“Yes, Grandma. Sorry, I was just thinking.” I giggled nervously. I needed to stop thinking so much because I was tuning out of conversations. And if I was tuning out of conversations, I was apt to say something at the wrong time. What if I’d mentioned or commented that I used to bump uglies with Mike to Grandma? She would have killed me.
“Okay, Gemma. Well, I let you go, heh?. And then you tell me if we have a visitor to dinner soon? I would really like to make a nice big dinner for the whole family. And for your future husband.”
“Grandma, just because I’m dating someone, doesn’t mean that they’re going to be my future husband. And that’s why it makes me very hesitant to bring any guy I’m dating home, because I cannot have you guys scaring him off.”
“Ah, Gemma? We not scare them off, but we need to make sure that they are the right fit. If they do not have good intentions, then they can leave, yes?
“Yes, Grandma. Okay. Well, I’ve got to go, okay?”
“Okay, Gemma. I love you very, very much.”
“I love you too, Grandma. And give my love to Papu, okay?”
“Okay. Bye.”
“Bye.” I hung up the phone and just stood there. I was mentally drained and exhausted. As much as I loved my grandma, I absolutely hated having these conversations. At least they hadn’t started asking me if I was going to freeze my eggs again yet. It made me feel awful. That they thought that was my only option. I wasn’t that old. And I wasn’t that much of a loser, was I? I had to shake it off, because I knew if I went into my date with this mindset, it was going to bomb. I was already having second thoughts about the date with Pierre, from an email he’d sent me this morning. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about it seemed really off. And when I felt off about something, that wasn’t a good sign. I decided to call Sarah and ask her for her opinion, before I went on the date. If she thought that it sounded a bit shady, then I wasn’t going to go. I mean, I had plenty of other dates to go on, so it wouldn’t be a huge loss. And I’d rather not waste my time on a guy if I knew, before we even met, that something wasn’t right about him. Sarah answered on the second ring.
“Hey, how is it going?”
“Hey girl, I have a major favor to ask you.”
“Uh oh,” she said. “You don’t want me to buy any Christmas presents for you, as well, do you?”
“No, I’m not Harry.” I laughed. “No, it’s about that guy, Pierre, I was telling you about.”
“Ooh. The French hottie, what about him?”
“Well, he sent me an email this morning and I’m a little bit hesitant to go on the date with him now. I want your opinion.”
“Oh sure. What did the email say?”
“Okay. Now I’m going to read it to you, but I want you to be totally unbiased, okay? Just listen to the email. And I want you to tell me your initial thoughts. I’m not going to say anything about what I think until afterward.”
“Okay, sure. Go ahead, tell me.”
“Hold on, let me go to my laptop and pull it up. I can’t remember it exactly by heart.”
“Sure. Okay.”
I walked over to my laptop and opened it quickly. As I opened up my email, I noticed that Lucas had sent me another email. I debated whether to open it first or whether I should just go directly to Pierre’s. I decided to have a quick glimpse of Lucas’s. Maybe it would put me in a better mood. I clicked on it and opened it.
“Hey there beautiful. Just wanted to check in and say that I hope you’re feeling good today. I want to apologize if I said or did anything yesterday that made you feel uncomfortable. That wasn’t my intention. I just think you’re very beautiful and very sexy. And I’d love to take you out again. I know I texted you last night and today I’m emailing, but I’m doing that because I wanted to officially ask you on a second date. And it has to go through the dating app service in order for them to pay for it. So, if you’re down and would like to