Chapter 6

The next weekend, Daniel was waiting for Georgina to be ready, sprawled in a big armchair in the living room of her house. The open windows behind him streamed daylight. He had his Nintendo DS balanced on his blue-jeaned knees and was poking away at it industriously with the stylus. “Score,” he said as she came up. “I’m kicking butt at Mario Kart.”

Georgina shook the hair out of her eyes and rummaged in her pocket for her car keys. “Let’s see how many points you score on our second date, champion,” she said.

Her words gave Daniel a twisting feeling in his stomach.

They had texted back and forth a lot during the past week. At first, Daniel thought she was trying to boost his self-esteem after the incident with Irv at the Flower Dance, but then he realized that she was the clingy type and that she didn’t have many friends to share her life with. They went from sharing their favorite kind of music and the movies they loved to more personal stuff like thoughts, hopes, and dreams.

Daniel found himself enjoying texting with Georgina. She was smart and she seemed sincerely interested in learning about his world. She never made fun of him or said he was immature or weird.

For their second date, Georgina drove her car to a secluded area by the lake, called Lover’s Beach. It had some wonderful views of the lake and the mountains beyond, with a lot of space to set a picnic blanket down. She also got some fluffy pillows and a romantic meal consisting of homemade bread, cheese, chocolate chip cookies, and fruit punch.

Daniel could tell Georgina had paid loving attention to every detail from the red and white checkered blanket to the matching napkins.

At first, they focused on the food and didn’t make any conversation, which was a relief for Daniel. It was hard to think of anything clever to say with his brain echoing the same four words over and over again.

Don’t- screw-this-up.

Daniel had never had a good date, at least not that he could recall, but he was pretty sure they tended to involve some talking.

“I love it here,” Georgina said, trying to fill the dull silence.

“Yeah, “It’s beautiful,” Daniel said. “Very peaceful.”

“There is a creek not far from here. I used to take a canoe and pretend that I was going to the countries I had read about. I imagined myself sailing on the Mississippi, the Volga, the Nile, the Seine ... all of them.”

Daniel smiled at her. The power of imagination was something he could understand quite well. As a kid he had enjoyed dressing up as a superhero or a Jedi, pretending that he saved a damsel in distress.

“Sometimes at night, I used to sit there in my canoe and look up at the stars. Then these babies grew up,” Georgina cupped and squeezed her breasts, “and I started playing a different game. Even when all the signs pointed to danger, I professed not to see them. For what? An ego boost? Some nights, I come here to watch the stars and wonder what that little girl would think of me and what I have become.”

“As long as you don’t forget that girl in the canoe, you’ll be fine.” Daniel offered. He took a piece of cheese from the platter. “This cheese is delicious.”

Georgina smiled, pleased at his words. “Glad you like it. It’s artisanal cheese. They sell it at the Farmer’s Market.”

Guys usually went through food like locusts attacking a field of wheat. She liked the fact that Daniel took his time to enjoy each bite and praised everything more than once.

“You’re a good listener, Daniel. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he cleared his throat. “There was something I wanted to ask you...”

“Go ahead. You can ask me anything.”

“You’re smart. You’re sexy. You’re gorgeous. You know that you can have any man, anytime, anywhere. I still don’t understand why you want to date someone like me. Not that I’m complaining.”

“Daniel, you should stop selling yourself short. You’re not only handsome but a great guy, as well.” she bent towards him and kissed his cheek. “You say I can have any guy I want?”

He nodded.

“Apparently not a decent one. Do you want to know about my experience with men? I’ll make it short; I’ve been used and dumped by so many guys that I’ve almost given up finding love. Now, I’m some kind of walking joke. I’m the silly girl who wears sexy dresses to draw the attention of guys who use her as a cum dump and then discard her like a used condom. At first, I enjoyed the power it gave me over them, but as years went by I started to feel cheap and humiliated. I feel like I’m only good for one thing and one thing only.”

Georgina swallowed hard and looked into Daniel’s eyes.

“I just want to find someone who loves me for who I am.”

“Why don’t you stop?”

“I did. I haven’t been with a man in two years. Shocking, isn’t it? The night I met you I almost relapsed, but I stopped myself just in time.”

“What set you off to change?”

“Remember Steve, from the Flower Festival?”

“Yes, the science teacher that came to my defense.”

“Yes, that’s him. He is a widower. His wife was shot in a mugging and he went into depression. I relentlessly pursued him for two years.”

“He was the reason why you stopped,” Daniel stated.

Georgina nodded.

“To be honest, I was already tired of living my life like that. He just gave me the push I needed to stop. At first I dropped hints I liked him, then finally, I threw myself into his arms. Steve rejected me once and again. I guess the town’s slut wasn’t good enough for him,” Georgina’s voice trailed off as she looked at Daniel.

Daniel spoke softly and slowly. “Don’t call yourself that. You sowed your wild oats, there’s nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t make you a bad person.”

He gave Georgina an encouraging smile.

“Then Diana, the redhead English teacher, came along, and in a very short time, she took Steve out of his depression and they became a couple. I was so angry with her! I blamed her for my own misery.”

“I can imagine how you felt. I’m very familiar with rejection,” Daniel reached out to hold her hand. “I’ve seen the girls I like in the arms of another guy too many times.”

They shared a look, the look of two people who knew something, together, that no one else did. It was not a look she had shared with someone else in a very long time.

“And yet, Diana was kind to me. She showed me compassion in a way that was transforming. She told me that I could change, that I could lead a different life. That my past didn’t have to define me.”