Sophia Pt. 03

The club was busy, but it wasn't packed because it was a Thursday night. That was nice because that meant we had lots of room on the dance floor. My waltzing had improved enough that I wasn't ashamed, but I was still a beginner when it came to the Tango, and forget the other stuff. Since Vanessa was my primary practice dance partner, we put on a good showing on the dance floor. That short red dress came close to giving me a heart attack on more than one occasion, especially when she went into a twirl. Maybe Maria is a better dancer, but for this crowd Vanessa was pretty hot stuff and she was collecting a huge group of admirers.

Whenever we sat down, someone would almost always come over to the table to chat. Even the owner stopped by; Eva was a nice person. She is only a year or two older than I am and already owned such a successful establishment. We ended up staying until midnight even though we had originally planned on remaining only until eleven. We were having such a good time that we decided to stay until closing. In fact, almost everyone there stayed until about the same time. When I tried to settle up our bar bill, I was told that everything was on the house. I left a big tip for our waiter, though. While I was getting our coats, I noticed Vanessa having a last brief conversation with Eva. Eva handed her something and then walked away.

Vanessa was almost bubbling on the ride back to my apartment. "We knocked them dead tonight, Don. You done good!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Boy, you really are unobservant, aren't you? Why did you think everyone was staring at us? Why do you think that everyone was coming by our table to chat?"

"Because you're beautiful and a great dancer, why else?"

"Well, thank you for the nice compliment, but that is only part of the answer. You're pretty good looking yourself now; in fact you're more than a bit hot. You didn't notice; did you, that over half the people that visited our table were women? We looked pretty good on the dance floor. You don't know many dances or moves yet, but what you do know you've got down cold. On top of that, we were obviously having a blast on the dance floor. That kind of thing is infectious; why do you think everyone stayed until closing? We made the place exciting. The owner put all our drinks on the house tonight because she knew we were bringing in business. In fact, she gave me a couple of VIP cards as we were leaving. We've got special parking privileges, no cover charge and a ten percent discount on everything. I've been here many times, Don, with some pretty good dancers, and I've never been treated this way before. You like your old movies, Don – well, for tonight we were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers."

I was more than a bit blown away by Vanessa's enthusiastic speech, but I was certain she had it wrong. You don't go from being a cuckolded dork to Fred Astaire in a few short months. But at least I didn't embarrass myself and that is something to be proud of.

Vanessa dropped me off at home and then drove off to her own apartment. For a work night we had been out awfully late.

………………………………………

I was so upset I couldn't do anything but cry and pound the pillows on my bed. The first person to have a private dinner at Don's apartment should have been me! The first person to take Don dancing should have been me! It will be only worse if Vanessa and Don have a great time. And it was my own damn fault. I was too cowardly to take him on a practice date, what if someone I knew saw us and called me that horrible nickname? I was just too well known in Seattle's social scene. Why did I have live down to my old reputation after my divorce from Richard? People had forgotten the old me. With Robert, that asshole, he had his own sexual skeletons in the closet and hadn't dared cast stones. But with Saint Don, I would be too ashamed if he found out.

Vanessa, Kathy and Freddie were right, for the benefit of Don's ego, he had to go out and see how much progress he has been making. BUT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME! IT IS SO UNFAIR! And I broke down again, sobbing into my pillow.

…………………………………........

Vanessa got back to her own apartment and she was completely beside herself. She didn't know what to do. The evening had been almost magical, even with an upset stomach caused by her gluttony. And Don had been so sweet and considerate about it, pretending to be busy on the computer.

She started to dance across her apartment floor, pretending to be once again in Don's arms. In her head she heard the music again and danced two complete numbers. But then she suddenly stopped.

There could be trouble at that dance club. So many of the women there had been looking at Don with hungry eyes, and Eva, the owner of the club, could very well be the worst of the bunch. Don had let something slip about being only friends with Vanessa and when Eva had sought to confirm that with her, she had to reluctantly admit the truth. That was why Eva gave them two VIP cards, one for her and one for Don so they could use them separately. But Vanessa had kept Don's card and hadn't given it to him. Better to keep temptation away, she thought. There had been something in Eva's eyes when she looked at Don, which I hadn't liked one little bit.

But, Vanessa had to admit to herself that she had been bad, too. She had strongly hinted during her dinner conversation with Don about how she would enjoy going on a dive vacation with him. She could easily imagine walking down a tropical beach with Don, hand in hand. Stop it, stop it Vanessa, she told herself, you promised Maria. She deserves the first shot at Don. Remember the way that Don has his guest bedroom set up for Maria? Don't go poaching!

She started to idly caress her jewelry and thought, but Don had bought me such an expensive and wonderful presents for Christmas. A dive vacation to maybe Hawaii would really not be all that expensive and I really should repay him with a gift of equal value. It would only be fair, just a couple of work out buddies going on a dive trip together……….. Hell, that is a TERRIBLE lie to tell myself, good thing I'm so easily fooled.

Running to her computer, she signed onto her favorite travel sites and started to investigate available dive packages.

………………………………..…….

I had everyone meet at Don's apartment for the drive to my home. I wanted to be sure to that I would be riding with MY Don (the hell with farting around about it!) and my girls. I was done with denying the truth to myself. Somehow, someway I would make Don mine. I would continue to go slowly, and I didn't care how long it might take, but he was going to be MINE. Vanessa was supposed to be driving my SUV with Kathy and Freddie as passengers, but at the last moment Vanessa switched out and Freddie drove. I almost objected, but stopped myself; Freddie wasn't that bad a driver and I was fully insured. Time to calm down, I'm with my family.

As I got in Don's SUV, I was more than a bit disconcerted. Vanessa had kept giving Don glances, filled with a little too much tenderness, in my opinion. I hoped it was only my paranoid imagination, but I couldn't be sure.

"Don, how did your practice date go with Vanessa?"

"Vanessa said that it went very well, but I'm not so sure, she might have been saying that just to boost the old ego. I'm pretty confident that I did nothing embarrassing and, for my first practice date, that is good enough for me."

I didn't know how to react to his answer. IT DIDN'T GIVE ME ANY INFORMATION, DAMN IT! Vanessa could indeed by lying to protect Don's fragile ego or Don could be vastly understating things because of his low self esteem!

"What did you do?" Let's see him dodge that question!

"We had dinner, and then we went dancing, just like we planned," Don said with an absent minded shrug to his shoulders. I'm going to have to kill him! Thankfully, I was saved from a long prison term by my two allies in the back seat. Don's ambivalent answers seemed to be driving them insane, too!

"Dad, you're being too much of a dumb man! We want specifics, and if we don't get them we will make you sorry." Megan stated forcefully.

"Yeah, Daddy, give us all the juicy stuff, or no kisses for a month!" Threatened Robin.

"It was just a practice date with Vanessa, for Pete's sake! Don't make a big deal about it!"

At the same time that I said "Don….," in a threatening tone, my girls said "Dad….," and we harmonized.

"Okay, okay, give a guy a chance. It was all pretty boring. Vanessa came by the apartment, I showed her around and we ate dinner. She drove us in her new car. That is a pretty slick ride. You know me, Mister Practical, but I felt more than a bit of lust for that Mustang," he continued. Hmmm, maybe I would have to buy him one. I've rarely heard Don express any avarice over any material possessions besides tools.

"We got to the club and we danced; it was nice dancing to a live band. Several people came to our table to chat, and even the owner stopped at our table frequently. Eva, the owner, seemed to be a nice lady, about the same age as us. We stayed later than we had originally planned. We had gotten there late and we were having fun, so we decided to stay until midnight."

They were having fun?!!

"When we left, I found out the owner had given us all our drinks on the house, which was nice, but we really only had a couple of alcoholic drinks and everything else was just soda water with a twist. Then in the car Vanessa told me that Eva had given us two VIP cards. Vanessa said something about us being exciting enough that we held the other customers there until closing. She even said we were almost like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for the night. Now don't tell her that I said this, because she seemed thrilled with that VIP card, but that is utter nonsense. While she is a beautiful woman and a very good dancer, I'm not Fred Astaire and there is no way that we could hold a bunch of people in a club until closing."

SHIT! It was worse than I had thought. I exchanged stunned looks with Megan, who seemed to partially understand her father's accomplishment, but Robin didn't seem to get it at all. I had met Eva and she was an aggressive and greedy woman - she didn't give away anything for free. For Don and Vanessa to have been that successful on the dance floor, there must be strong chemistry between the two of them, especially since Don is still a complete novice. Hell, I had been a professional dancer and I had never been given a VIP card to that club! I wanted to burst out crying again and I couldn't do it here, not in front of Don, Megan and Robin.

Don saved me by pulling out the Yahtzee game; he never seemed to put a CD in the player anymore, good thing - I don't think I could have sung a note.

…………………………………….

Meanwhile, in the super secret spy car of the PDA Security Directorate, Sister D-day, Flounder and…… Screw it; Freddie, Kathy and Vanessa were talking in Maria's SUV about basically the same thing. Vanessa had already told them about the same events that Don related to Maria, but she continued.

"Guys, I've got a big problem and I feel absolutely terrible about it. I've been seeing Don a lot lately, almost as much as Maria. We've been getting along together really well at my gym. Last night was almost magical with both of us on the dance floor, like you see in those old movies that Don enjoys. Everyone was watching us, and we were on center stage. I know that Maria has first shot at him, but I've nearly completely fallen for Don. After I got home from our date, I almost booked a dive vacation for the two of us, except I didn't plan on any diving. I planned on romantic evenings and walks on the beach. It was only at the last minute with my credit card out that I stopped myself. I didn't even have Don's knowledge or permission. He hasn't been diving any place nice for years, and he really misses it. I was going to present him with a fait accompli and give him some bullshit line about a friend cancelling out on me and I didn't want to see the money go to waste. Don would have bought it, too; he's a trusting and frugal guy. He would hate to see a few thousand dollars go down the drain. Please don't tell Maria, she's the one that believed in me when I was left flat broke and invested in my club. I'm so sorry, PLEASE don't tell her!" Vanessa started to cry softly.

Kathy spoke, "I think we have all been spending too much time with Don lately. We've been so concerned about Maria's happiness that we've forgotten about our own. I'm still fitting in the occasional real date, but you two have become fixated on Don. Hell, I agree with you that he is mighty fine catch, but as the saying goes, 'there are other fish in the sea'. It is time that you two got on with your lives. It wouldn't hurt things if you were to stay home one of these weekends and go out and meet some guys. You've devoted almost all your weekends for the past four months to Maria. Live a little - we all owe Maria, but she isn't going to hate us if we want to go off on our own. In fact, there are some mighty cute guys still skiing at the lodge. During other ski seasons we've had them falling all over themselves to get close to us. It's time for us to get back into action. Do you all agree with me?"

Vanessa gave it her best effort, but her "agreed" came out a little flat. Kathy was willing to take that as a victory, though.

Freddie started to speak, "I agree with you, but I'm still going to help Maria and Don. Personally, I'm looking forward to my practice dates with Don; I think that they will be fun, especially with his cooking. So far we've devoted four months to this project and I'm willing to give it a couple more before I start getting antsy. I owe Maria and she is my dear friend, plus I really like Don. I'm not saying you two have to do what I do, but that's the way I feel."

Vanessa replied, "I completely agree with you, Freddie. I just have to put my feelings for Don aside. But, as you pointed out, Kathy, it is also time that I start dating again."

"Okay that sounds like a plan; we'll give it our all for at least two more months, but we also try to fit some dating action back into our own lives."

"However, there is something else I think you two should consider. When we informed Don that we would be setting him up with real dates, it completely devastated him. He must have been thinking that after the kiss he got from Maria he had a chance with her. So here we all come, including Maria, telling him that we are going to set him up with other women. In Don's mind he must think that no woman that is romantically interested in him would set him up on a date with another woman. Thus, by his thinking, Maria must not be romantically interested in him, and he has been depressed ever since."

"The same exact thing applies to the three of us. While Don was primarily attracted to Maria, we are three single attractive women and who had been flirting with him for a couple of months. He has been alone for almost three years; he wouldn't be human if he hadn't considered the possibility that, while things might not work out with Maria, perhaps one of us might be attracted to him. Suddenly we burst his bubble and tell him about fixing him up with other women and, just like Maria hurt his feelings, we did, too."

Vanessa exclaimed, "Oh, no!" and suddenly got sick to her stomach and almost asked Freddie to pull the car over so she could throw up. If they hadn't been following Don's SUV she would have. She would just have to do her best to swallow her gorge back down.

Freddie simply said, "Oh, Shit!" which caused Kathy to nod her head in agreement.

"Yeah, and I am the one that came up with this idiocy of setting Don up on real dates. I haven't a clue how I could have missed such an obvious pit fall, but we're stuck with it now. We could have gotten similar results with a lot less heartache if I had never mentioned it at all. We could have just had

Don take us on a whole lot of practice dates, then have Maria turn one of her practice dates into the real thing. Maria has enough brains and kindness to take Don's lack of sexual expertise in stride and teach him gently, and Don has enough brains and kindness not to take offense at being instructed in sex. I think I was too focused on Maria's 'Scarlet Woman' obsession." But, as I said, we're stuck with this plan for right now. There is no way I can take back what I said about real dates without explaining to Don that Maria is romantically interested in him, and she is just not ready herself for Don to know that."

………………………………….….

Normal weekend at Maria's home, not! Everyone was perfect with my babies and we did the same things, but around me the ladies were acting as strange as a gopher in a space suit. Nothing rude was ever said to me, but their body language, tone of voice and facial expressions made me feel like I was a test subject for psychological experiments.

At times I felt Maria was angry with me, other times apologetic or sad. Vanessa alternated between sad and, if I didn't know she had no romantic interest in me, I would have had to say she was acting timidly affectionate. Freddie, the queen of fun, spontaneity and being laid back, was almost frantically running between Maria and Vanessa. She would occasionally stop and spend some time with me, always giving me warm hug as if trying to reassure me about something.

Kathy was the only one to behave consistently. She consistently acted pissed at herself for almost the entire weekend. I almost went home as I was going so crazy with the situation, but my four beautiful friends behaved normally around my girls. So, I just grinned and bore the confusion - it was a good thing I never leave home without some Zantac tablets.

For the first time ever, I saw some of my friends trying to socialize with other people on the slopes and at the lodge. Maria was always close at hand; Kathy was the biggest social butterfly. Freddie seemed to try a couple of times to meet new people, but then she gave up and returned to just hang out with Maria, my girls and me. Vanessa was behaving more than a bit odd. She would start to converse with some guy, look up see us and suddenly hurry back to rejoin our group, almost as if she were doing something she felt guilty about.

I saw the end of another furious discussion, this time between Freddie and Maria, as I came down the stairs Sunday morning. That breakfast was more than a bit strange. When I walked in the kitchen I found Vanessa hard at work making breakfast; she's never cooked for us before. The table was set and the ingredients for the meal were setup by the range. She must have gotten up at least a half an hour early.

She was making omelets and took our orders for what we wanted in them. Megan was still barely awake, so Robin grinned as she translated Megan's mumblings into "ham, Swiss cheese, and onions". When Vanessa was putting mine on the plate, she had such a look of concentration on her face that I thought she was performing brain surgery. And, as usual when you're trying your best like that, sometimes things can go wrong. It broke in half and part of it fell on the floor. She was so upset I thought she was going to cry. I knew what was going on - I had made so many tasty meals for her that she wanted to return the favor, and now the dumb omelet broke. I felt so bad for her; it took a few minutes for me to calm her down as I gave her a hug and rubbed her back. It was funny for just a split second there when I turned and looked back at the kitchen table over Vanessa's shoulder and I saw Maria with a shocked expression on her face. When she locked eyes with me her expression cleared and she quickly got up to help clean the mess from the floor. She must have been angry about that, but messes sometimes just happen. It was probably just a bad morning for her, maybe PMS.