The Christmas season passed by quickly, the day was spent Billy's friend's apartment. His girlfriend cooked a big dinner and I had helped while Billy explained the rules of Hockey to Callan as they watched the game on the TV. Callan was changing every day, though everyone said he still looked the very same as Billy. Joe couldn't get enough of him and even I found it hard to tear myself away from him, but it had to be done. After six weeks breastfeeding I had lost the bit of baby weight I had gained and my confidence had soared – I had decided it was time to ring that plumber about our date and to my delight he had suggested we go for a few drinks. Billy had planned to take Callan to his place for the first time and I was excited about my first night of freedom. He strode in after knocking gently and stopped dead when he saw me.
"Look at you! Where are you off to?" he asked, looking me up and down. I was wearing tight dark jeans, a black top with ¾ length sleeves, and my shiny dark hair was tossed wildly down around my neck, I also had on a pair of my beloved heels I had parted with during the late stages of my pregnancy.
"I've got a date, can you believe it?"
"A date?" he asked, looking stunned.
"No need to look so surprised, I'm not completely hideous. Just because you've seen me at my most unattractive and can't get it out of your head." I smirked, fixing my lip gloss and throwing on a scarf.
"No it's not – I mean, since when? With who?" he asked, picking Callan's bag up.
"The plumber who fixed my kitchen. He asked me out ages ago but I wanted to wait until I had Callan." I shrugged, pulling my jacket on.
"Oh. Right. Is everything he needs in here?" he asked and I nodded.
"Yeah, there are enough bottles in there and I put in some extra just in case." I answered feeling excited.
"Okay then, let's go buddy! Do you... Do you want a ride anywhere?" he asked and I looked at him, suddenly feeling a little bad.
"No, no thanks. I've ordered a cab so it should be here." I answered and he nodded.
"Right well uh... Have fun." He said and picked the carrier chair up, walking out the door. I stood there and bit my lip, should I have kept the fact that I was going on a date from him? But no, I shouldn't have. There was no need to keep secrets from him; he was seeing other people too. Plus we were just good friends, things had gotten a little heated during the pregnancy but all that was over now.
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I walked into the bar and saw him so I walked over and he stood up to pull out my chair.
"Oh, thanks." I grinned, very old fashioned of him but quite sweet.
"You look great." He smiled as he sat back down.
"Thanks, a bit better than last time you saw me anyway!" I joked and wit that we ordered drinks.
"So you said on the phone you had a son? Congratulations." He said.
"Thank you, yeah he's great. His name is Callan. He's almost seven weeks already! It's going so fast." I sighed.
"And his father, is he around or... what's the deal there? I just want to know, I don't want to tread on any toes." He said and I laughed.
"Nothing to worry about there, he's the sweetest guy. I used to date him and that's how Callan came about, and he's great with him but we were over before we began really. It wasn't exactly an epic romance." I explained. There was no way in hell I was going to go into detail about me and Billy on a first date, there was just too much there.
"He must be crazy to let a girl like you go though. And I have to say, you looked gorgeous when you were pregnant. How he's not crazy about you I don't know!" he said, brown eyes sparkling at me.
"Oh well, Billy's not really the type to be crazy about anything. Except Callan maybe. He adores him!" I giggled.
"I love babies so I can understand that." He grinned. An hour passed and we were having a nice time talking back and forth, but I felt bad because I couldn't stop thinking that he was too nice. He agreed with everything I said to the point where I found it a bit annoying and he was so polite it made me conscious of what I said.
"Listen, Dan. I'm having a really nice time here, but I can't help worrying about Callan. I think I'm going have to cut this short I'm really sorry." I said after a further hour.
"Oh no problem, I've seen how hard it was for my sister to leave her kids. Do you want me to walk you to the taxi rank?" he asked. He really was so nice.
"No, thank you. I'll walk to Billy's it's not far from here, Callan is there for the night." I explained and he nodded.
"I'll see you again?" he asked.
"Yeah, maybe." I smiled and walked away, I knew I wouldn't be calling him again because he just wasn't for me, but I loved that I'd had the confidence to go on a date. It was a hard thing to get back into, but there was no better way than to grab the bull by the horns.
