My Paper Heart (6 page)

I sat in my chair, twirling my ponytail, as I kept trying to figure out how we could be missing a random two dollars from the petty cash account, when I heard the bell on the front door ring. I expected it was another customer looking for some old broken teapot. But this person was not a customer, and was enough to take away both Marion and Dina's attention. I could hear them both swoon.

"Hey Blaine." Dina purred.

Blaine?  My head popped up. What was he doing here?  I was guessing to suck up to Aunt Dee some more, or hell, maybe he was banging Dina. I went back to working on the books as Dina went on and on.

"Are those flowers for me?" She giggled.

Flowers?

"Um..." Blaine stammered. "Actually, I'm here to see Libby."

Me?  I kept my eyes down on the books; if he could go a week without an apology then he didn't deserve my attention. But flowers are always nice…

"Oh." Dina smacked her big overly-glossed lips together. "Well, you can see she's in the back." She nodded her head of messy curls over in my direction. I pretended not to notice as Blaine's work boots creaked on the old wooden floor.

"Um…hey…"  He was standing right in front of my desk, a pathetic display of carnations that he probably picked up at the gas station in his hands. The red and white of the flowers sharply contrasted against his bright orange work vest.

I glanced up and blew away a stray blonde hair. "Hey." I went back to looking down at the books.

"Um..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I brought you these."

I put my pencil down on the desk and folded my hands in front of me as I looked up. "Gee, Blaine first you insult me, then you don't talk to me for a week, and now you come with cheap flowers?" I let out a single laugh.

 "Wow, you really know how to impress a girl." That last statement dripped with sarcasm, and by that time we had the attention of the two gossip mongers in the front, and possibly some of the customers milling around the store.

"Look." Blaine leaned in as he lowered his voice. "I'm sorry Libby. I think we got off on the wrong foot". He placed the bouquet on the desk and set both his hands down in front of him, so he could have more leverage to lean in.

"The wrong foot?" I cocked an eyebrow. "You basically called me a slut." I started putting my fingers up to count. "Um, I believe stupid." I put another finger up. "Oh, and a horrible niece and cousin." I put that last finger up with a sense of defiance. "Did I miss anything else?"

He sighed. "Look, Libby." I could almost see the sweat form on his brow. "I am sorry for all of that. I never really gave you a chance and I should have. You’ve been the talk of the town these past two weeks and no one has got anything bad to say about you."

"Go on." I rested my chin in my hand and leaned in closer. Our foreheads were less than a foot apart now.

"Well, I think I should make it up to you, and I thought maybe I could take you to dinner tonight. Your choice of the place." He cracked a nervous smile. I could tell it was a nervous smile because it was almost too toothy. He did have perfect teeth though, I noticed. It was like he had years of braces. As a dentist’s daughter I noticed these things. I also really paid attention, since I expected him to be missing a few teeth, but I think that was just me stereotyping.

"Hmm." I tapped my nails on my chin and looked toward the ceiling. "I don't know. You were awfully mean." I then looked back at him and let an almost Cheshire-like smile cross my lips.

"Aw come on Libby. Don't play it like that." His southern accent got thicker, and a little bit more playful as he leaned in even closer. We were only inches apart now.

I let out a sarcastic sigh. "Okay, but just this once."

He grinned, "Can I pick you up tonight around six then?"

"No." I slowly shook my head. "I'm busy. Its bridge club night, so I'm staying home with Britt."

"Okay. Fine how about tomorrow?" That nervous sweat was beginning to form again.

"I think there is a new TV show on that night."

"Oh come on!" He was visibly getting frustrated now as he balled his hands into fist.

"I can do Friday." I bit my lower lip teasingly and looked up at him.

"Finally." He sighed. "I'll pick you up at six on Friday then?"

"Sounds good." I beamed. We were practically close enough to be kissing, but then he looked over and saw the two ladies pretending not to stare.

He coughed, covering his mouth with his hand as he straightened himself. "Well I guess I should be getting back to work."

"Oh yeah, definitely, someone has to work on those roads." I nodded and realized I sounded like an idiot.

"Alright Libby. I'll see you Friday." He smiled and nodded to the two ladies in front as he walked out the front door.

No sooner had he left, he wasn't even out of sight of the front windows yet, when Dina and Marion came running over to my desk.

"Looks like someone is getting some on Friday!" Marion giggled shaking her enormous saggy breasts in front of my desk.

"With Blaine?" I furrowed my brow. "No, it's not like that." The truth was, Beau was the only guy I had ever slept with, and I definitely was not going to give it up that easy again.

"Well Blaine IS like that." Dina smirked.

"What do you mean?" I cocked my head. For the guy that was concerned about me running in a sports bra, he didn't seem like the screw-on-the-first-date type.

"Well." Marion chimed. "He has kind of always been the playboy type. I think every woman under the age of thirty has crossed his path at least once."

"Including me." Dina beamed. "But that was like six months ago. If you want him you can have him." She aimlessly tossed a pale hand in the air like she was swatting a fly.

Ew. Blaine and Dina with the Lee Press-on Nails and orthopedic shoes, gross. And who was Blaine to tell me that I was acting like a skank when he was banging half the town?  Well, our Friday night was sure going to be interesting.

Chapter 9

"Are these jeans too tight?"

 I faced my butt in the direction of Britt, who was sitting Indian style on my bed. She wasn't happy about Blaine taking me out, but changed her spirits as soon as she found out that I was not into it.

"I don't know. I really don't want to look at your butt." Britt laughed.

"Well, I've been eating too much of Aunt Dee's cooking and I’m afraid all my clothes are looking tight and not in the good way." It was true. My clothes were getting a lot tighter, and I didn't want Blaine to think I was wearing tight pants just for his attention.

"Okay then." I lifted up a t-shirt to my chest.

"How about this?"

"Peace, Love, Kappa?" Britt raised an eyebrow at the faded green ringer tee.

"Yeah, it was given to me by an alum. I think the old and wornness of it definitely says:
Blaine I am not doing you
." I nodded.

"So why are you even going on a date with him if you don't have any interest in him?  I mean, if you really didn't want to go out with him you could have thrown him my way." Britt pointed two chubby thumbs at herself.

"Ugh, I wish I would have." I slid the ringer tee over my head. "But you damn southerners and your charm, it gets me every time!"

Britt laughed. I knew she wasn't thrilled about this situation at all, with her crush on Blaine and all, but she actually seemed to enjoy my new found hatred for him.

                       ∞

On my first date with Beau he was almost an hour late, my stomach was grumbling so badly, I was afraid that he would notice. I thought that my stomach would vibrate on the leather seats of his beamer and then he would never want to talk to me again. Imagine, I thought I was the one making a bad impression and he was the one who was late.

Blaine wasn't late, in fact, he actually was early. At 5:45 the doorbell rang and Britt sprang up from my bed faster than I had ever seen that girl move. I groaned as I finished putting a rubber band in my braided pigtails. I figured low braided pigtails said school marm more than school girl.

"Libby, Blaine's here!" Britt bellowed from the living room.

"Oh, Blaine how are you?" Aunt Dee practically floated over to the door. It looked like I was the only one moving slowly.

My flip flops plopped, making that annoying 'flop flop' noise, as I slowly crept out of the bedroom and into the living room. It looked like someone was actually looking forward to this date, or was just hoping to get some.

"Hey Libby." Blaine flashed a toothy grin.

 It looked like he had spent all day getting ready and not just throwing on the worst clothes he could find around the room. The first thing I noticed, which I think most girls do, was his shoes. I'd only ever seen him in very dirty work boots, but it looked like he brought out the only pair of dress shoes he had. He topped that off with khakis and an actual black button-down shirt, with the sleeves rolled up since of course since Louisiana was about a million degrees at any given time of day. You could actually see the sweat start to glisten on his arms, or maybe that was just from nervousness.

 One of us was not dressed appropriately.

"Hey Blaine." I muttered, slowly making my way over to the door.

"My, Mr. Crabtree, you look so handsome! My niece is so lucky to have a guy like you taking her out!" Aunt Dee was practically drooling as she patted his shoulder, not in the drooling way like Britt, but in the 'I'm so proud this young man is taking my niece out' way. Little did she know this was the same guy that screwed half the town.

"Yeah Blaine." I looked up and met his eyes. "You clean up well." I really should stop meeting his eyes, they were bluer than the Mediterranean Sea and I couldn't stop from getting lost in them. It almost made me forget that I hated him.

"Uh, yeah." I think Blaine actually got a little red as he looked down and absently ran a hand through his hair. "You look good too Libby. But I think you can wear anything and still look amazing."

Our eyes met again, we were behaving like twelve year olds.

Britt rolled her eyes. "Are y'all just going to stand in the doorway all night or what?"

"Uh, no." I glanced over at Brittany. "Mr. Blaine here owes me dinner."

"You are letting him take you out in that?" Aunt Dee looked me up and down with furrowed brows.

"It's comfortable. And I'm so hot and worn out from work that I didn't have the energy to change." I smiled at Aunt Dee.

"Oh, yeah, it takes a lot of energy to sit on your butt at the shop," Britt mocked. I shot her an evil glare.

"And on that note." Blaine looked back at me. "You ready?"

"Ready." I smirked at Brittany. "Bye Britt."

Then I kissed Aunt Dee on the cheek. "I shouldn't be too late."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Aunt Dee called as we headed out the door. Britt mumbled something but I couldn't understand it, probably something rude.

Blaine opened the passenger side door of his truck for me. I guess he was trying that whole southern gentleman thing.

"You know I can open my own car door," I quipped.

"Yeah, but so can I."

He hopped over on the driver's side and started the truck up as I closed the big red door behind me.

"So where did you want to go?  I was thinking New Orleans is only about 45 minutes away. I could take you down to the French Quarter. Maybe stop at Café Du Monde for coffee afterwards."

It looked like Blaine was either actually trying to impress me, or he did a lot of work to get what he wanted.

"You guys have one of those drive-in restaurants like in the movies right?"

Blaine cocked an eyebrow and glanced at me as he turned out of the driveway.

"Sam's?  The drive-in?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "My sorority sisters used to love to go to the drive-ins, but the closest one was like an hour away so we would sometimes take late night road trips there. But I haven't had it in like forever, and I really could use a root beer float, served courtesy of a girl on roller skates."

Blaine laughed a deep belly laugh. "I offer to take you to the French Quarter and you would rather have Sam's?"

"Yes." I folded my arms across my chest and jutted out my bottom lip into a pout. "And you don't need to laugh at me about it."

He stopped laughing and let out a deep breath, the kind that someone takes after a long laugh. "I'm sorry Libby." He put his hand on my knee. "It's just funny that I got all dressed up, trying to impress you, and you walk out wearing flip flops and ask me to take you to Sam's." He moved one of his hands from the steering wheel and placed it on my knee.

His touch sent an immediate tingle from my legs and straight up to the area that would definitely be off limits for the night. I hated that his hand did that to me, but at the same time I almost wanted to keep it there.

 "I just kind of feel like a jackass now."

I pushed his hand off my knee. It's not that I didn't like it, I did. A lot, but I wasn't going to let him just hump and dump.

"Well you kind of are a jackass aren't you?"

"Huh?" Blaine glanced over at me as we headed down the road toward the main drag. His lower jaw actually dropped before he started talking again. "I apologized for that Libby, and you know I'm genuinely sorry. I even brought you flowers."

"I'm not talking about that. I'm over that now."

"Well then what is it?"

"Well." I bit my bottom lip and looked out the window.

"Oh come on Libby. Just tell me what's bothering you."

"Okay." I took a deep breath and looked straight out the window ahead. I didn't want to look at him as I spilled everything Dina had told me at work, and from what I had gotten out of Britt. Everything from hooking up with snaggletooth from work, to his rumored affairs with married woman, and the head count that Britt told me would rival Hugh Hefner.

We were silent for a moment, and it happened to be the moment we were pulling into Sam's. He put the car into park. He turned and just stared at me, not saying anything just staring.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, say something!" I put my hands out toward him like I was expecting him to hand me something.