Black Friday

It took every ounce of will power in me not to hit snooze a second time when the alarm on my iPhone went off at 6:45 in the morning on Black Friday morning. I am so not a morning person, but is anybody really? Scott and Martin were picking me up at 8 and I needed sufficient time to shower and get ready. Scott still hasn't seen me without makeup or my hair done and I intended to keep it that way.

Martin and Scott pulled up in front of my house at about a quarter after eight. Martin was driving and I hoped in the backseat of his Jeep. I could smell the coffee as soon as I opened the door and I was overcome with jealousy for a few seconds before Scott handed me a cup. "You take it black, right?" he asked. "I remember you mentioning it." When a man can remember how I take my coffee, he has my heart.

They wanted to go to a few department stores to get deals. I would've never guessed that these two guys would be dragging me to sales for clothing, but there I was. And yes, I was alone. Anna texted me that morning said she was still having stomach issues and she wouldn't be able to make it. I rolled my eyes when I received the text, but whatever. Maybe she was legitimately sick. At least I didn't have to worry about her flirting with Scott.

We walked through several stores in the mall and while nothing really caught my eye, I enjoyed looking around. People were so excited and even though you hear so many crazy stories about this particular shopping day, I didn't see anybody fighting over a sweater or anything.

After a few hours, we were on our way. They were happy with everything they got, between presents and clothes for themselves, but it was time for some grub. Scott suggested grabbing a burger at a new place that opened up a few miles from the mall. Martin insisted that we go without him, since he didn't want to be a third wheel, but we wouldn't have it.

"Dude, I know you're hungry," Scott laughed. It took a lot for me not to laugh when he said that, because I remember Anna telling me that Martin would always get out of bed to get a sandwich after they hooked up.

"Yeah, Martin," I finally added. "You can't bail now."

Martin reluctantly agreed to come with us and we were sitting down at a high top table fifteen minutes later. I ended up getting a Chinese chicken salad while they both got bacon cheeseburgers. It would have been nice to have some alone time with Scott, especially since they started talking about fantasy football and I was completely lost in the conversation, but it was funny anyway.

Martin's phone buzzed while his hands were covered in grease from his burger. I have this really bad habit of looking down at people's phones even when I know it's none of my business and this particular day was no different. I looked down and say a message from "Wendy AC." Oh, so there's a Wendy from Atlantic City. I bit my lip and looked away. I knew Martin and Anna were both on the same page about not wanting anything more than to hook up, but I couldn't help but think about Scott. Not to be a bitch, but I think Scott is much more attractive than Martin. If Martin got a phone number from one of those girls, I'm sure plenty of them were all over Scott. Ugh, jealousy is an ugly feeling.

Once we were done eating, Martin dropped me and Scott off at Scott's house. I was happy that Scott and I were going to finally get to spend some alone time together. His parents were both working and he assured me his sister was in New York City all day, so we decided to cuddle up on the couch to watch a movie.

I cuddled up next to Scott after he popped in the movie that we agreed on. I felt so comfortable and all of a sudden, I realized that I really liked the way this felt. If I could feel this physically comfortable, why did I have such a hard time talking to him about my expectations and feelings?

I repositioned myself to face him. "So, I couldn't help but notice Martin was texting a girl over lunch. Did he meet someone in Atlantic City?"

Scott sighed and it had me truly worried. "He told me Anna doesn't want anything serious," he said in a sort of defensive manner.

My eyes widened. "Oh, no," I began. "I wasn't trying to, I mean, she doesn't want anything serious. I wasn't asking because of her." I could feel myself turning bright red. "Just trying to start conversation," I finally finished with an innocent smile.

Scott smirked. "Yeah, sorry," he quietly replied. "I just feel weird telling you that when he's sleeping with your best friend."

"I know," I said back with a smile. "But don't worry, Anna really doesn't expect anything."

"I don't get that," he said tracing his finger in circles on my shoulder. "Whatever works for them, I guess. But yeah, he's talking to some girl we met down there. She was with this huge group of girls for a bachelorette party."

Okay, now we were getting somewhere. "Fun!" I replied, trying my hardest to sound carefree about the whole situation. "Where were they from?"

"Pennsylvania," Scott effortlessly replied, as if I had asked him his middle name.

"Cool," I replied turning my attention back to the movie. How was I supposed to get anything out of this dude without asking him flat out if he hooked up with a girl?

I came up with a new strategy. "So, how'd the rooms end up?"

With that, Scott paused the movie.

-----

I gulped and took a deep breathe as I watched Scott rub his chin with his left hand. After a few seconds, that felt like hours, he spoke. "It's kind of a funny story," he said. Really? A funny story? Scott turned so that he was facing me and then, to my relief, the words began spilling out in waves.

"We were at the bar, standing near this VIP section, when a couple of girls stumbled into us on their way back from the bathroom. My friends jumped at the situation. They started talking to them and I don't know, I thought it was kind of pathetic because these girls were clearly wasted." Scott grabbed a water bottle from the coffee table in front of us and took a sip. "Anyway," he continued. "They ended up inviting us to their table with bottle service. We hung out there for a little while just drinking and having a good time." I thought back to the Snapchat story that Anna had showed me. The pictures were definitely taken at the table.

"Sounds like a good time," I sincerely replied even though I was still suffocating with curiosity. Scott smiled at me and I knew, at that moment, he was reading my mind.

"It was fun, but honestly that's not really my scene," he replied. "A couple of the guys and I left around two to gamble a little bit more. Some of the less drunk girls came with us. After a little bit of roulette, Martin found me. He was with this one girl in a tight cheetah print dress. He was taking her back to the room. I told him to text me when they were done. I didn't want to barge in on them, but I also wanted to get to sleep. We were sharing a room."

"Oh, so when'd you end up being able to go to sleep?" I asked.

Scott raised his eyebrows and huffed a little. "Martin kind of screwed me over," he replied. "We hung out in the casino for another hour or so before people started filing off to bed. This girl, Amanda, and I had kind of been talking the whole time. She was flirting with me and I mean, I was enjoying her company, but I wasn't interested." I tried to silently take a deep breathe. Hearing him talk about spending time with another girl made my stomach drop, but he wasn't saying anything bad.

Again, Scott was totally reading my mind. He put his hand on the bottom of my chin and forced me to make eye contact with him as he said this next part. "I missed you a lot." I smiled at him. "Martin never ended up texting me even though I sent him a bunch of messages. He told me the next day they fell asleep." Scott pushed a piece of hair behind my ear. "Amanda was sharing a room with Wendy, the girl Martin was with, so she insisted we wait in her room for a text. When we got to the room, there were two queen beds and two girls were already passed out in one. Amanda insisted I just take Wendy's spot in her bed."

My stomach dropped again. "Okay..." I replied with a slight squint. "What are you trying to tell me?" I finally asked, beginning to feel kind of frustrated.

Scott's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, nothing happened. I swear!" He took a deep breathe and looked off into space. He finally continued. "Amanda opened up to me before we went to sleep about how she has been seeing this guy for about a year, but he won't make things official. It really pisses her off, so now she sleeps around and lies to him about it. I mean, I don't know the guy but he's probably doing the same thing. It did make me think, though."

Scott paused and put his hand on mine. "I know that things are busy at work for me and they're only going to get busier after the holidays," he went on. "But I don't want to drag you along. I don't want to wait to see if things get less busy and I have more time for you."

I felt like the wind had just been knocked out of me. Was Scott ending things?

I couldn't remain quiet as this went on. "Do you want to stop seeing each other?" I blurted out.

"What?!" Scott exclaimed, looking me in the eyes with sheer confusion. "No! The exact opposite!" He looked away from me as that last line left his mouth and I saw him begin to turn red.

After a few seconds of recomposing himself, he turned to face me again and smiled. "I don't want to lose you. I wanted to talk to you and make sure you know how I feel about everything. I know I don't really open up much, but I've really enjoyed getting to know you.  You're so real and I like that you are goal-oriented. I feel like you have it all. I don't want you to feel the way Amanda feels. I don't care how busy I get with work. I want to make time for you and for, well, us." He took my hand again. "I realized that I might not have made my thoughts clear with you before, but I haven't been seeing anybody else. I'm sorry that it took me so long to talk to you about this, but would you want to be, well, exclusive?"

I was so overcome with different emotions that I let the question float in the air for a moment. Scott must have become worried, because before I could say anything, he began speaking again. "If you need more time to think about it, I -"

I cut him off with a kiss. I kissed him for several seconds before I couldn't hold the words back anymore. "Of course I'll be your girlfriend!"

Yay!