My Monster *On Hold

Chapter 4

"Me? I'm not very interesting. Why do you do want to know about me?" I questioned.

"Here's what I can gather about you. You work extremely hard to support yourself and your brother. You spend most of your free time playing with or taking care of your brother, yet you don't spend a lot of time on yourself. Not only that, but you took me in and helped me when I was injured, probably saving my life, even though you don't know me and I could be a bad man. You are very interesting."

I blushed at his words. "Alright, then. What would you like to know?"

"Let's start with the basics. What's your favorite color?"

"Lilac," I paused, "What's yours?"

He looked at me and a small smile played on his lips. "Blue. What's your favorite food?"

"Strawberries and mac and cheese, but not together. Yours?" Things went on like that for a while. Only simple things were asked at first like favorite flower, music, etc. Eventually, though, more personal questions came up.

"What would your dream job be? Surely you don't want to continue working here forever."

"No, I don't. Tom and Patricia are the sweetest people someone could ever meet, but this isn't what I imagined I would be doing with my life. I've always wanted to be a kindergarten teacher."

"What's stopped you?"

I hesitated. Normally I didn't delve into my past this soon in a relationship, let alone with someone I barely knew. I was going to say some vague remarks to avoid the question, but somehow ended up spilling my whole backstory, "Well, I was all set to go to college two years ago, but my parents got into a car crash and both of them died. After that, my life was all about Jake and making sure I made enough money to support the two of us. At first I was barely scraping by on rent. College wasn't something I could consider. Now I just don't have enough time."

Titus reached over and gave my hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm sorry to hear that. And you're wrong, you know."

I looked up at him questioningly "About what?"

"About Tom and Patricia being the sweetest people someone could meet. You are." I gave him a smile, which he returned.

"One last question," he said.

"What would that be?"

"Can I have your phone number?"

I hesitated a bit, observing the man in front of me. He looked a bit nervous. Something made me feel like I could trust the man in front of me. I smiled, a wide one, with my teeth on full display. "Sure."

After our conversation, Titus walked me home. Samantha had picked up Jake already, and they were watching some TV when we arrived. Titus left after making sure I was safely inside, but my night was far from over. Samantha proceeded to bombard me with tons of questions. She seemed wary when I revealed the manner in which I met Titus, but she perked back up after hearing about the conversation we had today. Apparently attractiveness and some nice quality time wiped away the error of having been shot.

Titus and I stayed in contact the next couple of days. We texted when we could, but we both had busy schedules. It was four days after our first real conversation that he asked me on a date. My happiness was through the roof. I felt like I had finally found someone who understood me. Not only that, but Titus had proved to be a sweet gentleman through and through, despite his somewhat intimidating appearance.

Samantha came over before our date to help me get ready and to babysit Jake. I had always been hopeless at anything that enhanced your appearance such as makeup and hair styling. The best I could do was a little bit of mascara and the occasional braid.

After about an hour and a half, I was deemed ready. I was wearing a floral skirt with a white shirt and a long cream cardigan as well as some gladiator sandals. My hair was lightly curled and I had on some natural looking makeup.

Samantha was grinning like a maniac, "He's not going to be able to take his eyes off of you."

I have her a small smile, suddenly feeling nervous. This would be the first date I had gone on in two years. Even in high school I had never really had an official boyfriend. Samantha insisted that lots of boys were in love with me, that I was just too oblivious to see it, but I didn't believe that. She was always the popular one of the two of us. I was quiet and kept my distance from everyone, though I did try to talk to anyone I saw sitting alone, and smile at people who seemed down. That was just common courtesy. I couldn't imagine how lonely I would be if Samantha hadn't decided to take me under her wing, so I always felt the need to make others feel more comfortable and accepted.

The ringing of the doorbell brought me out of my thoughts. This is it, I thought. I gave a quick hug to Samantha and Jake, making sure to tell them both to behave, before opening the door. There was Titus, looking dashing, in some black jeans and a navy blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. In his hands he held a bouquet of pale pink roses.

"Are these for me?" I asked. He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Do you like them? I can always get something else if you want. I'm not the best at this kind of thing. Are they too much?"

I smiled at his rambling, "They're absolutely lovely. Thank you. Let me just put them in a vase, and then we can go."

I quickly filled a vase with water and placed in on the table before trying to arrange the flowers to where they looked the best. I turned the vase a bit to the left and took a step back to admire the view. Titus had followed me in and was looking on with a half relieved half amused smile. Satisfied that the flowers were perfect, I turned to him, "Okay. I'm ready to go."

He led the way to the door, opening it for me, "After you, m'lady."

A/N Sorry it took me a bit longer to update. I had a busy week. I hope you liked it.

With that being said, I have to also say thank you all so much for voting, commenting, and reading. I can't believe that it already has more than 200 views! You all are the best. :)