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Stephanie finished applying mascara on her lashes and let out a sigh of relief to be done. She was so nervous that her fingers had been shaking slightly during the process that she was nervous she would end up poking herself in the eye with the wand. But luckily she had got through it and was done with her makeup and now all she had to do was wait on Paul. Tonight was their date and she couldn't seem to keep herself from being so nervous which made no sense considering the amount of time they had been spending together since the storyline began and then he found out about Aiden.
"Mommy you look pretty" Stephanie looked over to see Aiden coming into her bedroom and smiled at him.
"Yes she does" Kelsi said appearing at her bedroom door behind Aiden.
"Thank you" Stephanie replied looking over her appearance in the mirror before turning her attention to Kelsi "it's not too much is it?"
"No you look great, stop worrying so much."
"I can't help it I'm just so nervous" Stephanie replied picking up her perfume from her dresser and spritzing herself with it. Kelsi chuckled at her and Stephanie narrowed her eyes at her and put the perfume back down on the dresser "it's not funny."
"I'm sorry. It's just I haven't seen you this worked up over a guy in well…. since you went out with Paul back in college."
"This is ridiculous right? That I'm so nervous about this when Paul and I used to date and I see him regularly."
"No it's not ridiculous. You and him are trying to start a relationship again and I know you're nervous because of how things happened in the past. But I think he really has changed from back then so don't get caught up thinking about the past and letting it ruin the future. Just enjoy your night and don't think so much" Kelsi replied as Stephanie nodded her head and took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves.
"Can I go mommy?" Aiden asked giving her puppy dog eyes and sticking out his bottom lip.
"Not this time sweetie" Stephanie replied and couldn't help but feel bad when he hung his head down and walked out her bedroom. It had only been a couple of days since he found out that Paul was his dad and Aiden wanted to spend even more time with him than before. Now she felt bad and didn't want to take time away that Aiden could be spending with Paul. "Well now I feel like shit."
"He'll be fine, trust me" Kelsi reassured her with a smile. "I'll let him pig out a little bit and watch some of his favorite movies."
"Don't let him eat too much junk food" Stephanie replied as they heard a knock on the door. Stephanie felt her heart start beating faster and started feeling more nervous knowing that Paul was here.
"I'll get it" Kelsi replied giving her a smile before turning to leave the room. "Remember to breathe Steph."
Stephanie checked her appearance once last time in the mirror before going to her closet and grabbing a jacket then she headed out of her room. Once she made it to the living room her eyes immediately landed on Paul who was sitting on the couch. His back was to her so the only thing she could see was his hair was down and he had on his leather jacket that he had let her borrow the night he drove her home when she had got drunk with him and Shawn.
"Don't you want to spend time with Kelsi?" She heard Paul ask and then she noticed Aiden was standing in front of him shaking his head.
"He asked Paul if he could go with you guys" Kelsi whispered next to her. She had been focused on Paul and Aiden that she hadn't noticed that Kelsi had even come up to her.
"But I told him no."
"Yeah I know but when you were a kid didn't you ever go to the other parent when the first one said no?"
"I just…I can't believe he would do that."
"Well it's probably going to start happening a lot now so get used to it" Kelsi replied and patted her shoulder with a giggle before heading towards the kitchen.
"Aiden I told you not this time" Stephanie said going over to him and Paul.
"But I want to go with you and daddy" Aiden replied keeping his attention on Paul and stuck out his bottom lip.
"How about you stay here with Kelsi this time and tomorrow all three of us will go out? We won't be gone very long and when we get back later you and I will spend time together doing whatever you want" Paul suggested as Aiden tilted his head looking like he was thinking it over.
"Okay" Aiden replied dejectedly and sat down on the couch and crossed his arms. That had gone over a lot better than she thought it was going to but then again he probably realized he wasn't going to get his way.
"Are you ready to go?" Stephanie asked looking at Paul and he nodded his head and stood up. He reached over and ruffled Aiden's hair. "Be good for Kelsi."
"We'll be back before you know it" Paul said to Aiden as he ignored them. Stephanie shook her head and headed to the kitchen to let Kelsi know they were leaving.
"We're going now. Aiden isn't too happy"
"I'll cheer him up. You two have fun and I'll see you soon" Kelsi replied picking up two bowls and Stephanie could see that ice cream was filled to the top with tons of fudge on top. "Wipe that look off of your face he probably won't even eat that much of it."
"I… just forget it" Stephanie replied shaking her head and walked over to the door. "Have fun."
"We will" Kelsi called as Stephanie and Paul walked out of the house.
"You look beautiful by the way" Paul said as they walked off of the porch and headed to his car.
"Thanks. You don't look so bad yourself" Stephanie replied looking at what she could see of his black button up shirt and down to the dark denim jeans he had paired with it.
When they reached the car Paul opened her door for her and she got in feeling a lot calmer than she did earlier and now she was more excited than anything. Though part of her felt guilty for taking time away from Aiden especially when he wanted to go with them so bad. Hopefully they would be able to figure this all out because she couldn't let her trying to have a relationship with Paul affect Aiden losing time in getting to know him. She wouldn't let that happen even if it meant putting a possible relationship between her and Paul on hold.
After they had arrived at the restaurant and were seated they ordered drinks and looked over the menu. Paul looked over to Stephanie once he knew what he was ordering to see her concentrating on the menu. She had been pretty quiet on the way to the restaurant and he hoped he hadn't already messed their date up. He thought back on everything he had said to her and he couldn't recall saying anything to piss her off or offend her. He had been looking forward to this date ever since she had said yes to it so he had been pretty nervous about it all day and her already being so quiet wasn't helping to calm his nerves.
"Are you okay?" Paul asked once the waitress had come back with their drinks and took their food order and left.
"Yeah I'm good" Stephanie nodded and took a sip of her wine. "I just feel bad for taking time away from Aiden that he could be spending with you. Especially when he wanted to come with us."
"I know. I felt horrible saying no especially when he gave me that face."
"Yeah it's hard to resist" Stephanie let out a small chuckle and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and sighed. "I just don't want what is developing between us to affect Aiden's time with you. He needs you more."
"It won't, I promise. We're just new to this so it's going to take some time to figure out" Paul replied reaching his hand across the table and taking hold of hers. She smiled at him as he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.
"Hopefully. It's just hard when we're traveling so much and it doesn't give Aiden very much time to spend with us as it is. He gets to spend more time with me than you though so it's important that he gets to spend as much time with you as possible."
"Try not to worry about it right now. If you want, we'll just bring him along with us next time and make into a family thing" Paul replied before taking a drink of his water. He really wanted things to work between them because he wasn't sure if he could go back to just being friends with her. It had already been hard on him not to want to touch or kiss her but he also understood where she was coming from. Aiden was the most important and he would do whatever he needed to do for him.
"Yeah, maybe" Stephanie replied with a small smile. "Besides we're all three going out tomorrow remember?"
"I remember and that's exactly what we're going to do."
"I'm sure Aiden is already looking forward to it" Stephanie replied as their waitress arrived back at their table with the food and sat it down in front of them. "So I'm going to have to tell my parents everything soon."
"Do you want me to come with you?" Paul asked before taking a bite of his food. He was nervous about letting her family know, especially Vince. But he didn't want her to have to tell them by herself either.
"I don't know. It would be great to have you there for support but then it might just anger them even more when it all comes out that they probably won't listen to anything we have to say. There will probably be lots of shouting and accusations" Stephanie said before taking a drink of her wine. "I just know I have to do it really soon. Kelsi has kept him for the last couple of days that I've had to do shows but I can't keep asking her to do it all the time. And since Aiden has been talking about you already to my mom I know he'll end up telling my parents before I do and I can't let that happen."
"Well I'll do whatever you want. If you decide to tell them by yourself just let me know so I'll know exactly why I'm getting a call from Vince or why he's showing up at my door. I'm sure if he suddenly shows up at my door though I'll know why."
"I will" Stephanie replied giving him a smile before taking a bite of her food.
Once dinner was finished they paid for their dinner and then made their way out of the restaurant. Stephanie had finally relaxed through dinner while they talked and it seemed she had a good time. Which was a relief for Paul and he was finally able to enjoy the evening without worrying something was going to go wrong. And as they walked to the car he wasn't ready to take her home and their date to be over.
"So… do you maybe want to go and watch a movie or something?" Paul asked pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her waist once they reached the car.
"Hmm I'm not even sure if I'm even interested in anything that's playing in the theater."
"We could always go rent one of your favorite movies and go back to my place" Paul suggested as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"You hate my movies though."
"I don't hate them. I just don't really care for them but I'll suffer through them if it means I can spend some more alone time with you" he replied before leaning down and brushing his lips against hers.
"And all you want to do is watch a movie?" Stephanie asked arching her eyebrow "I'm not sure that's all you want to do."
"If that's all you want to do then that's what we will do. I'm not going to fuck it up this time Steph. I'm not going to rush you into anything" Paul replied staring into her eyes. He really was starting to fall in love with her, he wasn't even sure if he really even had stopped loving her in the first place. Maybe that's why he had tried so hard to get her to forgive him when they first started their storyline. Why he wasn't able to stay away from her even when his relationship with Joanie had started to crumble. Why he had tried to convince himself that what they had all those years ago was a fling.
"How about we rent a movie and go back to my place and once Aiden goes to sleep then we will watch the movie? I really want Aiden to spend as much time with you as he can and we told him we wouldn't be very long."
"Okay" Paul nodded his head and kissed her softly on the lips. He then let go of her and opened the car door for her so she could slip in. Then a couple of minutes later they drove out of the parking lot.
After they had stopped and rented a couple of movies they headed back to Stephanie's place. Dinner had been great and relaxing for her once she had been able to get the things that had been bugging her off of her mind. Paul had been really sweet and understanding of everything. Part of her had wanted to just go back to his place and watch a movie but she wasn't sure if she could completely control herself around him once they were alone. That was just something that she wasn't ready for especially after their first date and the reminders of what happened before years ago. She really was trying to let the past be in the past like Kelsi had advised her to do but she still was trying to be cautious of getting hurt again. It had taken her a long time before to move on from him after he had left the first time.
"I really hope Aiden isn't too hyper from junk food" Stephanie said as they turned on to her street. The ice cream Kelsi had given him before they left would definitely have him bouncing off the walls if he ate a lot of it. There was no telling how much more junk food she would have gave him while they had been gone either.
"I just hope he still isn't upset with me."
"I'm sure he got over that pretty soon after we left" Stephanie chuckled as they started getting closer to her house where she could see the driveway. That's when she noticed another car in her driveway besides hers and Kelsi's and she froze. She knew whose car it was and now she wasn't so sure she wanted to go home. "Shit."
"What?" Paul asked as he pulled into the driveway and looked over at her.
"My mom is here" Stephanie replied unbuckling her seatbelt and stared straight ahead at her house where she noticed Kelsi had stepped out of and stood waiting on the porch.
"Should I go in with you or- "
"You should probably head home because this doesn't look too good. Kelsi is waiting on the porch for me which means she probably needs to talk to me before I go in."
"Are you sure?" Paul asked giving her a look of concern.
"Yeah" Stephanie replied nodding her head.
"What about Aiden? I told him I would come back and spend time with him."
"I'm not sure. I don't think mom will stay long and I could call you after she leaves."
"Okay just call me after she leaves. I had a great time tonight" Paul replied leaning over and giving her a kiss that didn't last long enough for her but for the moment it would have to do.
"I did too" she smiled at him and opened her door. "I'll call you soon."
Stephanie got out of the car and waved at him before shutting the door and taking off to the porch. She pulled her jacket close around her after feeling herself start to shake. She wasn't sure if she were really that cold or if she was just that nervous to go inside. There was no telling how much Aiden had told Linda it was one of the reason's Kelsi had been watching him lately.
"How long has she been here?" Stephanie asked once she stepped on the porch towards Kelsi.
"Ten minutes or so but Aiden has been going on and on about how you and daddy left without him tonight" Kelsi replied and Stephanie ran a hand through her hair.
"Did he mention Paul's name at all?"
"I didn't hear him say his name but your mom doesn't seem too happy about you being out with Aiden's dad. She tried asking me questions but I dodged them the best I could" Kelsi replied with a small shrug.
"What is she doing here at this time anyway?"
"She said she wanted to come and see Aiden because she hadn't seen him for a couple of days. She wanted to make sure everything was okay."
"Great." Stephanie replied sarcastically before taking a deep breath and letting it out. If she didn't go in soon then Linda would just come out here to see where Kelsi had go off to. "I guess it's time to face the music."