So Finally! A new update...this chapter was a doozy to write in my opinion. I felt like i needed to make this first date RIGHT! I hope you like it...I'm going to try to write some more this weekend...next week I'm going to my hometown to visit my bestie so it may be a while before another update again...Anywho...I hope you like this chapter...thanks for reading! REMEMBER I DON'T OWN GLEE...if i did...we wouldn't be doing a whitney tribute episode AFTER her death...
As the week grew closer to the end, Mercedes started to freak out. On Friday, after she picked the kids up, she went home and attacked her closet looking for something to wear. When she felt too overwhelmed, she frantically called Santana.
"Tana, I need you!" She shrieked.
"For what?" She asked sarcastically. Mercedes was too busy freaking out to notice.
"With finding something to wear! Duh!"
"Where is he taking you again?"
"He said "The Horn" I've never been there but I've heard it's really nice there. So I need you here now to help me find something to wear." She whined. She could hear Santana telling her girlfriend that Mercedes was having a mini meltdown. The both of them continued to laugh.
"Mercy, calm down. Britt and I are on our way."
Fifteen minutes later, her best friends had arrived. When they got up to her room, Mercedes was still in her robe and her hair was still in rollers. Santana couldn't hold back her laughter.
"Don't laugh at me!"
"I can't help it! You're a mess, Mercy! Why are you so nervous?"
"Because! I haven't been on a date in almost 20 years. I have no damn clue what I'm doing." Santana grabbed her hands and lead her to her bed and sat down.
"I need you to relax. If you don't do that this date is going to be a disaster. You're over thinking things. Stop it." She took a deep breath and shook her head.
"You're right. I'm sorry. I'm going to end up psyching myself out. Ok! Let's do this!" Santana stood up from the bed and walked over to the closet.
"I'm sure you've got something that's gonna give Mr. Guitar God a permanent hard on." Mercedes laughed as she stood up and joined her best friend. It only took Santana twenty minutes to find the perfect outfit. She picked out a lavender v-neck shirt with cascading ruffles that had a lace design in the back, a pair of her best fitting hip hugging jeans and some black pointed toe heel boots. Brittany stepped in and finished her hair and make-up.
"Mommy you look pretty!" Amaya sang as she sat on Santana lap, who was sitting on her bed. Mercedes looked down at her daughter and smiled.
"Thank you, baby. Where's your brother?" Amaya opened her mouth to answer her mother when the doorbell rang. Mercedes could almost feel the blood rushing from her face. Before she could begin to panic, Santana walked up to her and grabbed her shoulders.
"Don't you dare start to panic! You need to knock him off his feet first!" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath when there was a knock on her bedroom door. Landon was standing in the doorway with a smile on his face.
"Mr. Evans is here, mom." Mercedes gave her son a quick nod.
"Okay, I'll be right down." Brittany picked Amaya up off of the bed and headed out of the room. Santana started to follow them, but then looked back at her best friend and gave her a bright smile.
"You look beautiful, Mercy. Have a good time, okay?"
"I will." She said and Santana left her alone. Mercedes gave herself a look in the mirror before she grabbed her purse and headed downstairs. She got a good look at him once she got to the forth step. He was dressed in a dark blue v-neck t-shirt, dark blue jeans that fit in all the right places and some black Steve Madden type dress shoes. She also noticed that he was holding a bouquet of red and white roses. She was going to get her son if he told Sam that those were her favorite. Once she landed on the floor, she looked up at Sam and smiled.
"Hi, Sam." He flashed her favorite smile and stepped forward.
"Hey Mercedes, you look…amazing." Her face grew warm and she knew she was blushing.
"Thanks." He held out the bouquet of roses.
"These are for you." She giggled as she took them out of his hand,
"Either you're just really good at knowing what to get or you had help picking these out." She side eyed her son but he kept up a good poker face. He just laughed and shook his head.
"I'll never tell."
"I'll take these and put them in some water, Mercy." Santana said as she took them from her hands. Amaya walked up to her and held up a single rose.
"Look Mommy! I got one too!"
"You did? Did you tell Mr. Evans thank you?" She nodded and then gave Sam a shy smile.
"I couldn't leave the princess out."
"That was really sweet of you, Sam."
"Since you are taking my girl out tonight, I'll let it slide that you forgot MY flowers." Santana said when she returned. Sam blushed and let out a nervous laugh.
"Well I'll have to remember that next time."
"You'll have to excuse Santana. She doesn't bite her tongue for anybody."
"Right, and if I don't give you shit then…I don't like you. Keep that in mind Mr. Guitar God." She said with a wink.
"Duly noted." Sam laughed.
"Okay, I'm ready if you are." Mercedes said, wanting to get out of the house already." Landon walked over to the door before they could and opened it of them.
"Mom?"
"Yes sweetie?"
"Try not to tell the REALLY embarrassing stories about me, please?"
"Oh I saved the best ones for tonight! Don't stay up too late." She looked back at her best friends.
"And PLEASE call me if there's an emergency." Santana laughed and gave her a gentle push out of the door.
"Yes, yes. Don't worry. Everything is going to fine. You kids have fun. Don't do anything I would do." Mercedes gave her a knowing look but proceeded outside with Sam. When she turned towards the driveway, she was greeted with the sight of the sexiest car she'd ever seen. A black Audi A6 sat in her driveway. Her Dodge Charger didn't have shit on this car.
"Oh man, nice car. This is definitely not the car you were in last weekend."
"It's actually my weekend car. I don't really drive it that much. This baby was late 30th birthday present to me." He opened her car door and helped her inside. Even the inside of the car was sexy. His car was every bit of him.
When he got behind the wheel, started the car and pulled out the driveway, Mercedes turned to him and asked,
"So when did you turn 30?"
"Um, about 3 years ago." He said with a laugh. She laughed too, she felt better knowing that she wasn't older than him.
"Why'd you wait so long to get your car?"
"I had to save my pennies for this pretty baby. I had just got my own house after graduate school and I was trying to get around the mortgage before I made any other big purchases."
"Good choice….So did you get the tip about the roses from my son or was it just a wild guess?"
"I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you, I asked Landon. I didn't want to get the wrong ones and you hate them, so I went the safe route and got help. I hope that wasn't too much."
"No, it's fine. I was just wondering."
"Ok, good." They kept up a steady conversation on their way to the club. Sam asked her about her job and how her week went. When they arrived to the club, like a gentleman Sam opened her door and helped her out of the car.
"So what kind of band is your friend in?" Mercedes asked as waited in line to enter to club.
"He's actually a guitarist for this amazing local R&B artist, Timothy Banks." Mercedes' eyes widened.
"Oh my goodness! He use to sing at my church when he was younger."
"Really? Small world I guess."
"Yeah it is. I always knew he'd do big things with that voice of his."
Once they made their way inside, he guided her through the crowd by placing his hand on the small of her back. They found a table close to the stage, Sam pulled out her chair and motioned for her to sit. Almost immediately after he sat, a waitress appeared and took their drink orders.
"Are you hungry?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, I could eat a little something. What's good here?"
"They have some of the best chicken wings here. We could split a basket if you'd like." She smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, that's fine." He made the order once the waitress returned with their drinks. After she left, they were greeted by a booming voice,
"Sammy boy! You made it!" Sam and Mercedes turned to see a tall, tanned and slightly stocky man with dark brown hair cut into a perfectly shaped Mohawk. Sam laughed, stood up and pulled the man into a hug.
"Puck you silly bastard, what's up?" The pulled apart and the man shrugged.
"Ah, same ole, same ole." Sam turned to Mercedes and pointed at his friend.
"Mercedes, this is my old college roommate, Noah Puckerman but we call him Puck." Puck leaned over and shook her hand.
"Pleasure's mine. Where'd you get this cute little chocolate drop?" Mercedes cocked an eye brow and laughed. Sam shook his head,
"You haven't changed at all I see. She's actually one of my students' Mom." Puck's eyes almost popped out of his head.
"Oh so you finally did it huh?" Sam narrowed his eyes at his friend and gritted his teeth.
"Shut up!"
"Finally did what?" Mercedes asked curiously. Sam looked at her with panic.
"He always teased me about hooking up with my students' mom when I first started teaching." He turned to Puck and frowned, which only made him double over in laughter.
"I'm just fucking you with you man, you should know that. Well, I gotta get back on stage. We should be on in a few minutes." Sam looked at Mercedes and saw that she was amused. Sam sat back down at the table and gave Mercedes a nervous smile.
"Sorry about Puck….I guess he's much like Santana in a sense."
"Exactly which is why I'm not really taking his comment to heart….Although it has me wondering."
"What would that be?"
"Have you dated a student's mother before?" She asked pointedly.
"No,not at all. You are my first, so to speak." She noticed in the dim light that his cheeks were flushed.
"Oh well I should be honored, huh?" She said with a feminine giggle. That caused Sam to laugh out loud.
"I walked into that one."
"Yes you did. I'm actually surprised by the fact that I'm the first."
"And why is that?" She started at him in astonishment.
"Really? You're gonna play oblivious right now? Please tell me you don't have mothers, single AND married practically throwing themselves at you." Sam threw his head back in laughter.
"That may be true, but honestly. I don't pay attention to that."
"What changed?" He looked at her with a determined expression.
"I haven't figured that out quite yet. I do know one thing, there's something about you that's got me itching to find out more." Mercedes' stomach began to flutter like the afternoon she had coffee with him. She felt the heat rise in her face and thanked god that even in the dim light, he couldn't tell that she was blushing. They engaged in a staring contest when a voice came from the stage. Timothy had taken stage and the show had started. Although they couldn't talk during the performance, they stole glances from one another as they were entranced by the sultry sounds that filled the air.
During a brief intermission, they picked up their conversation again. Mercedes had told Sam stories about her kids growing up. He admired the way she lit up whenever she mentioned her son and daughter. She was also very animated when telling stories about Landon when he was a toddler.
"He came out of my room, COVERED in Vaseline. I mean his head was SO shiny, I could almost see my reflection. I was too busy crackin up to be upset."
"Oh man, please tell me you have pictures." He said once his laughter had calmed down.
"You know it! I'm bringing those pictures out when he graduates….when he gets married. I'm gonna show them to his kids too!"
"You are a cruel woman! Landon is going to die of embarrassment." Mercedes laughed and shrugged .
"It's my job to embarrass the shit out of him." The both of them let out a hearty laugh. Mercedes reached for her wine glass and look at him through the glass. He was staring at her very intently. She stopped drinking and smiled.
"What?"
"Nothing…..it's just….You have this glow whenever you talk about your kids. I really like it. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that a man would want to leave you and your kids."
"Well, David isn't a bad father…he's a wonderful father , I'll give him that. He was just a horrible husband. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that we got married so young." For the first time, she was able to talk about her ex-husband without feeling bitterness.
"Well, you're a strong woman Mercedes Jones."
"That maybe, but what I want to know is how is that a woman hasn't nabbed you." Sam looked down at the table and laughed.
"Ha…..uh I don't know."
"Have you ever come close to taking the big leap?"
"Yes, actually. Right after I got my Bachelors, I had proposed to my high school sweetheart. She said yes, but once she figured out what I really wanted to do with my life, I guess it wasn't part of her plan."
"What do you mean?"
"Quinn didn't like the idea of being a "teacher's wife."
"Oh….well." Mercedes said with raised eyebrows. Sam smiled sadly and nodded.
"Yeah, I haven't seen her in a few years." Mercedes looked at him with a warm smile.
"Everything happens for a reason." He returned a bright smile and said,
"Yeah, I'm starting to realize that now." Timothy had returned to the stage and finished out the rest of his set. At the end of the night, Sam had said a quick goodbye to Puck and headed out before the parking lot got too backed up with traffic.
When Sam had pulled into her neighborhood, he looked over at her and saw that she was looking out of the window with a smile on her face.
"Did you have a good time tonight?" She turned to look at him, still smiling and said,
"I had an amazing time. Thank you for inviting me." He pulled into her driveway and cut the engine. Mercedes sat and waited as Sam got out and opened her door. They quietly walked up the stairs and stood in front of her door.
"So, maybe we could do this again?" Sam asked with hope in his voice.
"I'd like that a lot."
"Okay good." They stood in silence, neither of them wanting to say goodbye just yet. The both of them looked at each other and laughed. Mercedes reached for the keys in her purse.
"So I guess I'll call you later?"
"Yes, I'll text you sometime tomorrow."
"Okay then."
"Mercedes?" He asked, his voice dropping an octave.
"Yes?"
"Would it be okay if…I kissed you good night."
"Sure" She answered before her brain could catch up to her mouth. She closed her eyes as he leaned in. What surprised her was that she didn't feel his lips against hers. He had planted a soft kiss on her cheek. From that kiss alone she felt so much electricity flow through her body, she was sure she had turned to mush.
"Goodnight Mercedes."