“I can do the forsaking thing.”
And I did. Over the next month the girls Becky had mentioned (and a few she didn’t) did indeed take a shot at me, but I wasn’t interested. Why would I be? Remember my saying that Pauline was my Gold Standard? Well Becky was the Platinum Standard. No way was I going to mess it up.
No, Becky managed to be the one to do that.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We had been back to school a little over three months and we still had a lot of shared classes. One morning, it was a Wednesday, we were walking from out ten o’clock class to the student cafeteria and I asked her what she wanted to do on Saturday night.
“I’m going to the Tim McGraw concert.”
“Damn girl; couldn’t you have given me a bit more warning? I’m not sure I can get tickets this late.”
“Greg already has them.”
“Greg?”
“Yeah. I’m going with Greg.”
Greg was a guy who had transferred in from some other school and he was in several of our business classes.
“Let me make sure I understand this. You are going out on a date with Greg Mortinson this Friday.”
“That’s right.”
By then we had reached the cafeteria and Becky turned to go in, but I kept walking. I heard “Wait up Harry” and I turned to see her hurrying to catch up. “No thank you” I thought as I took off running.
We both had Introduction to Business that afternoon, but thankfully it was assigned seating so I didn’t have to sit next to her. Luckily she was seated near the front (only two seats away from Greg I noted) and I was in the back so I was able to get up and be gone before she could get to me when class was over. We had no other shared classes that afternoon, but I wasn’t going to be able to duck her after class. We were both still working part time at the business and outside of skipping work I’d be where she could get to me.
The good news is that Charlie was back and I was able to get him to assign us different areas. It wasn’t going to stop Becky from getting to me, but it would slow her down and give my anger time to subside. At least some. I managed to avoid her until ten minutes before quitting time.
“What’s wrong with you Harry? Why are you behaving like this?”
“You are a college student Miss Courtney so you can’t be that dumb. What the hell did you expect when you tell me you are going to date another guy?”
“It doesn’t mean anything Harry. He has tickets to the concert and asked me if I would go with him. You know how much I like Tim McGraw.”
“Then what you should have done Miss Courtney was ask me to get tickets to the concert when you heard it was coming here. But you didn’t did you? Remember back to our first night together. The night you brought up forsaking? The night you insisted on exclusivity? I didn’t understand that it only pertained to me. My bad! Shame on me for being so naive. In a way it is a good thing to find out now that our relationship is so weak that it can’t beat out a date with a guy who has tickets to a concert. Now if you will excuse me I need to punch out and then go get on a phone and find a date for Friday.”
I walked away from her and went home where I told my mom what had happened and that if Becky called I didn’t want to talk to her. I went out to the patio, sat down at the table and started to rough out a paper I was going to have to turn in the following week.
Mom called me in for dinner and after eating I decided to do what I’d told Becky I was going to do. Find a date for Friday night. And then I smiled as I had an evil thought. If I could swing it who better to date than one of the girls she had wanted to beat out the night we had connected. My first choice would normally be Sarah, but though she said call if Becky and I didn’t work out the fact was that she was still Becky’s best friend. As pissed as I was with Becky I didn’t want to deliberately ruin her friendship with Sarah.
I opted to call Nancy Wilde first and I was a little surprised when she said yes to a date with no hesitation. I didn’t get the “What about Becky” until after she said yes. I just told her that Becky decided to date other guys and expected me to be cool with it and it wasn’t going to happen. We made arrangements for Friday and I got back to work on my paper.
I managed to avoid Becky at school, but I couldn’t avoid her at work. Given that she was the one who had fucked up things between us I couldn’t understand her snarky attitude when she saw me. It started when she walked into the door and saw me.
“Did Mr. Studly find himself a date for Friday?” she asked in a sarcastic tone.
I decided if she wanted to go with attitude so would I.
“None of your business Miss Courtney.”
She smirked and said “Thought so. Call me when you get tired of hearing no.”
I walked away from her and managed to avoid her for the rest of the shift.
The next day I was sitting in the cafeteria having coffee and going over my notes on my last class when Becky came in, went through the line, saw me and headed my way. I gathered my stuff up and as Becky sat down I was getting up.
“Where are you going Harry?”
I ignored her and walked away.
My deal with my dad was that I would always have Friday off and every other Saturday off and this was my Saturday free weekend. It meant that once out of school I wouldn’t see Becky again until Monday.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I picked Nancy up at seven and we went to dinner at the Outback Steak House. After dinner we went over to the VFW for the Friday night dance. We were having a good time although a few eyebrows were raised because I wasn’t with Becky. We left around eleven and stopped at the Village Inn for pie and coffee. We had been there maybe fifteen minutes when Becky and her date walked in. They were laughing and smiling at each other until Becky saw us. I saw the sudden surprise on her face as she realized that I DID have a date and that date was with one of the girls that she was afraid was going to get to me before she could. Her eyes met mine and then I turned my attention to Nancy.
Becky and her date (I couldn’t bring myself to mention his name) took a booth across the room and sat down. I couldn’t see them because my back was to them, but apparently they could see us because Nancy said:
“Becky hasn’t taken her eyes off of us since she sat down. Are you sure things are over between you two?”
“Think about it Nance. Is she with me or is she with another guy?”
“Point taken. I just didn’t want to be the one to break things up.”
“Rest easy sweetie; I didn’t call you until after she hit me with the dating other guys bullshit.”
“Can we get out of here? I’m not comfortable with her sitting there staring at us.”