Kendra...

"Kyle, Jenna's here!" I called out to my son.

It took a few seconds for him to get to the living room.

"Hey Jenna," he looked at her confused then turned to me, "Where are you going?"

"Out," I simply answered grabbing my coat.

His brow raised, "With who?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does."

I sighed. He wasn't going to let up. "If you just know, I'm hanging out with Eli tonight."

He stood there and stared at me, then my outfit.

"Like a date?"

"No!" I quickly answered, "Why would you think it's a date?"

"You're dressed nice," he said.

"You think I look nice?" I asked looking down at myself.

I was wearing low waist Jeans, a loose off the shoulder blue top and black heels. I was going for something casual, yet a little fancy. I even put on makeup, but not a lot. I didn't want to look like a hooker.

"Are you sure it's not a date?" He asked.

"I'm positive."

I wasn't positive. This was definitely a date. Eli had texted me the night before saying he had a surprise and to be ready at seven. Today at work, he said I would love him for what he had planned for tonight. He even said to tell the babysitter I might be home really late. What else would it be?

"Then why are you dressed so nice?" he squinted at me.

"So I can't dress nice to hang out with a friend?"

"A friend who's a man."

What is up with this boy? I thought he liked Eli.

"Kyle..."

"What time are you coming home?"

"Whenever I feel like it" I answered with a sassy neck roll

He raised his brows in shock, like how dare I speak to him that way.

"Listen, little boy," I looked down at him, granted it wasn't by much "I am a grown-ass woman Ok? If I want to hang out late with a friend who's a man, then I can!"

He kept his intense gaze on me, trying his best to look grown. It was so damn cute.

"Bye sweetie," I said, throwing on my coat.

"Don't stay out too late," he said to me as I headed out the door.

"And you behave yourself" I called back.

I closed the door behind me and headed down to the parking lot. Eli had just texted that he had arrived. I texted back saying I'm on my way down.

I tried to calm my nerves. I tried telling myself that it wasn't a big deal.

But it was.

This was our first date. This could make or break us. This would determine if our "thing" would go any further.

What if he's horrible at dates? What if he took me somewhere totally lame, like Mc Donald's or something? This better not be horrible.

I easily spotted his car in the parking lot and made my way to it.

"Hey," I said getting in, a bit annoyed he didn't get out to open the door for me. He was already losing points. Great.

"Hey," he smiled looking up from his camera bag.

He better be taking pictures of me all night.

"Ready for your surprise?" He grinned after putting the bag in the back seat.

"Yeah," I said, a little nervous about what the night might hold.

"Awesome," he said before starting the car and driving out of the parking lot.

We had a light conversation as he drove. I honestly was paying too much attention to what he was saying because I was too busy trying to figure out what he had planned. He was dressed normally, so we probably weren't going to a fancy restaurant. I could smell burgers and fries coming from the back seat. He had already bought fast food. So there probably wasn't any food where we were going.

I had slickly peeked in the back seat and saw the fast-food bags, grocery store bags, and what looked like two new boxes of binoculars. Maybe we were going to a park for a picnic and to look at birds, Aww. But who has a picnic and birdwatches at night? Unless more than that was going to happen. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach at that thought. That definitely wasn't happening tonight.

After about thirty minutes of driving, he finally came to a stop in the parking lot of some shady looking motel. All the letters on the sign weren't even lighting up.

So this was his idea of a first date? Hanging out at some rundown motel?

"Looks like we're right on time," he said grinning as a car pulled in and parked behind us.

"In time for what?" I asked, trying to hide the frustration in my voice.

He tilted his head, pointing to the man who had just walked past his side of the car. It was hard to tell who it was at first, but when he stepped into the light of the broken sign, I got a glimpse of who it was.

"Is that..."

"James Rodney, Brooke Hawthorne's husband."

"Wait, what are we doing here?"

"After you told me you got the OK from Uncle Bernard, I did some digging and called up a few friends of mine. Found out that James meets with Ramona here at 7:30 every Wednesday. Thought we'd come out here on a full-on stakeout!" He grinned.

My face dropped.

This wasn't a date. It was never meant to be a date. I had spent hours picking out the best outfit, styling my hair and putting on makeup. I freakin' shaved my legs. In times like this, I was so grateful for my melanated skin.

"Thought you'd be excited," he said, the smile no longer in his face, "Did I go too far?"

"No, no, it's OK. I just wasn't expecting this to be a stakeout."

"Well, what did you think it was?"

"I don't know. Just not a stakeout," I tried to chuckle and lighten my mood.

It all made sense now. The fast-food, his camera, the binoculars. I wanted to be swallowed up right then and there.

I held on to the straps on my coat and tied them tighter. This was going to be an interesting night.

********

Eli...

"You can take your coat off if you want," I said to her, "And I could put the heat down a bit."

"It's OK, I'm fine," she answered.

She wasn't. I could see the beads of sweat running down her temples.

She had been acting weird since we arrived at the motel. She said she was OK with all this, but I wasn't getting that feeling from her. We had been sitting here for maybe an hour, and she hadn't said much. She hadn't even touched her burger yet. I even bought snacks just in case she didn't want fast food, but she hadn't touched that either.

I had planned on letting it go, but after sitting here for this long, I couldn't take it anymore.

"You gonna tell me what's going on?" I asked.

"What do you mean? Nothing is going on," she quickly answered.

"You've been acting weird all night."

"I have?"

I raised a questioning brow at her.

"OK, I've been acting weird," she admitted.

"Why? Is it about Kyle and his dad?"

After the talk with Kyle, he hadn't been himself for days. He had been hiding out in his room almost all day. Hadn't even come out to play basketball with me. But it was all understandable. He had found out some disappointing information about his father, it's expected that he would feel and act a bit differently.

"No, it's not about Kyle," she answered, "And he's been getting back to himself little by little. Tonight he was back to being the overprotective son."

"That's good to hear," I said, "So if it's not about him, what is it about?"

She kept quiet for a few seconds as if contemplating what she should say.

"I was just thrown off about tonight. This..." she pointed around, "...wasn't what I was expecting."

"Then what were you expecting?"

She sighed and opened up her coat for what I realized was the first time that night. She was wearing jeans and a flowy shirt. I was confused. I didn't see what she was trying to say.

"I don't get it. You look fine. Actually, you look really nice. I don't see what this has to do with..."

And that's when it hit me. She was dressed nicely. Had her hair and make up all done up. She was probably wearing heels too. It was obvious that this wasn't the surprise she expected.

"You thought this was a date," I said rather than asked.

"Yeah," she said before covering her face with her hands, "I'm so embarrassed."

"No, don't. I'm the one that should be feeling bad."

I texted her that there was a surprise and she needed to be ready at seven. What else was she supposed to think?

"No, you shouldn't be. I'm the one that wanted a date so bad that I thought that this was it."

"You wanted to go on a date with me?"

Her eyes widened when she realized what she had said out loud.

"Uh, yeah," she eventually answered.

I grinned.

"For the record, I've been wanting to ask. We talked about taking things slow and I didn't know if asking now would be too soon."

"It's not."

"Well, since that's the case..."

I was about to say more when I heard the clanging sound of a doorknob turning. Kendra and I quickly turned to the door of the room James and Ramona had gone into and saw it opening.

"They're coming out, get the camera!"

Kendra turned off the light in the car as I turned to grab the camera off the back seat.

I turned it on just in time to snap pictures of Ramona stepping out. She closed the door behind her and quickly headed to her car.

"Did you get that?" Kendra asked.

"Yep," I pulled the camera away from my face.

"Why didn't they come out together?"

"They don't want to be seen leaving together. I'm guessing in case someone is doing what we're doing."

"This isn't going to be enough is it?" She frowned.

"Maybe not. All we have is them going into and out of the same room. They can argue that it wasn't the same day and tampered with the dates on the photos. Plus we don't have them in the act. They can say they were doing something else"

Kendra bowed her head in disappointment. We were going to need more evidence if we wanted this story to be epic.

About five minutes later, James stepped out of the room and locked it behind him before heading to his car. I took a few pictures, though I'm sure it won't mean much now.

"Guess it's time to go home," she said disappointingly, turning to get her purse out the back seat, "Better call the babysitter and tell her I'm on my way home."

"Don't do that just yet," I stopped her, "The night's still young. Plus you're already dressed for the occasion."

She turned to me slowly, then looked at me, then away, then back at me again.

"Like hang out?" she finally asked.

I could tell what was on her mind, and I had to make it clear so that the questions running through her mind were answered.

"Kendra Wright, would you go out on a date with me?"

The brightest smile made its way to her face.

"Is it clear that it's an actual date now?"

She chuckled, "Yes it's clear. And yes, I'd love to go on a date with you."

And with that, we sped out of the shady motel's parking lot, out on our first date. 

And here's chapter 28!

Finally got a little break from studying and thought I should come by and give you guys a chapter. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. Don't forget to vote and leave a comment if you can.

Just want to give a little shout out to @missnikanik. I was thinking about you and your sons when writing that scene between Kendra and Kyle lol. 

Don't know when I'll be back to post another chapter, but until then, be safe guys. 

*Goes back to studying*