And pretty soon we found ourselves feeding one another our own food and the other’s food.
“Here is the bill.” The waiter had picked up on our desire for privacy and only came when our drinks were empty and after our plates were finished.
Devin pulled out his wallet and handed him his credit card. “You ready to go back to work?”
“No,” I said honestly. “I’m having fun. I don’t want to go back to transferring phone calls or doing other menial tasks.” I just wanted to linger with Devin. A notion that scared me as well as excited me.
“We can have fun after we get home from work,” Devin suggested.
My heart started to pound as images of tangled bodies rolling around in bed caught my attention.
“How about we play a game of Life ?”
My heart plummeted, and I know it showed on my face.
“You wanted to do something a little more fun?” he asked teasingly.
“Well, more fun than Life.”
“You used to love to play Life. It was your favorite.”
“I still like it, but okay, we play one game and then I get to pick something.”
“Deal,” Devin smirked. “You ready?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. The waiter handed Devin his card back and we got up to leave.
“Maybe we should have asked him what days he works,” Devin chuckled.
Devin drove back to my office. “Finishing at five like usual?”
“Yeah. No special projects requiring me to stay late. What about you?”
“I’ll come back around the same time then. I can just bring some work home,” he said.
I nodded, suddenly thrilled he would leave work early for me and happy he would be there when I got home. It was a different feeling, coming home to someone you liked. Whoa, I mean someone I like as a fake boyfriend.
Anyway, what I mean is that it’s nice to come home to someone who appreciates you and isn’t your family.
“Bye, CJ,” Devin said as I opened my door to exit.
I don’t know why, but I leaned over and kissed him. I was truly happy with him. It no longer felt like we were faking our relationship. I really think in that moment I started to see Devin as someone I was truly with. I mean, I kissed him and would have done more if a car hadn’t driven by and honked a few times.
I loved to kiss him and I loved for him to kiss me. He was sweet and kind and the opposite of what I had always thought he was.
I wasn’t sure what was happening to me. All I knew was that the more time I spent with Devin, the more dangerous the situation became. I was standing precariously close to the edge, one wrong move and I could fall head-over-heels in love with him. And the fact that it didn’t bother me scared me even more. A part of me wanted it to happen.
* * *
When I came home, Devin was in the kitchen, already working on dinner.
“Can I help?” I asked, after putting my things away. He was still in his button-down shirt he wore to work.
“Sure, you want to make a salad? I’m about to pop this in the oven. It should be done in twenty minutes.” He opened the preheated oven and slipped what looked like a casserole into it.
I went to the fridge and grabbed a bag of plain lettuce and poured it into a bowl then chopped up some cucumber and carrots before tossing in some croutons. “This look good to you?”
Devin smiled. “Looks great. Now what should we do while we wait?”
“You wanted to play Life. I could go get it and we can start,” I told him.
He nodded his head as he began to clear the counters. I walked out to the living room and opened the game cabinet and pulled out Life.
Devin walked up to the table as I began to open the box. “I don’t think I’ve played this in years.”
“So what made you want to play it now?” I asked, pulling out the board. My green car was still lying on the bottom of the box with my ‘husband’ and four kids. That game I drew three boys and one girl.
Devin’s voice penetrated my thoughts. “I was playing it at work online and I forgot how fun it could be.”
We pulled out the buildings and placed them in the correct spot then each chose a car, green for me and blue for him.
“You know the last time I played this was right after you and Mitchell were making fun of my journal. Mitch kept saying my husband was you and teasing me throughout the game. I stopped playing after that.”
“So we had four kids?” He smiled as he watched me pull the people out of my car.
I looked up and laughed. “Three boys and one girl.”
“No twins?”
“Nope.”
“Good.”
I laughed and realized playing with Devin wouldn’t be so bad. It might actually be fun. “Let’s spin to see who goes first.”