Falling for My Boyfriend's Dad(3)

"Really?" I asked. "I didn't realize, I mean, I didn't even know you liked me."         

     



 

Jonah snorted.

"Of course I like you, you're beautiful Ally," he said with an off-hand air. "Can't you tell I'm interested?"

I shook my head, still skeptical. Jonah had never made a move on me,  we'd never kissed, never even really hugged come to think about it. At  most, he'd offered to get me a latte when going on a coffee run, but  that was something a good friend might do. So I shook my head.

"You sure?" I asked slowly. "I mean, we don't act like a couple," I said  hesitantly. "We don't hold hands or anything like that."

But Jonah just scoffed.

"Seriously Ally, you're so behind. I thought you were a modern woman,  that you wouldn't buy into traditional expressions of love and  affection. It's so antiquated and gendered, I really thought you'd be  beyond that, with the deep insight and outward vision to look beyond  traditional manifestations of affection."

I was silent for a moment, trying to absorb what he was saying. All the  mumbo jumbo was confusing, and it was like he'd planned it, memorizing  the speech from a textbook. What the hell, why couldn't he use plain  English? I was just about to say no thanks, put the kibosh on it, when  Jonah took me by surprise. He leaned over and planted one on my lips,  slobbery and wet, kinda like a fuzzy puppy giving a doggie kiss.

"Mmmph!" I drew back, surprised more than anything. But Jonah just went in for it even more.

"Oh baby," he muttered between licking my cheeks like the aforementioned dog, "oh baby, you're so sweet, so beautiful."

And I jerked back then, ready to put this to rest once and for all, I  definitely, absolutely could not be his girlfriend seeing that I wasn't  attracted to him one bit. But at that very moment, the door to his room  opened and my friend Penny burst in. Oh shit, that's right we were  studying with Penny for the final, and I'd forgotten that she was  joining us a little late, after her other study group.

"Oh my god!" she shrieked, eyes going wide, hand covering her mouth. "Oh  my god, oh my god, it's true! You guys are in love! Everyone said, but I  didn't believe it."

And Jonah took the opportunity to put his arm around me possessively.

"Yeah, Ally and I just decided to make it formal," he said proudly, as  if announcing a prize he'd just won. "She's officially my girlfriend  now."

Penny giggled again, putting her backpack down.

"This is so awesome, two of my study buddies are now a couple, very  cool. By the way, I can still study with you guys, right? I mean, I'm  not excluded or anything, seeing that you two are lovebirds?"

And I took a deep breath to correct her, to jump in and right the situation, but Jonah cut me off again.

"Of course," he said like he was an archduke granting favors. "Ally and  I, we're not going to be one of those recluse couples who disappear,  we're still gonna go out and party with everyone else, we're normal  people."

And this time I really had to jump in, but Penny cut me off. It was like  this was a conversation between two people, and I was an invisible  third wheel.

"Very cool, very cool, I like very much," she nodded approvingly. "Don't  you go dropping off the face of the earth now that you've got this hunk  of love," she mock-reprimanded me. "You're so lucky, you know Hudson is  like seventy percent women and thirty percent guys, plus most of the  guys we know are gay," she wrinkled her nose.

Then I had to correct her.

"Penny, Hudson is fifty-fifty, you know that, it's just that we're  communications majors, so most people in our classes are women."

"That's it exactly," she said, nodding fervently. "Nothing but women around here, you're so lucky to have Jonah."

And my "boyfriend" was preening now, basking under the praise, running  one hand through his curls like a movie star about to have his picture  taken. I really wanted to stop this charade, I didn't feel even an iota  of attraction to the boy, but Penny's words stopped me short. Jonah was  one of the few men who populated our classes, and come to think of it,  there were a lot of women who'd give their right arms to have a  boyfriend, even one who was tiny with a fragile ego. So I stopped myself  from breaking it off. I was at college to get experience, to be exposed  to the wider world, and dating men was part of it, right? Because  certainly no one else had asked me out, there were no other males on the  horizon, no one that I talked to on a regular basis. So maybe I'd give  it a night, I'd sleep on it and see how I felt tomorrow.         

     



 

But tomorrow became the day after, which became next week, which became  next month. And soon enough, I'd been Jonah's girlfriend for an entire  two months, with an invitation to his dad's place for Thanksgiving.

"You sure?" I asked tentatively. "I mean, it's kinda soon after, you know, the divorce and all."

But Jonah batted his hand like Miss America doing a wave.

"Even more reason for us to go," he said airily. "Otherwise Robert's home by himself for Thanksgiving."

That made me blush. I envisioned Mr. Martin sitting alone on the couch,  bored and restless in a bathrobe, flipping through channels aimlessly  while the rest of the city celebrated in a happy family circle, stuffing  themselves with turkey and pie. My heart went out to the alpha male  before my brain snapped into focus, almost making me laugh. Because even  recently divorced, there was no way that handsome man was alone. Women  were probably unsheathing their claws as we spoke, getting ready to dig  them into the big man, back on the market after all these years. I shook  my head, exasperated and flustered at once. What the hell was wrong  with me? I was a naïve college girl, awkward and nervous, way out of my  league with someone like Robert Martin. What was I even thinking,  dreaming about him? It was so taboo, my wires were crossed, I was dating  his son for crying out loud. Granted, Jonah never touched me, we still  didn't do much more than study together, but still. My train of thought  was so twisted, and I had no business going down that path, no business  at all. So I forced myself to nod and smile.

"Sure, sounds wonderful," I chirped, trying to sound eager and happy. "I'd love to come."

And suspecting nothing, Jonah nodded.

"Great," he said unenthusiastically. "We'll just be a couple days and then we can come back. Pack for four nights."

And I nodded again, heart pumping. Because despite myself, I still  dreamed about Mr. Martin late at night sometimes. When I was alone in my  bed, my thoughts would wander and I'd imagine I was dating the big man  and not his son, that the alpha male was with me, flashing that white  smile as his blue eyes gleamed, his huge form lying next to me on my  narrow mattress. What we'd do was delicious, so naughty and explicit  that I'd blush, even alone in my room with no one to see. But I caught  myself again. I had no business, no right to think about Mr. Martin this  way. Stop it Ally, I scolded myself, stop right now, stop what you're  doing. But the thing is I couldn't stop my heart from pumping, couldn't  stop my heart from longing for what might be  …  even if my boyfriend's  dad was totally off-limits.





CHAPTER TWO


Rob




I let myself into the apartment after a work-out, my second of the day.  What no one tells you about selling a business is that once the deal is  done, your formerly busy days are now empty. It was a change to be sure.  I was used to working twelve hours a day, ruthlessly making money,  money, and then more money. But now that the business was in someone  else's hands, my days had opened up and the empty space gaped wide like a  hole that couldn't be filled. What do people do if they don't work?  Sure, I watched movies, I worked out like a fanatic, I even took some  on-line language classes, figuring to brush up on my high school  Spanish. But it fucking sucked, and it got boring after a while. So  usually I just head out to the gym again, pumping iron, doing cardio,  the works, the result of which is I look fucking amazing for a  forty-five year old, I've got the body of a twenty-five year old stud.

And the ladies let me know it. It's pretty embarrassing how they come at  me from every direction. I swear, I could take a walk around my  building, go a block or two and there'd be a couple women trying to  strike up a conversation, letting their little dogs run up to me as an  ice-breaker.

"Oh hello!" they'd exclaim. "I'm Barbara / Emily / Amanda, and this is Cookie / Dazzles / Winston, my dog. And you are?"

And unfortunately, it's always the same type of woman in Manhattan. It's  always a mid-thirties divorcee with overly processed blonde hair and an  orange tan, so skinny that a strong gust of wind would blow her over. I  hated this type, the kind with the thousand dollar designer bag and two  thousand dollar designer shoes. Because I'd made that mistake before.  Jonah's mom was exactly that kind of materialistic bitch, and I'd been  married to her for almost twenty years, which was about twenty years too  long.