LOVEHATE

29

Shawn was gone for most of the week following our first date because he had to go to Italy for a photo shoot. It kind of blew my mind that I was dating a model. He was the least pretentious person I knew.

On Friday night he texted me from the airplane that he'd be picking me up at 4:00 the following day.

I deliberated over my outfit again, but not to the extent I had for our last date. The difference this time was that I wanted to wear something to impress his parents, not him. Sexy wasn't what I was going for.

I decided on some extra dark jeans that I paired with a ribbed gray v-neck sweater. I wore some short gray boots. I raided Lillian's room for an orange infinity scarf to add some color.

Shawn arrived a few minutes early, but I was ready for him. I'd worked that morning and had met with my project group afterwards. Thankfully, I still had plenty of time to get myself together.

"Hey, beautiful," he said as he walked in my apartment. He gave me a kiss. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too," I told him. I really had. Now that we were on good terms, being apart was much harder.

Soon we were in his Jeep headed to Pickering, the town he grew up in.

"So I talked to my mom," I said after picking some music, I'd chosen Green Day for the ride.

"About?"

"You visiting over Christmas. She loved the idea. We're not going anywhere, so you can come anytime after Christmas, up until I go back to school mid-January."

"That's awesome," he said with a big smile.

He then reached over and put his hand on my thigh, caressing it gently. For the most part, his fingers stayed in a fairly neutral zone. Occasionally a finger would stray into danger territory. I was quite sure he was trying to kill me by teasing me to death.

For the rest of the ride we talked about his schedule between now and the holidays. He had a few small trips planned, but would be in Toronto most of the time. I got giddy thinking about being able to see him regularly.

As we drove to his family's home, I started to feel anxious. He'd told me over the phone this week that he hadn't brought a woman home in years. I wasn't surprised; I knew that he'd been just fucking around for most of his music career. Part of my insecurities came from the fact that he'd chose me, of all people, to start a relationship with, when he'd been with so many beauties. I still wasn't sure exactly what our relationship was, though. We were dating. I didn't think we were boyfriend-girlfriend, yet. There'd been no talk of commitment. But we were making plans for the holidays and that meant something, right?

These thoughts kept my brain over-occupied for the rest of the drive. I snapped back to reality when we slowed to a stop on a neighborhood street.

Shawn and I walked to the front door of the pretty house he'd grown up in. Before he could open it, it was abruptly thrown open by an adorable teenage girl. This was obviously his sister, Aaliyah.

"Hi!" she said enthusiastically.

"Aaliyah, this is Sadie. Sadie, this is my sister," Shawn said as we walked inside.

We were soon joined in the foyer by Shawn's parents. They introduced themselves as Karen and Manny, and were as warm and friendly as Shawn had described.

"Come into the kitchen," Karen said, her British accent stronger than I'd thought it would be considering she'd lived in Canada for so long. "We've got some appetizers."

Shawn took my coat and hung it up with his before we followed everyone down the hall. The kitchen island had an array of hot and cold snacks.

"Glass of wine? Beer?" Manny asked me.