Chapter Ten: Wednesday, June 15, 2005, Glen Oak, CA
"Simon Camden?"
Simon looked up from the book he was reading, sitting at a table outside Margret's Bookstore, on the promenade, drinking an iced cappuccino. He'd just gotten off his shift at Pete's Pizza—not as a waiter. He'd learned his lesson in high school when he tried waiting tables for Pete. Cooking, however, he could do. He could also bus tables, wash dishes, and answer the phone.
It took him a few seconds to place the brunette standing in front of him. "Rose, right? Rose Taylor. You're a friend of Sandy's, right?" He remembered now. Sandy had introduced them at some party.
"Right. What happened to you? It's like you just dropped off the face of the earth or something." She sat down, uninvited. "And why are you dressed like that?"
Simon laughed and explained about his job. School was a little tougher…or maybe not. What was easier than the truth? "I messed up on my midterms, so I withdrew to save my GPA."
"Just because of your midterm grades?"
"It was a little more complicated than that. I'm going to take a few classes at Crawford in the fall, just to see how things go."
"Well, I guess that's something. Look, I have to go, I have some friends waiting for me, but I'd really love to catch up some time, maybe grab a bite or go to a movie?"
"Yeah, sure. I'm off tomorrow. You want to meet at the pool hall?"
"I was thinking somewhere a little…quieter. Why don't you give me your address and I'll pick you up? Say around five-thirty?"
"Um….sure." Uncertainty niggled in his gut, but…it was dinner. Dinner with a former classmate who wanted to catch up.
Somewhere quieter.
Simon shoved it out of his head and picked his book back up. He'd just gotten settled back into it when his cell phone rang. It was Matt's number. He frowned. If his math was correct, it was almost midnight in New York. "Hey. Is everything okay?"
"No," Matt told him. "It's not me or Sarah—or her parents. I just needed to talk to somebody before I talk to Mom and Dad because….maybe I shouldn't put you in this position."
"Matt, you've already put me in a 'position'. If it's not you and Sarah or her parents and you need to talk to someone before you talk to Mom and Dad, that has to mean it's something to do with Mary. So now you can either confirm or pretend it's something different that I'm probably not going to believe."
Matt heaved a sigh. "I saw Carlos on Monday."
"And?"
"Mary's back from London."
"And that's not good?"
"No. Not when she's in Chicago and Carlos and Charlie are still in New York. At least until the end of the week."
"Where are they going at the end of the week?" Which was technically only two days away.
"Puerto Rico."
"What about Mary?"
"She filed for divorce. She's giving Carlos full custody."
Mom and Dad were going to be devastated. He was devastated for them. He considered trying to call her; if she was in Chicago, it should only be eleven o'clock there, but what good would it really do? Mary was Mary. He packed up his stuff and headed home, where he pretended that everything was fine because he wasn't the one Carlos had asked to deliver the news. Matt was.
And I don't envy him.
….
Thursday, June 16, 2005 Glen Oak, CA
…
Simon didn't like Rose getting the check, but he didn't want to argue with her in the middle of some fancy restaurant, either. Yes, she'd asked him out, but it wasn't a date, and he was more then capable of paying for his half of the meal, despite the prices on the menu. It was definitely not the sort of restaurant he would have chosen on his own. He didn't quite feel like a fish out of water in the posh surroundings, but he didn't feel quite comfortable there, either.
They'd talked about school. Well, she'd talked about school. He'd mostly listened. Apparently, they had a few friends in common besides Sandy—who Simon would rather not think about—and Rose was determined to catch him up on all the gossip. The only person he'd cared to keep in touch with was Christina Davies—and he'd done that all on his own. As soon as he got settled back in at home, he'd called Christina and found out that her three younger siblings were fostering with Cecelia's parents, and she was there nearly every weekend. It was a little awkward the first time he went over to visit. He hadn't talked to Cecilia's parents, especially her father, who was his old boss, since their second breakup. But George Smith (no relation at all to Paul Smith) was a good man and Caroline was right when she said healing was a process. His new therapist, Dr. Sanzi, said the same thing. In any case, if his dating Cecilia, no matter how rough that final breakup was on him, had somehow led to her dad mentioning to his dad that he and Mrs. Smith were thinking about fostering, which had led Simon's dad to remember Christina's siblings and working a little of his Eric Camden "magic", then maybe it was really all worth it. His new therapist, Dr. Sanzi, agreed, and when Simon told Caroline about it over the phone, he'd heard the warm, happy smile in her voice as clearly as if he could have seen it, had they been face to face. When he tried telling Rose the same story during dinner, she'd responded that was kind of weird of him to bring up his ex-girlfriend while on a date, but since he had, didn't he think it was also pretty weird to be hanging out with his ex-girlfriend's parents? Wasn't the point that he'd helped Christina out once, as in it was over and he could get on with his life now?
"Aren't you going to invite me in?" Rose asked, when Simon started to get out of her car, in front of his house.
"I really—"
"Oh, come on. I'd love to meet your family and I'll bet they'd love to meet me."
"Yeah, sure." He'd been a million miles away the entire drive back. Not that Rose seemed to notice. She was still talking about school and their friends, teachers, her plans for the fall, trying to convince him to come back up to North Cal, rather than stay home and take a couple of classes at Crawford.
"What did you say your mom did again?" Rose asked, as Simon led the way up to the door.
"She's a stay-at-home mom, I mean, except for a year when she taught at Ruthie's old school."
"And Ruthie's your little sister?"
Simon nodded. Maybe she'd been paying more attention than he'd realized.
Rose stopped on the front porch. "I had no idea ministers made so much money."
"Huh?"
"This house. Even in this neighborhood, it must be worth a lot."
"The church owns the house," Simon explained. He opened the door for her, then followed her in. "Mom?" he called.
"In the kitchen!"
Simon led the way back. Unsurprisingly, Lucy was sitting at the table, Savannah in her lap, drinking tea with their mother. "Hey, Luce. Mom. This is my friend Rose. From school."
"Oh, right," his mother stood and extended a hand. "Simon mentioned running into you the other day. It's so nice to meet you." She turned to Lucy. "Isn't that right?"
"Oh, yeah, right. Very nice to meet you. Sorry I can't get up."
"Thanks," Rose said awkwardly. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, and finally turned back to Annie. "Your home certainly is…um…cute. It's amazing what you can do on a budget. Which I guess you'd be on since Simon says you're a…you stay home? And take care of the children?"
"All seven of them," Annie responded, looking just as awkward.
"Simon said there were a lot of you," Rose agreed. She turned to Simon. "Why don't we go up to your room, so we won't disturb your mother and sister?"
He saw his mom starting to object, but cut in ahead of her. "Actually, I have an early shift tomorrow. I'm sorry to cut it short, but I really need to get to bed. I'll walk you to your car."
"It's barely ten o'clock," Rose objected, pouting just little.
"I know. I'm sorry."
Rose flashed a smile at Simon's mother and sister and took his hand. "It was nice to meet you. I'm sure I'll see you again sometime."
"I look forward to it." Mom's return smile looked forced.
"Yeah," Lucy agreed, just as enthusiastically.
"I really am sorry," Simon told Rose, as he led the way back to the front door and out onto the porch. As soon as she'd called their dinner a "date", he'd realized he had somehow given her the wrong idea. He knew he should have ended the evening sooner, but she was driving, so he was stuck, and unlike New York, the busses around Glen Oak didn't run all night long and certainly didn't run every ten or fifteen minutes. Not that it was the easiest thing in the world to say "no" to Rose Taylor. Or rather, it was difficult to get her to understand what "no" was supposed to mean.
She smiled at him in a way that did little to ease his discomfort as she stopped again, on the front porch. "That's okay. There's nothing wrong with working for a living. It's kind of attractive—even if your work uniform isn't."
"No, I mean…well yeah, I'm sorry to have to cut things short tonight, but I hope I didn't give you the wrong impression."
Rose slid in closer. "What idea would that be?"
"That this…I um…." He couldn't say he was seeing somebody, because he wasn't. But….but what?
"Um?" Rose angled closer towards him, pinning him between her and the door. "You are really cute when you're flustered. You and this Christina….I know Georgia thought you had a thing with her—"
"We're just friends!"
"Good." She pressed a kiss to his mouth.
Simon stumbled backwards "Rose, I—"
"You what?" She kissed him again, more forcefully.
"Rose." He managed to get out from between her and the door.
She gave him a playful grin. "Don't tell me you didn't like that."
He wanted to. Desperately. But…he had liked it. Only…he hadn't liked it. "I should walk you to your car."
"What's your hurry? Unless you'd like to go for a drive?"
"I have an early shift, remember."
She laughed—but backed away. "Okay. Fine. Have it your way. But you'd better ask me out again."
"What? I…you asked me out!"
"You're right. Next time, you ask me. Even if it is to the pool hall."
Simon accepted the kiss she placed on his cheek with a mixture of guilt and relief, and waited until she turned the corner before heading back into the house.
He wasn't surprised to find Ruthie waiting for him at the foot of the foyer stairs. "Not wanting to let her go, or making sure she'd really left?"
Despite the tightness in his gut, Simon laughed. "The second one. Definitely the second one."
Ruthie followed him up the stairs. "I saw the kiss. So did Mom and Lucy."
Simon wasn't surprised. He wasn't happy. But he wasn't surprised.
"So, who was that girl?" Ruthie wanted to know.
"We had a class together last semester. She knows some of my friends, I guess."
"You guess she knows them, or you guess they're your friends—because I've gotta tell ya, if they're your friends, they haven't been around much."
Simon snorted. "When did you get so smart, again?"
"I've always been smart." They reached the wide upstairs hall and Ruthie turned to him. "You know, technically, you don't have a girlfriend."
"I know."
"You also know that just because you don't have a girlfriend, that doesn't mean you have to go out with that girl."
Simon laughed again. "Believe me, I know that, too."
Instead of going straight to bed, he sent Caroline an email—just a quick note to tell her he was thinking about her, and he missed being able to talk to her, face to face. He didn't tell her how badly he longed for the warmth of her presence because he didn't know how to put those feelings into words, and he wasn't about to tell her about Rose, at least not in an email. Something niggling inside warmed him that he would tell her, just not like this, even though it might be easier, especially the part about how while a small part of him had liked the kiss Rose gave him, the larger part of him wished that it was Caroline who had kissed him.
