The Boyfriend Bet (LDS Fiction) (7 page)

The band played another couple of songs, and around 9:30, Kendra and I decided to head home. We waited for the song to end, and then stood up and waved goodbye to Jonathan and headed up the stairs. I expected to hear another song starting immediately, because the band had been playing all of their music back to back.

But the music didn't start up right away. I stopped at the kitchen to pick up the plate of leftover cookies, and turned to walk toward the front door. But before I could make it out of the kitchen, Patrick appeared in the doorway, a little out of breath from running up the stairs.

"You two are leaving already?"

Kendra was just as surprised to see him as I was, and I could tell that she wanted to help the situation. "Yeah, it's my fault that we're leaving, I have a little homework to do and I need to get into bed at a decent hour tonight. May I use your bathroom before we take off?"

"Sure, it's down the hall, the second door on your right."

"Thanks, I’ll be back in a few." Kendra turned and headed down the hallway, and I found myself standing alone in the kitchen with Patrick.

"This is the fourth time I've seen you this week," he observed. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were stalking me." His dimple came out with a smile and he winked.

"Guilty as charged," I joked back. I said it with sarcasm to play along with his joke, but it was ironic that there was some truth to his statement. "I was just as surprised to see you here tonight. Jonathan gave us this address, but I didn't know who lived here. By the way, the music sounded great."

"I need to get back downstairs because the other guys are waiting for me. But, I wanted to catch you before you left. It doesn't seem like a coincidence that we've seen each other so often this week, and I'm wondering if you might want to 'accidentally' run into me on campus Tuesday night. There's a comedy club show that starts at seven o'clock in the student center, and I'd love it if you'd go with me."

After a slight pause, I said, "Sounds like fun." I could hear the surprise in my own voice as I spoke the words.

My hesitation made Patrick squirm a little, "You don't have to go if you don't want to. I just thought it would be fun to get to know you a little better."

I loved how he was so direct about asking me out instead of beating around the bush like so many guys often do. But what about the girl downstairs?

"No, don't take me wrong, I'd love to go! I was just a little confused because I thought you had a girlfriend. The brunette downstairs in the red sweater was staring me down as if she had dibs on you."

"Oh her," Patrick groaned. "She is NOT my girlfriend. She wants to be my girlfriend, and she's been coming over here all the time. I'm not interested, and I've tried to be cordial without leading her on. In fact, she makes me just a little nervous. Honestly, it kinda feels like she’s stalking me, for real." He laughed and made the universal crazy sign by moving his pointer finger in circles around his ear.

"Well in that case, I'd love to randomly run into you on Tuesday night." I couldn't believe this moment was actually happening. I would have been shocked if someone would have told me a few hours earlier that I would run into Patrick
and
he would ask me out. Sometimes things work out in a way that you don't anticipate.

He handed me his phone. "Here, type in your phone number so I can contact you."

I typed in my cell phone number, saved it to his address book, and sent myself a text with his phone so that I had his number as well.

"The guys are waiting for me so I need to head back downstairs, but text me your address and I'll pick you up Tuesday night at six-thirty."

"Six-thirty should work fine. Thanks for the invite. I'm excited. I haven’t had a chance to attend any of the comedy club events this semester so this will be fun!"

Patrick headed back down the stairs, walking backwards for several steps and smiling. "I'm glad that you came to our band practice tonight, see you on Tuesday!"

"It's a date, see you Tuesday." I agreed.

A few moments later the band started into the next song. As soon as the music started, Kendra walked out of the bathroom. She had a big smile on her face, and was holding up one hand with her index and middle fingers crossed.

I smiled and gave her a double thumbs-up sign. She threw her fist in the air and silently cheered.

We went out the front door, and as we walked down the front steps of the house Kendra turned to me and begged for the details. "I couldn't believe that he followed us upstairs, I wanted to give you two some time alone, and so I went to the bathroom. I figured it was safe to come out when the music started playing."

"You’re the best, thanks for helping out. As soon as you walked out of the room, he asked me out for Tuesday night. We're going to the comedy club show on campus!"

"The first part of your dating challenge has been accomplished! Now let's see if you can hold on to this guy for two weeks. Did he say who that girl was? She seemed pretty possessive of him."

"I asked him about her and told him that I thought she was his girlfriend. He said that she's just a groupie, crushing on him big time. According to him, he's not interested in her, but she is head over heels for him. I'm not going to worry about it, because I'm the one going on a date with him on Tuesday... not her."

As we walked to the car, it was all I could do to keep myself from skipping down the sidewalk. The events of the evening were so surprising to me... I didn't anticipate seeing him there, and I was even more surprised that he had asked me out.

After the disappointment of thinking he had a girlfriend, now I was back to where I was when we arrived, the only difference being I now had a bonified date with him. I was still surprised at how the events of the evening had turned out. 

It was a pleasant surprise though, and I could feel the excitement building inside. I couldn't wait for Tuesday night!

*****

As I prepared for bed that night, I gave thanks to God for the events of the night:

Heavenly Father, thank you for letting me see Patrick again tonight. I know that the bet is just a silly game with Kendra, but Patrick seems like a great guy and I'm thankful for the opportunity to get to know him a little bit. I don’t know what plans you have for our relationship. The one thing that I know for sure is that You are in control, and I just ask that You would guide our relationship in the direction You want it to go. 

As I lay down to go to sleep, I thought of Patrick, the upcoming date we had, and then thoughts of the bet filtered in. I could do this. I could stick to the plan, have fun with Patrick for two weeks, and then get back to focusing on school.

Now that the first date was scheduled, I was a little nervous. Most of my dates inspired thoughts of fun and friendship; they didn’t usually cause my stomach to flutter or my tongue to get tied up. 

My last thought as I drifted off to sleep was that I hoped my nerves had disappeared by Tuesday night, or else I might be in trouble of
wanting
to deviate from my plan. I didn’t want to even think of that happening.

Monday felt like one of the longest days of my life as I waited for the right time to talk with Patrick. I didn't want to seem too eager, but at the same time it was important to let him know that I was interested. I knew that I was over thinking the whole situation, and kept telling myself to chill out because this first date was just like any other first date that I had been on.

I decided to text Patrick on Monday afternoon so that he would have my address. I sent the text around 3 pm:

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night, here's my address.

I included my street address in the text, along with basic directions to get to my apartment.

After the text was sent, it was all I could do to keep myself from checking my phone every 10 seconds to see if he had sent me a text back.

When I didn't hear anything for 10 minutes, I knew that he was probably busy at work or something. I decided to set my phone down and do something else to keep myself occupied.

I had some homework that I needed to complete, so I left my phone on vibrate, set it on the bed, and put my pillow over the top of it. I knew if I left it out in plain sight, I wouldn’t be able to keep my mind off of it and I would have the urge to check for a new message instead of focusing on my homework. Then, I sat down at my desk and cracked open my textbook to start working on my homework.

It was impossible to focus on my assignment, though. The apartment was silent, Kendra was off with Liam, and my other roommates were at work. I had the place to myself.

This was the perfect time to get my assignment done, why was I allowing myself to be distracted by a guy? Stick to the plan. School first; relationship after graduation.  Patrick is just a means to an end. He’s just another guy and after two weeks, I won’t date him again. Sounded good, but my head and my heart weren’t necessarily on the same page.

I was very torn: the more I thought about Patrick, the more I felt guilty about the fact that I had placed a bet with Kendra to get him to ask me out. What if he found out about the bet? Would he still want to go out with me? I knew if the positions were reversed, I would probably feel very hurt if I found out a guy only asked me out on a date because he was trying to win a bet.

I would need to make sure that he didn't find out about the bet. Plus, I reminded myself, even though he's a nice guy, I'm only dating him for two weeks. After the two-week period was up and I won the bet, then it would be back to life as normal... without a boyfriend. He wasn’t even a student this semester, so the chance of seeing him around campus after the two weeks was probably fairly small. I was really getting on a roll, self-talking myself into justifying the bet and planning to dump Patrick after two weeks.

After 30 minutes of halfheartedly reading through my textbook, I finally gave up and walked across my room to pick up the phone off my bed. I activated the touch screen on the phone and saw a text message notification on the screen.

You made my day, I love getting text messages from pretty girls. :) Thanks for the address, does 6:30 tomorrow night still work for you?

I replied back:

Glad to hear that I made your day, maybe I'll start texting you more often. ;) Yes 6:30 tomorrow is perfect for me.

A few moments later, my phone vibrated and another text message notification came through.

Yes, you should text me more often. It helps me pass the time at work, sometimes it gets kind of boring here.

He was inviting further conversation, so I decided to go with it.

Boring work always makes the day go slower, doesn't it!? Where do you work?

A bank on
Main Street
. I help people set up new accounts and process loan applications.

Sounds boring.

It is. What are you doing right now?

Homework. Just as boring! I'm having a hard time focusing today though, it's a good thing this assignment isn't due till Wednesday.

A hard time focusing... you must be distracted by the hot date that you have scheduled tomorrow night. Am I right? LOL!

Oh dear, you can already read my mind and I haven't even gone out with you yet. Haha! ;)

I was enjoying the flirty text message conversation, especially because texting gave me a minute to respond and think up a witty reply. Sometimes, I'm bolder through text messages than in person.

I have psychic powers, you just wait and see. ;) I predict that your date will pick you up tomorrow at 6:30, and you'll be surprised by what you see on the doorstep.

Really?! Now I'm curious... how did you get these psychic powers? Haha! And what will I see that is going to surprise me?

The psychic powers are a gift, j/k. I can't tell you about the surprise, because then it wouldn't be a surprise anymore.

Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to wait and see then. I better get back to my homework. I hope that you have a great afternoon. :)

Thanks, I need to get some work done too. Have a good one, I'll see you tomorrow. :)

*****

Tuesday night couldn't come fast enough. Kendra helped me pick out a cute outfit, and I was ready to go at 6:15 pm. I planned a little extra time, because I didn't want to be running late when he picked me up. Unlike many other girls, I didn’t see any benefit in making my date wait for me.  Being ready when they arrived to pick me up meant we could get started on our date promptly and I felt that it was rude to keep him waiting.

Kendra and I sat in our bedroom and talked while we waited for him to arrive, wondering about the surprise that he had referred to.

"I bet he shows up with a bouquet of flowers," Kendra guessed.

"I don't know, flowers are a little cliché. Would he really think that was a big surprise?"

"Good point. Maybe he'll have matching T-shirts for you two to wear. You know, like twins or something!"

"Oh dear, if he shows up with twinsy T-shirts, then I'm definitely losing the bet. Who wants to go on a first date with a guy, when you're dressed in the same outfit as him?" I laughed. Truthfully, wearing matching outfits with him wouldn't bother me, but the thought of it was funny. In fact, I thought to myself, I would wear a clown outfit if it meant that I was able to go out with Patrick.

"Oh I know, he's probably going to drive a fancy sports car. Do you know what kind of car he drives?"

"He doesn’t seem like the type that would drive a flashy car. He seems a little more down to earth than that. It's a good guess though."

There was a knock at the door, and both Kendra and I were on our feet immediately.

"Here we go, wish me luck." I walked down the stairs, put my hand on the doorknob, and wished that we had a peephole in the door so I could peek out before opening it.

I turned the knob and opened the door, to see Patrick standing there with a container of Cold Stone ice cream in his hand.

"Surprise! I brought your favorite: cheesecake flavored ice cream, with raspberry and graham cracker mixed in."

He was right, I was surprised! How did he know my favorite kind of ice cream? Cold Stone was an ice cream place down the street where you could choose the flavor of ice cream and select mix-ins to go with it. They mix the ice cream as you watch, so each bowl of ice cream is different. That specific mix of Cold Stone ice cream was the flavor that I got every time I went; I liked it better than anything you could find at the grocery store. It was my guilty pleasure.

"Yummy! It
is
my favorite. How did you know?"

"I had to be sneaky about it, so I asked Jonathan if he knew anything that might be a good surprise for you. He told me what you ordered when a bunch of people went to Cold Stone after the church activity two weeks ago. He said that you had mentioned to him that it was your favorite kind."

"What a great surprise; I had no idea what the surprise was going to be. You'd better try some of this ice cream, it's really yummy."

"I'll tell you what, put it in your freezer and we'll have some after the comedy show. We'd better get going so that we're not late."

*****

The comedy club was a blast; we were laughing hard throughout the whole show. It was fun to see that Patrick and I had a similar sense of humor.

During the show, our chairs were seated close together, and several times our arms or elbows bumped as we were laughing. Each time we touched I loved the way it felt, and I had an irresistible urge to snuggle up to him. I didn't want to make the first move, but I tried to make myself as warm and welcoming as possible.

After the show was over, we had a great conversation in the car driving back to my place. The whole time we were quoting funny lines from the comedy show, and retelling funny scenes that we liked.

He pulled up in front of my apartment, parked the car, and like a good gentleman, walked around the car to open my door. "Now, it's time for some of that ice cream. Or are you going to keep it all to yourself?"

I laughed. "Under most circumstances, I would keep it to myself, but I think I can make an exception for you. But, only this one time. Next time, you'd better bring your own ice cream!"

"Are telling me that you could eat that entire carton of ice cream on your own? That's one more thing to add to the list of awesome things about you: you have a voracious appetite!"

"You'd better believe it! You saw how much I ate at the barbecue. A girl's got to feed herself." I winked at him.

We walked into the apartment and my roommates were in the front room watching a movie. They said hi, and I could tell all eyes were on Patrick as we walked by. Everyone was curious about the guy who was the focus of the bet. After briefly introducing Patrick to the girls, I led him back to the kitchen.

"We should take our ice cream out onto the back porch," I suggested, wanting a little privacy without my roommates listening to our conversation. I pulled out two bowls, two spoons, and an ice cream scoop.

"Great idea! You realize that we don't need the bowls right? Two spoons are just fine. Ice cream tastes way better when you eat it out of the carton."

There went my stomach again, it seemed as though a swarm of butterflies were going crazy in there. Sharing ice cream straight from the carton was right up there with cuddling while watching a movie. Nice!

We stepped outside and sat on the porch swing with our spoons in hand and an open box of ice cream. It was delicious, and having Patrick there to share it with made it even better.

"So, if the crazy girl at band practice wasn’t your girlfriend, I’m wondering how long it’s been since you've had a girlfriend?"

"Yeah, the crazy girl is definitely not the girlfriend type. I met her a few weeks back when she came into the bank to work out some details with her account. During our conversation, I mentioned that I was starting in a new band, and that we had band practice that night."

Patrick shifted in his seat a little bit, "I’d told her the general neighborhood where I lived, but I didn't give her any details about which house I was in. To my surprise, she walked the neighborhood that night listening for the band practice. When she heard the music playing, she knocked on the door and asked if she could come in and listen.

"I was a little freaked out about the fact that she'd found my house, but it was fine that she wanted to listen to the practice because there were a lot of other people there, too.

"Then she started coming over every couple of days. I've dropped a few hints to her that I wasn’t interested, but she just keeps coming over. My roommates keep joking with me that I should just find a girlfriend, because if my girlfriend was around, then maybe the crazy girl wouldn't want to come over anymore. But she seems pretty determined to prevent me from finding anyone else to date."

I laughed at the idea of finding a girlfriend to get rid of another girl. "Well, I guess you could try getting a girlfriend to scare her away, but that's a funny reason to start a new relationship." I couldn't help but think of the irony of my statement, considering the reason that I had been interested in starting a relationship with Patrick.

"Tell me about it, especially because I have such bad luck with serious relationships. Committed relationships are hard, so I'm pretty cautious about the people I date. In fact, this date is the first one that I've been on since I moved to
Logan
."

I felt a pang of guilt, because it sounded like it was a big deal that he asked me on the date. He would be crushed if he knew that I had made a bet on him. Why was I feeling guilty? I hadn’t done anything wrong. We were just two people getting to know each other better. No harm, no foul, right?

Even with those thoughts running through my head, eating ice cream in the cool evening started to catch up with me, and I started to shiver a little bit. Patrick noticed, and put his arm around me to warm me up. Rubbing his hand up and down my arm to create some warmth, he continued with the previous conversation.

"So, how about you? When was the last time you were in a serious relationship?"

"It's been a while for me too. My last serious relationship ended on a sour note, so I've been focusing on school, making a lot of friends, and just looking to have a good time."