Chapter 11

JOHN

Sunday passed rather peacefully. I was surprised not to hear from Anna. Maybe she was playing at Ann, and not calling me too soon or something. I realized I didn't know if this whole week was supposed to be an Ann and Jonathon week, or if it was just during the date.

The date. Jesus. That turned into a mixed bag. I can't remember ever having such a good time, but it was all fake. Or at least the romantic part was fake. Sadly, it wasn't so fake for me. Something changed that night, and I realized I was deeply in love with Anna. Hell, I was deeply in love with Ann for that matter. I don't remember ever being so hung up on a woman before. And between the kiss on my hand, and the hug, I didn't know what I was going to do the next time I saw her. I assume, she felt my erection, and that freaked her out, that can be the only explanation for running off like that. I tried not being embarrassed, but that wasn't really working. So I focused on spending some quality time shooting digital bad guys and trying to not think too much. It worked. Mostly.

Monday was a live-wire shitshow. One of the servers has croaked overnight, and while there were backups in place, there was all kinds of complaints about network response time, and missing files where dynamic links no longer worked. I put my head down and focused first on get the server back up and running, then I tended to the complaints from management, but I was working 16 hours a day and living on candy bars until Wednesday afternoon.

Somewhere in all that haze, I'd come to a realization. I was going to treat this date exactly like I'd want if I was actually dating Anna. And I was going to ask her for a third real date if the second one didn't blow up in my face. I only hope she didn't laugh at me or turn me down flat. That would make things weird. Ah well. Nothing ventured nothing gained. That's what I tried to convince myself of anyway.

The server issues mostly resolved, I spent Thursday on paperwork. God I hate paperwork. I know I could do more with my business, but the paperwork always acts as a limiting factor. I'd found a relatively comfortable setup that maximized my time doing what I enjoyed, running computer systems, and minimized the time spent running a business. I guess if I found a decent admin, or something at some point, things would get easier, but I had no idea how to find somebody like that.

Thursday night found me exhausted on my couch, staring into space. My phone beeped and I saw it was a text from Kay. She wanted to come over. That was a surprise. Kay and I were friends, but not really drop in on each other kind of friends. She's Anna's best friend, but I rarely saw her outside of group social situations. That said, I liked her. So I did my best to straighten up the apartment and dug in the fridge to see if I had anything to eat.

When she arrived, I let her in and she gave me a kiss on the cheek, which was another first. But I ushered her in and got her a glass of wine.

"Thank you John." She paused and seem to gather herself. "So. How is everything? I heard you and Jenny broke up. Are you ok?"

Ok, now this was getting really odd. That was a few weeks ago, and I know that Anna must've filled her in. Is she hitting on me? Now Kay while is a beautiful woman, she's married and really not my type, so I was suddenly wary.

"Thanks, I'm fine. I think things had been fizzling out for some time, I just hadn't realized it yet. I'm already trying to get back into the swing of things."

"Ah yes, Anna mentioned that. She's to be your practice dummy or something is that right?" She said with a big smile.

"Yeah, sort of, anyway. Actually we had our first 'date' last Saturday. We pretended to be strangers and I tried to pick her up in a bar." I was blushing.

For some reason telling Kay all this was making me squirm. Like I wasn't being totally honest with her, not to mention the fact that if Anna hadn't told her, maybe that meant she was ashamed of it for reason?

"That's right, she mentioned that too. How was it?" The look on Kay's face was intense. This was definitely an interrogation and I was in the hot-seat.

"She didn't tell you?" I squirmed.

I'm usually more composed than this, but Kay was going a very convincing performance of a suspicious father protecting the virtue of his only daughter.

"Oh we talked briefly, but I wanted to hear your side. It sounded like you had a good time?" Kay's face remained intense, but I relaxed fractionally.

"It was great! Actually it was the best night out I've had in a very long time." I couldn't help but grin like an idiot just thinking about it.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was a little weird at first. I mean trying to pretend I didn't know her," Kay nodded her understanding. "But then I got into it, and it was really fun. In a way it was like I was really meeting the person she's become for the first time. I'm not explaining it very well."

"No, I can see that. You saw her as she is, not how she has been. I think she felt much the same way." Kay said looking off in the distance.

"Wow." Was all I could say. I felt a glimmer of hope flare to life. Maybe ... just maybe Anna feels like I do. Then I shook my head and put the thought out of my mind. We're just friends. I need to keep that in mind and not risk anything.

"Indeed." Kay said smiling that predatory smile again. "Actually, I think there may be a few things that you didn't see that night."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"John, you're trying a different tack on this whole dating thing, right? You're trying to be more the 'real you'?" She asked.

I squirmed. And wondered how much Anna had told her. Cautiously, I said "Yeah, something like that."

"And what is the 'real' you, John? Who are you under that beard?" Kay asked, one eyebrow raised and a smirk.