though they were still just friends. Romantic friends, maybe, but still friends. She tore the top of the envelope, about to pull the letter out when Mike emerged from the office with a frenzied look in his eyes, harrying her, Sid and Chloe to go and get ready for school. Realising she was, in fact, running a little late, she closed the envelope, resolving to put it in her school bag and check it out at break time.
.:. QK .:.
"Thought I'd find you here."
Jody peered up from her maths textbook in surprise to see Tyler grinning back at her and panicked. Had she got her dates mixed up? They'd hung out together during the lunch break on Tuesday and she'd been so sure that they'd agreed the next time was going to be sometime next week. It wasn't that she didn't want to spend time with him but if she didn't study now, she'd fall behind and end having to cut her training time at the gym.
"Don't worry; I'm not staying," he assured, leaning on the back of the chair next to her. "The guys are waiting for me."
She inwardly sighed in relief. "So?"
He pursed his lips, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me today... for dinner?"
It took a while for the words to sink in, especially 'dinner'. The last time she'd gone out for dinner was for her third date with Brandon, the one where he'd asked her to be his girlfriend. She cringed at how stupid she'd been at the time; she would've saved herself and Brandon a whole lot of trouble if she'd just said no then and there.
"Actually, forget I said anything," Tyler said quickly, pushing himself off the chair. "I have to—"
"Wait!" she exclaimed, holding her arm out. Noticing she'd drawn attention from some of her neighbours in the library, she dropped her voice by a few notches. "I didn't say no."
He stopped in his tracks, whirling around to face her once more. "Oh, you made a bit of a funny face just then so I thought...?"
Recalling what she'd just been thinking about, she laughed nervously under her breath. Was this a date too? Their first of many? If it was, where would that leave their relationship by the end of the day? Still romantic friends? Or something more, something she still wasn't quite sure she was ready for? "Nah, you're alright. I just remembered something... weird, that's all. Anyway, where exactly do you want to go?"
"There's this place near town, next to the bus bays. It's not too swanky or anything, and it's pretty affordable. We're going to have to beat the rush hour if we want seats, though; they'll be really busy what with it being Valentine's Day an' all."
So he did know it was Valentine's Day... A smile tugged at her lips. Maybe this was a date after all. She certainly had no qualms with spending the evening with him; Bernadette always closed the gym during the evenings on Valentine's Day. "Do they take reservations?"
"They do but I'm pretty sure they're all taken by now."
"It wouldn't hurt to call. See if they've got a cancellation or something."
"I'll do that," he said with a nod. "I'll see you later, then; I better get back to the guys."
"Sure," she replied, turning her attention back to her work.
As she heard him walk away, she allowed her lips to fully stretch into a wide smile. She couldn't help it. Two whole years after realising she had feelings for him, they were finally going on a date. Back when they'd met in 2012, who'd have thought that they'd end up dating seven years later? Gina? Mike? Tracy? Heck, even their fellow residents? Speaking of fellow residents, Candi-Rose was not going to let her live this one down; she was in for hours of merciless teasing at the girl's hands. Upon hearing the scraping of a chair, she suddenly remembered where she was and shook her head, banishing thoughts of Tyler from her mind. She was supposed to be working, not daydreaming like a girly girl—she did enough of that in class, enough for it to be reflected in her most recent school report, something Mike hadn't been too happy about.
The bell rang ten minutes later, signalling the end of the break. There would be another bell three minutes later to signal the beginning of the next period. Since her next class was on the other side of the school, she hastily swept her books up, shoving them into her bag but as she opened it wider to put her pencil case in, the letter she'd received in the morning fell out. She blinked, realising she'd forgotten all about her plan to read it during the break. After stealing a brief glance at the library clock, she pulled the letter out of the torn envelope, opened it, and quickly scanned its contents.
Feeling the blood drain from her face, she closed the letter and shoved it back into her bag with its envelope. She couldn't believe it. Brought forward. 20th February. What was she meant to do now, especially with the gym closed tonight? How was she supposed to fit a fortnight's training into five days?
.:. QK .:.
Throughout the day, Jody's concerns continued to weigh heavily on her mind, so much so that she was still trying to mentally accommodate the date change into her training schedule while she was getting ready to order dinner. She'd chatted with Tyler well enough when they'd met outside the restaurant through to when they'd been shown to their table but as soon as the menus had arrived, she'd allowed her mind to drift back into troubling waters.
"Ma'am?" a waiter said, standing dutifully by their table. "Are you ready to order?"
Collecting her thoughts, she forced herself to smile up at him. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I am. Just give me a sec."
After surveying the menu properly for a moment or two, she was about to order a dish she reckoned would taste phenomenal but stopped short when she remembered her newly formulated regime of less food and more exercise. As much as it pained her, she instead picked the safe vegetarian options for both her starters and main, ignoring the comical look Tyler was giving her, and hoped for the best. She would, of course, not enjoy the meal as much as she would have a higher calorie one but would surely thank herself later when she saw her name up on the list of girls who'd made it into the junior regional boxing team. As they said: no pain, no gain.
"Jodes, are you okay?" Tyler asked as soon as the waiter began to walk away after taking his order. "You've been a little quiet."
"Yeah," she replied in an instant, waving her hand dismissively. She'd already told him about the trials being brought forward but had downplayed the aftermath; this was a date, not an opportunity for her to burden him with her problems. "I'm all good."
He didn't seem to buy it but nodded nonetheless. "You know, I wish I'd took a bus here like you did."
She raised an eyebrow; he hated taking the bus, avoiding it whenever possible. "Why?"
"Kamal wouldn't stop taking the piss," he answered, a bashful smile appearing on his face. "He kept going on and on about me and my 'Sudoku Girl'."
Sudoku Girl wasn't a name she particularly liked but she giggled despite herself; the thought of being Tyler's 'girl' in any context (except as his daughter, of course) was heartwarming. In a way, being called as such made her feel like she belonged to him in a manner that she hadn't to the Jacksons and/or the Grays.
"Well, taking the bus did nothing for me; Candi still took the piss. She even got me into a skirt for you. Again."
"I'll have to thank her. Again."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What did your mum say, anyway? I bet she made fun of you an' all. Her little boy all grown up..."
He chuckled, shaking his head. "Nah. She kinda thinks we were a thing well before tonight; she would've been more surprised if I didn't take you out." She had no difficulty believing that; Sally had always looked at her and Tyler a little funny. Speaking of Tyler, she noticed him suddenly bite his lip and look down at his hands. "Actually, she asked me these really awkward questions a few weeks ago..."
Blood immediately rushed to Jody's cheeks and she closed her eyes, groaning in embarrassment. Sasha had been right after all. She sighed, forcing her eyes open to see that Tyler appeared to be just as red as she felt, and willed herself to calm down. She didn't know why she felt so mortified; they'd been through this before with the pregnancy test drama but the embarrassment she'd experienced back then didn't hold a candle to what she felt now. Maybe it was because as each day passed, the prospect of them actually conceiving a child together grew ever stronger.
"Say no more!" she pleaded, clasping her hands together in mock desperation. "I know exactly what you're talking about! I just hope you told her what was what."
"Actually, I didn't."
"Tyler!"
"She didn't actually ask me outright!" he defended, holding his hands up in surrender. "She just asked me if there was something I wanted to tell her, maybe about some mistake I'd made that was going to affect my life. I said no but I had no idea what she was on about at the time until I overheard her telling Kamal what she really thought was going on."
Shifting uncomfortably, she couldn't help but ask, "So she still thinks...?"
He winced. "Yes...?"
"Well," she began with a sigh, "she'll realise she's wrong in a few months. Not everyone goes into the Pharmacy for... well, that."
"Why were you there, then?" he asked, and she could tell from the glint of mischief in his eyes that he already had a pretty good idea of the answer.
"Err, none of your business!"
They both laughed, or rather giggled, together, and over the next hour, the pair of them ate their food and talked about anything and everything, including school gossip; apparently, Bill had been dumped yet again, on Valentine's Day no less, but younger sister Hannah was still going strong with the boy she'd started dating after finishing with Tyler. As the evening wore on, she even found herself telling him about Charlie's mystery Valentine's card and her suspicions that Alex was the one who'd sent it.
"I don't know," Tyler said, a speculative expression on his face. "Would they risk it? When they live in the same care home? I mean, I know that he doesn't care about the rules, but her?"
"She's a stickler for them," Jody agreed, wrinkling her nose. If only she could tell him about her most damning piece of evidence against the pair—Charlie's potential pregnancy—but that wasn't her secret to tell. Other people's secrets were probably just about the only thing they didn't share with one another. "But maybe that's why she didn't send him one."
"Maybe." He frowned. "Seems a little peak, though."
"I know but imagine what would happen if Mike or May-Li found out."
Just then, he grinned, leaning in just a little. "Speaking of those two, how did they react when you told them you were going out with me? What did they say?"
"Nothing... Well, they did give me those sly little looks—you know which ones—"
"Oh, yeah, I know."
"—when Candi fussed after me in the lobby but, really, they weren't too bothered about what I was getting up to because they were too busy dealing with the others. You know, because of the fight. They're all grounded until Monday."
Tyler's eyes widened. "Harsh."
Having finished eating, she placed her fork and knife in the middle of her empty plate and sat back, nodding in agreement with his statement. She was only glad that she'd had the sense to leave the kitchen before she ended up under fire just for being present during the fight; Mike had a rather strict and totally unfair 'if you're there, you're involved' kind of attitude. Still, considering what'd happened the last time the constant fighting had got on his nerves, it could've been worse.
Tyler finished eating soon after her, and after paying for their meals, he offered to walk Jody down to the bus stop and stay with her until either her bus or his ride arrived. He confessed that he didn't know how long Kamal was going to be; while they'd enjoyed their dinner date, Kamal and Sally had been out spending a romantic evening of their own.
"I wish you would've let me pay for half," she said as they left the restaurant. Brandon hadn't allowed her to pay for her meal on their dinner date either, even though she could've afforded to, which had made her feel dependent and useless, a state of being she hated more than any other.
"I will next time," he conceded, casually grabbing her hand and slipping it into his. She tried not to react, clamping down on the instantaneous urge to squeal as she felt herself become hot under the collar. They'd grabbed each other's hands multiple times before when it'd come to stopping the other from doing something stupid but had never done so for the purpose of holding hands. "But if it means that much to you, you can pay me back."
"I think I will," she let out, squeezing his hand without even meaning to. She didn't dare look up at him for his reaction.
A/N: I'd like to thank Charlie and Emily for their reviews.