I've Abandoned Control

To my surprise Shannon was actually early to pick me up for our date. I was very nervous. I had changed my outfit a million times. I quickly found out going through all of my clothes my wardrobe was not LA friendly, at least not yet. I haven’t had the chance to go shopping because I have been working most of the time since I moved here.

There is definitely a major difference in people’s style here than back home in Tennessee. I settled on skinny jeans, a tank top & blazer, and red heels. As soon as I heard the doorbell ring I grabbed my clutch and keys and headed to towards to door. I opened the door to see him standing there with a bouquet of flowers. He was wearing dark sunglasses and just a casual t-shirt and jeans. Honestly after seeing his ensemble I’m glad I didn’t wear the black cocktail dress I had on before I changed into my current choice.

He took his glasses off looking me up and down and said, “You look nice. I feel under dressed. Oh, these are for you.” handing the flowers to me. I went into the kitchen and put the flowers into a vase quickly and we headed out the door.

“Under dressed huh? I said looking in his direction. “I think you look very nice.” He smiled at me while opening my door. He held his hand in mine the entire drive to the restaurant.

We pulled up at a small restaurant outside of town. There was an outside deck so we decided to sit there. It was such an amazing night. It felt so good outside. When we were seated the waitress made her way over to us. She was writing our drink orders down when her mouth dropped. I knew then she recognized Shannon.

“Oh my goodness! I can’t believe YOU are sitting here, IN MY SECTION, my friends aren’t going to believe this.” We just watched her as she lost control.

Shannon finally spoke up, “We’d like two Whiskey sours please and bring us some waters too.” She tried to keep herself composed as she wrote down our orders. Shannon stopped the girl before she retreated back inside. “Hey” he paused looking at her name tag, “Andrea, can we keep this just between us that we’re here, until we leave. I wouldn’t like any distractions please.” She nodded in agreement and headed back inside to get our drinks. She would’ve done anything to please him. I kind of understood how she felt though he was very magnetic.

“Keepin’ me a secret, huh?” I said teasing him. “Embarrassed of me already I see.” shaking my head.

His eyes widened, “NO! it’s just if I didn’t tell her to keep quiet there would be a hundred kids here distracting us. I want to enjoy this night without all of that.” He grabbed my hands in his and we stayed like that until Andrea came back with our order. Shannon ordered our food and we laughed and talked nonstop. There wasn’t an awkward moment all night. I felt like I knew him my entire life. He started telling me a childhood story about Jared when all of a sudden he cut his story off and put his head down.

He blurted out, “This isn’t happening right now.” I asked him what was wrong. I looked up to see 3 women standing at the edge of our table. “Hey Shannon, I see it doesn’t take you long to move on.” That’s all that needed to be said to know who she was.

“Where did you find this one at?” He snapped his head up and stood up to look at her directly in her eyes and said, “Maria, why don’t you go have fun with your friends and leave us alone. I’m not your problem anymore remember?” She just laughed in my direction and bent down and whispered in my ear “Don’t waste you’re time sweetheart, he’s mine and always will be.”

Shannon must have heard her because he grabbed her by her arm and jerked her back from me and yelled at her, “Don’t you fucking touch her. Go back inside with your friends and leave us the hell alone.” I looked at her and she was smiling down at me. I waved at her and said “Bye Bye”. If looks could kill I would definitely be dead after I said that. She turned around and walked back inside without any hesitation.

He seemed to try to make the rest of the night fun but I knew he was bothered by what happened. We rode in silence the entire way back to my apartment. Once we stopped I honestly had no idea what to say so I was just going to leave without saying anything. I was reaching for the door handle when he started talking. “Paige, I’m sorry about tonight.” He kept his head down while he talked. “I was having a really good time until she showed up. I’m sorry, I had no idea seeing her would affect me as much as it has.”

I explained it was okay and not to worry about it. “I know you probably don’t want to see me again, but I have to ask, Please give me one more chance? We can stay at your place. I want to make it up to you.” I thought to myself did I want to get involved in this. Apparently this boy was still damaged goods, but obviously I didn’t care.

I smiled at him and said, “Yeah, okay, but no more surprise visits from your exes.” He looked at me and kissed my hand and said “I promise.” I told him to just call me when he decided he wanted to go out. He shook his head in agreement and pulled away from my apartment. I watched as he left until I couldn’t see the tail lights from his truck. I was almost to my door when I heard my phone ringing. I pulled it out of my purse without checking to see who it was calling me. I put the phone to my ear while trying to unlock the door when I heard him ask, “So will you go out with me tomorrow night?” I smiled and closed the door behind me.