Nerd Girl (5 page)

Please Amy, just give me another chance.

Chapter #7

Nerd Girl Problem #107

Finally getting your dream guy alone in your room. The same room that still has unicorn bed sheets and fan girl posters on the walls.
Facepalm.
Ugh!!! I’m such a geek!

T
he sun is shining brightly through my bedroom window this morning. I guess I forgot to close the shades when I crashed last night. Gah!! Last night started out so promising, but then that bitch on wheels had to show up and ruin everything. I may be shy at times, but I refuse to let anyone treat me like I don’t matter. The nerve of that obnoxious bitch just gets me even more infuriated. I ball my fists and slam them down on top of my covers. I hit something fluffier than the down comforter. Last time I checked, blankets didn’t grumble at you. I pop up to see poor Clyde glaring at me with a what-the-hell look on his sweet face.

“I’m sorry, boy; I didn’t mean to clobber you,” I apologize to Clyde. He’s a sensitive dog. An upset Clyde will ignore you for days until he decides to forgive you. I guess he realizes I didn’t mean to hit him, since he crawls up my bed to lay across my chest and lick my face. He also always seems to know what I need at exactly the right time. I scratch him behind the ears and give him kisses on his velvety soft head.

“I need some advice, Clyde, what should I do?” I ask him. He answers with a huff and I continue to describe the events of last night. He’s such a good listener and even gives a proper growl when I get to the part about Mitzi.
Good Dog!
I share with him about Layla shooting the darts and ruining Mitzi’s purse and Clyde starts wagging his tail excitedly. “Well, there you have it, what’s your advice? Should I give Derrick another chance?” Clyde jumps up onto all fours and howls at me, happy tail wagging. What a goofy dog. “You think so?” Clyde answers with a deep
woof.
“Alright boy, if he calls, I’ll hear him out and decide from there, Ok?”
‘Woof, woof’
he answers back
.
I know I can always count on Clyde to give me good advice.

Rolling over, I grab my glasses, put them on, and look at the clock on my night stand; 9:35 am. I stretch my arms and legs and then climb out of bed. I let Clyde out of my room and shuffle to the bathroom, relieve myself, brush my teeth and hair, and then shuffle down the hall to the kitchen. I can hear the morning news coming from the living room T.V. The smell of coffee brewing and toasted bread makes my stomach growl.

“Morning, honey,” GG says, as I give her a kiss on her cheek.

“Good morning,” I reply, stretching my back. “That looks good,” I say, indicating the lightly toasted bread covered with butter and cinnamon sugar.

“Want some?” She asks with a smile and then just hands me the plate she had made for herself. I gladly take it from her; I’m starving!

“Thanks, GG, love ya!” I tell her taking a huge bite and turning to join Pops at the table where he’s hiding behind today’s paper, Clyde at his feet.

“So what’s going on in the world today Pops? Anything good?” He peaks around the paper smiling at me.

“Nah, it’s all bad news. If they reported good news, nobody would watch or read it,” he jokes. He takes a sip of coffee from his blue mug that reads “World’s Greatest Pop Pop.” I got him that mug about ten years ago for Father’s Day. He’s used it every morning since.

“So what did you and Layla do last night?” GG inquires. I start off telling her about the pole dancing class and she looks surprised. Then I tell her about Derrick and my suspicions on Layla setting us up. “Layla is a good friend, Amy. I’m sure she had your best interests at heart. You should be dating and if you like this boy, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“I know, GG.” I continue with the story leaving nothing out. GG becomes visibly irritated as I share the Mitzi incident.

“The nerve of that girl. I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself. You get your spunkiness from my side of the family.” I hear her mumble something under her breath that sounded like ‘nasty bitch’and smile inside knowing she’s always got my back. We converse about a few other things and have a nice breakfast together. It’s a Saturday so I don’t have to work today. The Book Mark is always slow on Saturday’s. “You’re young, enjoy your free time,” Barb says, so she lets me have weekends off. I start to think about what I should do today, when I hear Layla’s ringtone. I grab my phone off the counter where I tossed it last night beside my keys.

“Hey you, what’s going on?” I ask. Hopefully Layla and I can do something today to get my mind off of Derrick.

“Jenks, good, you’re up. I got a message from Derrick this morning. He asked me for your number so he can call you. Is it ok for me to give it to him?” She knows I was upset last night, but after talking through it with her I agreed to let Derrick make things up to me. We never had the time to exchange numbers because of bitch face, Mitzi.

“He asked for my number?” I hesitantly inquire.

“Yeah, Mr. Marvelous with the stalker wench asked for
your number. So, yes or no? I’ve got to answer him.” I agree to let her give out my phone number and she assures me she’s going to read him the riot act before he gets my digits. When Layla feels like she’s been fooled, it’s never a good thing. I hang up with her and go back to my room to get dressed for the day; Clyde following at my heels. He jumps up and fluffs the blankets to make himself a nest on my unmade bed. I choose my outfit; a pair of bleached out skinny jeans and an off-the-shoulder black sweater. Just as I’m brushing my hair, my phone rings, displaying an unknown number. Taking a deep breath, I answer.

“Hello?”

“Amy? Wow! You answered.” He sounds relieved.

“Yeah, how are you? How are your…..um….um?” I stutter

“My balls? I’m not going to lie, it hurt like a son of a bitch, but I’ll live. The better question is how are you? I’m so sorry about that scene last night.”

“Me too. So, Mitzi huh? What’s her deal and why was she so threatened by me?”

“Amy, Mitzi is a long, aggravating story. The cliff notes version is that she is a fantastic agent with great instincts. We had a physical relationship for a little while, but that’s all it was, purely physical. I promised her nothing and she was ok with the random hookup here and there.”

“If you’re into no-strings-attached hook-ups, what are you doing pursuing me? I’m not that kind of girl, Derrick.”

“I know you’re not and that’s not what I’m looking for. Can I take you somewhere today? Just the two of us? I want to know everything about you, Amy. Take a chance on me, please.”

“Alright, should I meet you somewhere?”

“Give me your address and I’ll pick you up in a few hours, I have a little bit longer on this shoot and then I’m all yours.” I give Derrick my address and hang up. I take a deep breath and let it sink in that I’m going to be spending time with Derrick Walker and that he might be looking for more with me. I settle in for a bit and get some homework done while I wait, although my mind was elsewhere.

True to his word, about two hours later, Derrick pulls into the driveway. I leave my room and make my way downstairs to meet him at the door. I even add a little lip gloss to my lips for some shine. GG and Pops left about fifteen minutes ago to make the weekly pilgrimage to the food store. Convenient. The doorbell rings and I open it to find him standing there with his hands tucked into his front pockets. His fauxhawk is spiked and gelled to perfection. Dark washed jeans sit perfectly on his hips. He’s wearing a red polo shirt with the collar flipped up and his smile is so bright, it’s blinding. It’s suddenly obvious that I’m the cause of that smile. Me! I’m sure I must be standing with my mouth gaping open. It’s very surreal to fantasize about him for years only to have him be standing in front of me in the flesh. Somebody needs to pinch me now.

“Hey, gorgeous, it’s good to see you again,” he says with a small chuckle, as I shake myself out of my stupor.

“Yeah, you too.” We just stand there in silence, taking each other in for a minute.

“You going to invite me in or should we stand on the porch all day?” he asks me with a flirty wink.

“Oh. No, come on in.” I move aside so he can get through the door. Clyde must have heard our voices, because he come’s running into the entry way and jumps up on Derrick’s chest to try and lick his face. “Clyde! No boy, get down.” I pull Clyde off a very surprised Derrick. “I’m so sorry. He has no manners but he’s a lovable mongrel.” Derrick wipes the doggie slobber off his chin and cheeks.

“As long as he doesn’t bite me or hump my leg, I’m cool with him,” Derrick says with a laugh. Clyde responds with a ‘woof” and swings around to swat Derrick’s leg with his tail.

“No, he wouldn’t do that, he has more interesting habits.” That’s for sure; there’s probably never been another dog like Clyde, ever.

“I wanted to take you out for a late lunch so we can talk and then we’ll see where the rest of the day takes us. That ok with you?”

“That sounds wonderful, I’ll just go get my shoes and we can head out.” I didn’t realize Derrick followed me when I went to get my shoes. I turn around and there he stands, leaning in my doorway with either arm resting on the frame taking in my most private space. I look around the area with fresh eyes, noticing the unmade bed, the clothes on the chair in the corner, the overflowing hamper and the scattered school papers all over my desk. Not to mention the two or three posters of Anita Wells book covers featuring you know who hanging on my walls. I quickly toss the comforter on the bed and rub my hand over my forehead in embarrassment. I hear Derrick snort and look up into his amused eyes.

“Were those unicorns on your sheets?” Oh no, he noticed.

“Um…You saw that, huh?” This is humiliating.

“Yep, kind of hard not to notice the purple and blue cartoon unicorns dancing around on your mattress.”
I’d like to dance around on the mattress with Derrick.

“They aren’t dancing, they’re frolicking.” I correct him making him laugh. This is humiliating, I need to get us out of here now. Derrick enters my room and looks around at my posters. He looks at each of them and then turns to me with an intense look on his face.

“I want to kiss you right now! Badly.”
Did he just say that?
“Yeah, Amy, I did just say that.” Oh shit, I was talking out loud. I can feel my face turning bright red and my cheeks are getting hot. He comes closer to me, his hands cupping my face, his thumbs stroking my cheeks. He tilts his head a little and swoops down to touch his lips to mine. Very gently at first so I can get used to his touch and then he applies more pressure to intensify the kiss. He makes no attempt to put his tongue in my mouth, which I appreciate because I’m not ready for that yet. This is just a chaste meeting of our mouths. Just as he ends the kiss, he lightly nips my bottom lip.

“Mm, cherry,” he says, noting the flavor of my lip gloss. His thumbs are still stroking my cheeks and his fingers are threading through my strawberry blonde hair. He moves in again and rests his forehead against mine. “We should go.” I simply nod my head yes and follow him robotically out of my room, down the stairs, out of the house and into his car. Wow! Can that boy kiss! I should have changed my panties before we left.

***Derrick***

I want Amy to get used to being around me because I plan on being around a lot! I feel light when I’m around her and that’s not something I’ve felt in a while. She makes me feel good; she makes me laugh and she frustrates the hell out of me with her standoffish attitude. She gets me hot just watching her. She hides behind her glasses, trying to keep me at a distance, because she’s not sure of my intentions yet. I plan on making those intentions clear to her before the day is over. Damn Mitzi for fucking things up last night. When I could finally speak again, I told Mitzi that I couldn’t deal with her shit right now and that we would talk tomorrow after the shoot. She stomped her high heeled shoes and shrieked at me, but I gave Riven the nod, and we rolled out of there. Once the shoot was over, Mitzi pounced, spouting some bullshit about Amy having nothing on her and that I’d be crawling back to her as soon as my “little crush” was over. While explaining to Mitzi that going forward, our relationship would be purely professional, she, of course, threw another temper tantrum and started shrieking that nobody treats her this way. I walked away after that, tired of her shit. I think a phone call to her boss is in order come Monday morning. If this is the crap I’m going to have to put up with, I’d rather be assigned a new handler. A harsh lesson learned…never assume it’s a no strings attached thing…there are always strings. Somebody, somehow, always gets hurt.

Happy to be away from Mitzi’s drama, I made a little pit stop to get something special for Amy. It’s something we can add to as our relationship develops. I wanted her to know that she’s special and that I’m all hers if she’ll have me. It’s pushing about 2:30 pm when we get on the road and I did promise to feed my girl. My girl. Man, I like the sound of that and it’s what I consider her. I’m just waiting for her to catch on. We drive in silence, just listening to the music on the radio. She keeps wringing her hands together in her lap. Soon she’ll realize she has no reason to be nervous.

New Jersey is famous for its old-fashioned diners. They have anything and everything you can think of on the menu. I take her to my favorite one because it’s 50’s themed and makes you feel like you’re in an episode of
Happy Days.

“Wow, this place is incredible and I’m starving.”

“Yeah, it is pretty cool. Wait until you see the inside. The food is good too.” I skip around the front of the car, open the door and give her my hand. We walk hand in hand with our fingers laced together into the diner where a friendly hostess greets us. The sound of glasses being clunked together and the jingle of silverware being sorted follow us to our corner booth. Seating us at a small booth with our personal jukebox attached to the table, she hands us menus.

“I love the atmosphere here, feels like you’ve stepped out of time for a bit. I feel as if I should be wearing saddle shoes and a poodle skirt.”