The Little Life

Chapter Twenty Seven

I was halfway through my run when my music shut off and my phone started buzzing. I looked at the caller ID to see Jacks name.

"Hello?" I said out of breath.

"Come to dinner with me tonight"

"When?"

"How about now?"

"I'm in the middle of a run, Jack. How about 7:30?"

"That's fine. I'll pick you up at 7:15"

"But where-" was all I said before he hung up. "Well that was fucking rude" I said to myself as I turned around to run back to my car.

I arrived back at my apartment and decided to grab a quick shower since it was 6:45. I opened the front door to find it empty yet again, so I stripped on my way to the bathroom. When I was finished I grabbed my phone to look at the time and saw it was 7 so I put on a black floral off the shoulder dress and tan flats before throwing on a bit of makeup. I brushed my hair and put it in a bun so I didn't have to deal with it. As I was touching up my blush I heard a knock at the door.

"I'm sorry I've been acting like a brat. I started my period so it kinda makes sense now," I said as I opened the door and walked away, fixing my earring.

"Come here" he said as he beckoned towards him with one finger. I gulped and walked towards him, expecting the worst. Instead I was met with his arms around me.

"What-what are you doing?"

"I'm giving you a hug, Cal. Hug me back" he said as he pulled my arms behind him.

"You're not mad at me?" I asked softly.

"Mad at you? For being upset with me? No sweetheart. That wouldn't make any sense. I'm sad that I upset you and I've missed you"

A tear escaped my eye and I embraced him more. "I-I'm not used to that"

"What do you mean?" He asked as he pulled away from me, still holding onto the tops of my arms as he looked at my face.

I wiped a tear from my eye before speaking. "In my last relationship. I wasn't allowed to be upset about anything or he would...get mad at me. I was never allowed to be sad or mad or frustrated and if I was I would pay for it and end up apologizing" I said as I looked down at the floor in embarrassment.

"Sweetheart look at me. You're allowed to feel however you want. If your angry with me because of something, I'll let you scream and cuss and throw things if you need to, if that would make you feel better. I would never be upset with you because of your feelings, especially not if they're valid. I might be sad, yes, but sad that I did that to you. Not sad that you had a perfectly normal reaction to something" he said as he caresses my face and kissed my forehead.

"I-thank you" I said as I sniffles into his shirt.

"Of course, Babygirl. Now go fix your makeup" he said as he lightly smacked my butt, making me wince, and turned me to face the bathroom. I fixed my mess of a face and we headed to the restaurant.

We talked about my past relationship on the way to dinner and we learned a lot about each other. We drove around 30 minutes before we pulled into the parking lot of a small Italian restaurant.

We stepped inside and told the hostess there would be two of us and she immediately sat us in a booth to the side of the front door. I scooted into the booth and took off my crossbody before looking at the menu.

"Do you still want to stay at home this week?" Jack asked after the hostess brought us garlic knots.

"I...I don't know. I expected you to be mad at me and I have classes this week and I told Tasha I would be home and-"

"Sweetheart if you want to stay home, you can. I won't be upset with you. Although I would love to have you back, I understand if you want to stay home for a little while"

"No. I, um, I think I want to come back to your house. Can I ask you a question though?"

"Sure, Sweetheart" he said as he shoved a whole garlic knot in his mouth, making me giggle.

"Not to be nosey but um, why do you have such a normal house? And normal car? I mean I know they're still expensive but I thought...I don't know"

"You thought I would have nicer things since I'm classified as rich?" he said putting air quotes around rich. He laughed, "Well, I've never been a show-off. I'd rather have modest things that are paid off then extravagant things that I'll be paying on until I die. I could afford a lot more than I have, sure. But I paid for Leo to go to law school, and him and I split our parents bills so they don't have to worry about it. I also financed both of their cars. I also occasionally donate to small businesses in the area, like this one. But, like I said, I like to live modest"

"Oh. So you don't like the big fancy houses and stuff? I thought that was a rich person thing? Like you had to?"

"I guess I'm not a typical rich person, now am I?" He smirked as the waitress came to take our orders. Once she left he spoke again. "I'm glad you're coming home with me"

"Me too" I smiled softly at him.

As he went to say something his phone rang. "Hello? Oh yes. I'm eating dinner with Calysta right now but we can come by after? Why, is everything okay?" He asked before looking at me with a worried glance. "Okay. Sure. Thank you Tristan"

I didn't want to be nosey so I just looked at him.

"That was Tristan. He said there was a problem with the event going on tonight. We need to stop by after we leave"

"Oh, okie," was all I said before the waitress brought out our food and we started to eat, talking about the workshop the club was hosting tonight.