Where Would I Be Without You - By CJ Hawk Page 0,20

for him, yet he kept alluding to what they were. Therefore, I talked about Marion and her husband Carl, and I gleamed over her pregnancy. I talked about my aunt Heather, who is a perpetual party girl even in her forties, never married, no kids and how she says she doesn't need them when she has me as her favorite niece to spoil. Mason told me about his two sisters already married with kids, yet he was the oldest of the four kids, and his youngest sister just finished up her first year in college. It felt as if we could talk on and on all night, but we didn't.

It was the last kiss that he dropped on me right before saying that it doesn't matter what you do in life, just that you are happy with the one you love that caused me to realize my smart brain of learn all about him, just lost. I wanted nothing more than to get him naked back at my place. I was in love with his Latin bad-boy moves and his great outlook on life. The two combined were lethal to my heart, because I was falling hard into the canyon of love.

After he excused himself for a moment to go to the men's room, I grabbed the waitress as she was walking by with a quick yank of her arm. After a profuse apology to my briskness, I pleaded with her that she gives us the check right away. She smiled as she walked away. She was either going to take her sweet time or have sympathy for a woman who is falling madly in love with the man in front of her.

By the time Mason came back, the check was being laid on the table before him, and our waitress was telling us to have a great night. I intended to. I raised my eyebrows and smiled while a loud 'thanks' left my mouth. Mason glanced over at me with an inquisitive look of what was that about, and I simply replied. "Girl talk, while you were in the bathroom. She likes my shoes." I held my foot out and did a little foot modeling like I was showing a woman off my spectacular footwear.

"Ok. They're nice. So are you ready to get out of here? It's been a long day for me, and I'm sure you still need to catch up on your missed out sleep from last night. You have work tomorrow?"

If I wasn't mistaken, he seemed to be making an exit to our date. No mention of nightcap or hanging out anymore. The night was still young as it was only six o'clock. Was I reading him wrong? Did he need to get to another date or had other plans? I blatantly answered with a nonchalant answer as I shrugged my shoulders. "Yup. Back to the old grindstone tomorrow."

As I stood up, he dropped cash on the table, then stood behind me and put his hand to the lower part of my back again. "So do you have plans for your actual birthday then?" He asked.

We started to walk out of the bar, and then it suddenly dawned on me that maybe he didn't want this thing to go too fast either. That perhaps, I should not assume he just wants to take me back to my place for anything more. We just had an early happy hour adventure and after both our long nights, that maybe he was just as tired as I was. I decided to answer him with an invite. "Yes, actually. Well, I ordered a small cake from the bakery around the corner. I had ordered a large one to bring back for leftovers from my family restaurant party, but in my drunk stupor, the cab driver got it. I was planning on having the small cake by myself, after I got home from an after work thing we do with all the employees. If it's someone's birthday, we round up any available crew for a drink after work. Marion is coming, would you like to come?"

Without hesitation, he answered me, which made my heart float. "Sure. What time and where? Maybe we could share some of that cake afterwards." He sounded excited so I had to assume he was just trying to slow things down a bit, so we didn't jump the gun on this one.

"Five o'clock. Down on sixth at that little dive bar, do you know the one I