Eli...

"So, where are we going?" Kendra asked, unable to keep still in the seat

"It's a surprise," I stated and she raised a brow at me, "We're not going to spy on Rich people having affairs in creepy motels this time, I promise."

"We better not be."

It took us only fifteen minutes to get to our destination.

"Barry's bar," she smiled getting out of the car once I stopped.

"You were supposed to wait for me to open the door for you," I said stepping out of the car, "This is a date remember."

"Listen, I'm a grown woman, I can open my own car doors," she flung her purse over her shoulders and sashayed over to the bar entrance, me checking her out as she did. "And look, I can also open my own doors," She smiled and pushed the door open, walking in.

I had a feeling this was going to be a good night.

I followed her in and once inside, we both headed towards the bar.

"Eli, my man," Barry said once he spotted me.

"Barry, hey," I greeted, "How's it been?"

"I can't complain. Happy to see one of my favorite customers."

"Oh stop," I said waving him off before taking a seat at the counter.

"Speaking of favorite customers, where's the other one?"

"He's at home I think. You may not be seeing him here anymore, he's about to be a married man."

"Married? Already?"

I turned to Kendra, "See, we're not the only ones that think it's quick."

"Well, I wish him luck," Barry said.

"Me too," I replied, "By the way, Barry, this is my date Kendra," I added with a grin.

He leaned over the counter. "The same Kendra Alex teases you about having a thing for?"

I chuckled and looked away.

"So it is," he teased, "Finally had the guts to ask her out."

"So you and Alex talk about me huh?" Kendra asked.

"And me too," Joe added, "Whenever he's in here he goes on and on about you."

"Oh really?" she looked at me with a raised brow

"Yep. He talks about how awesome you are and how he thinks you're the best journalist and mother to your kid."

"Awww," she said.

"And he says how you're generous and kind and the bravest person he knows."

"Are you going to tell her everything I've said about her?" I asked.

"Yes he will," Kendra said before turning back to Barry, "What else did he say about me?"

"He thinks you're really pretty," Barry said and her eyes lit up in excitement, "He said, and I quote 'She is beautiful and she has the finest body I have ever seen'," he imitated, moving funnily to every word he said.

Kendra burst out laughing at his impression of me.

"I did not say it like that," I defended.

"Yes, you did. And you bit your lips when you said it too, like this," he proceeded to mimic me again.

Kendra started laughing harder. And for a second, I didn't mind being made fun of.

"Can you get us a drink please?" I asked, trying to get rid of him.

"That's not gonna stop me from telling her everything you said."

"I think she's had enough for now," I pointed over to Kendra, who couldn't seem to stop laughing.

"When he starts boring you to death, let me know, I'll come back and tell you more stories," he said to her.

"Will do," she answered through her giggles.

We ordered our drinks and talked while we waited.

"What's gonna be our next step for this piece?" I asked.

"I don't know. I'll have to talk to Iris, she'll know what to do," she answered then sighed, "I still feel like she should be the one writing it."

"Why? You're a great writer."

"But I've never written something like this before. What if I don't do it right?"

"Kendra, you're gonna do great," I tried to reassure her.

"And what if I do, do great? What if it's so good that they hate me and I get a lot of backlash from people? Iris has tough skin, she can handle it. Me on the other hand, that's a different story. And I have a child. What if those boys go after Kyle again?"

She was beginning to panic as all the possibilities started popping up in her head.

"Kendra," I said grabbing her hands, "Everythings going to be fine."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

"That's cause he thinks you're really strong, he said that one time," Barry said placing our drinks in front of us.

I sent him a glare while Kendra giggled again.

"Fine, I'll leave," he said to me before leaving to attend to his other customers.

I turned back to Kendra in time to see the smile on her face drop.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I just realized something. How would their boys feel when this story gets out?" She asked.

Leave it to her to think about how this would affect the children.

"And what about Ramona's husband?" She whispered, "What's he gonna do when he finds out?"

An encounter months ago appeared in my mind.

"He might already know," I said and Kendra looked at me confused, "When Kyle and I first went out to play basketball, we saw Myles and his father there. The man was not the nicest to his son. What if he was lashing out on his son because he knew something?"

Kendra sighed, and a guilty look made its way to her face.

"Are you having second thoughts?" I asked.

She nodded.

Maybe writing exposes wasn't her thing after all.

"How about we stop talking about work?"

"Ok," she said, relieved to be moving to another topic.

Before we had a chance to talk about something else, her phone started ringing. She quickly pulled it out of her purse.

"Its Kyle," she said worriedly before answering, "Hey sweetie, is everything ok?"

I watched as her face went from a worried look to an annoyed one.

"Yes Kyle, I'm still with Eli...I don't know what time I'll be getting home...Excuse me?...Kyle I am the parent, you are the child, you don't give me curfews."

That line got a chuckle out of me.

"Fine," she sighed, "I'll be home before eleven...goodnight sweetie. And get to bed, you have school in the morning."

With that, she hung up the phone and held her finger up at me.

"Don't even start."

"I didn't say anything," I said trying to hold a laugh in.

"But you were going to. And you better not laugh either."

"You just got checked up on by your kid. You have to admit that's kind of funny."

"It's not when you're the parent," she said then playfully slapped my arm when I chuckled.

"Ok, I'll stop," I held my hands up, "You said he's been doing better since the talk?" I asked, getting back to a serious mood

"Yeah," she answered, "But he's not quite back to himself. All this..." she pointed to her phone "...has gotten worse. Always calling to see where I am. And he hasn't slept in his bed since that night either. He's gotten really clingy."

"You did cry a lot that night, he's probably just worried about you," I said.

"Yeah. And maybe reality just hit him."

"What do you mean?" I looked at her questioningly.

"I think he always hoped his dad would show up. Now, it's all finally hit him that I'm the only parent he has. So he's getting a little overprotective."

I nodded. "That makes sense."

She said nothing in response and I watched as she made that thinking face.

"What's on your mind?" I asked, grabbing her hand to get her attention.

"I was just thinking about how I didn't want this for him. I knew what it was like not having a father around, I didn't want my son to feel that."

"You never talk about him, your dad," I pointed out.

Like Anthony, her dad seemed to be like a forbidden topic, and I had stayed clear from asking about it.

"He and my mom grew up in a bad area in Brooklyn. Told themselves they were gonna live better than they grew up. But, it seems that simply being a lawyer and being married to a freakin' doctor wasn't enough. I don't remember much about him. All I knew was that he left. I can't really pinpoint a time, I just remember seeing him less and less. Mom and I had planned on not ever talking about him again but I got curious and started digging a few years ago. He remarried some bigshot white lady, had kids, became the big lawyer he always wanted. It's like he moved on with his life and pretended I didn't exist anymore."

I watched the pain in her face and I wished that there was more than I could do than just hold her hand.

"I'm sorry," she said, wiping a tear that had escaped, "I didn't mean to talk about my non-existent relationship with my dad when you probably have a good one with yours."

"Well..." I said taking a sip of my drink.

"You have daddy issues too?" She asked and I chuckled.

"No, not really. He didn't leave me or anything. But we do have a complicated relationship."

"About what? If you don't mind me asking."

Another reminder of the secret I was keeping from her. I wanted to be able to tell her who I really was and not have it matter. But I couldn't shake the feeling that it would. Now I knew that this rule she had wasn't just about one man that abandoned her for power, it was about two. But I couldn't just say nothing when she just poured her heart out.

"Things were actually good with us when I was a child. He and my mom were kind of soft on me, let me do what I want."

"I could tell" she grinned.

I smirked, but continued my story "And I liked having that kind of freedom. But lately, he's been wanting me to give up photography to take on a more...prominent job. A job that would help out our entire family. But..."

"You don't want to give up what you love?"

I nodded, "Photography is everything to me. The year I got a camera for my birthday changed my life forever. I promised myself I wouldn't give it up, for anything. But he doesn't understand that. So for years, he's been trying to convince me to take this job, and he's not letting up. It's put a wrench in our relationship."

"Well, at least yours cares enough to help you get a job," she said, looking down.

We stayed silent for a while, the weight of our conversations settling it. I felt like my story was too vague, I was afraid she would have follow-up questions and I would have to lie.

"We're really bad at dates," she finally spoke with a chuckle, "We're not supposed to be talking about sad stuff."

I smiled back, "You're right. From now on, we only talk about fun stuff. Agreed?" I held up the glass to her.

"Agreed," she hit her glass against mine.

And that was what we did for the rest of the night, talk about fun stuff. We talked about our crazy college days, or lack thereof, our crazy best friends, our crazy mothers. There were some tears, but it was all because we were laughing too hard. We got so caught up that we almost didn't make it back to her apartment in time for Kyle's curfew.

I wanted to kiss her, and you best believe that I tried. But her newly clingy son had opened the front door when our lips were mere millimeters apart. I ended up with a kiss on the cheek instead. Had to take what I could.

This wasn't how I imagined our first date would be. I was going to go all out, and take her to a fancy restaurant and then to an art gallery. It was supposed to be classy and sophisticated and she was supposed to be wearing a really tight black dress.

But I must admit, this first date was better than the one I imagined.

And I couldn't wait to have more dates with her.

I know, I know, it's been a while. School has been taking up A LOT of time, and it's been hard trying get the inspiration to write. But I just had to come on and reward your patience with me. So, thank you all so much for reading. If you liked it, don't forget to vote and leave a comment. And even if you didn't like it, leave me a comment and let me know how I can improve.

Until next time...which may be a while from now, but it's coming.