Right Place, Right Time

"And this guy, Aaron, who's funny, smart, cute, and friendly asks you to join his family for dinner. So, yeah, you've clearly lost it!" Bonnie told her without so much as a hint of a smile.

"Ughhh! Would you be serious?" Kristen said, her frustration showing through.

"I was. Or at least I thought I was being serious," Bonnie told her as a smile turned into a laugh.

"Stop! Did you not hear the part about how much younger he is than me?" Kristen pleaded.

"Um...yes. And?"

"And? What do you mean...and?"

"I mean...so what? He didn't ask you to marry him, Kristen. He asked you to join his family, a family you just helped out, and that was very grateful to you for that help, for dinner. Sorry, but I just don't see the problem."

"Oh, my Lord, Bonnie! Yoo-hoo! What about him telling me how he'd really like to see me again? That's not just having dinner with his family."

Bonnie kind of pursed her lips then glanced over at Kristen before saying, "Yeah. You're right. That is bad. In fact, we'll be going right by the police station. Maybe we should stop in and let you file a stalking report. And while we're there, maybe get a restraining order, too!"

"Gee, thanks—friend," Kristen told her a little too sarcastically.

"You like this guy, don't you?" Bonnie said in a gentler tone of voice.

"Whoa! Like him? I don't even know him!"

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," Bonnie said with a tilt of her head.

"Some friend you are," Kristen replied with the same edge to her voice.

"Look, Kristen. I understand you just met him. I also get that he's younger than you. And yes, because this is the day of your divorce being finalized, I can see you thinking you're gullible by agreeing to do something with the first guy who takes an interest in you."

"Thank you!" her friend replied, the attitudes still there.

"But..."

Bonnie looked over in a sympathetic way then said, "Gavin was a shit. What he did to you, and the way he did it, are unforgivable. But it's done. It's over. Officially. Starting today, you have to start over. And I cannot for the life of me see how agreeing to have dinner with this very warm, tight-knit family—and the very cute guy you met—could be wrong or bad in any way."

Kristen wanted to stay mad at her friend, but she realized she wasn't mad at her at all. She was confused and taking out her frustration on her best friend who was only trying to help.

"It's just dinner, sweetie. If nothing else, why don't you go and let the family feel like they're repaying you for being so helpful?"

"Marvin and Sally really are very nice people."

"Right! And you know you're gonna want to hold that baby."

Just the thought of doing so made Kristen feel warm and happy, and as she imagined holding the little bundle of joy, it made her smile, too.

"Maybe you're right," she said quietly, the image of the sweet baby she pointed out to Aaron at the hospital still in her mind.

"Aren't I always?" Bonnie replied with that serious look again.

"Ha! Yeah, right!"

Bonnie ignored the retort and said, "And what if Aaron turns out to be even nicer than you already think he is?"

"He still won't be any older."

Bonnie held up a hand and pretended she was counting.

"What are you doing?" Kristen asked.

"I'm proving you wrong."

"What?"

"Yep. Aaron will be several days older by Sunday, so...you're wrong!" she told Kristen, again trying not to laugh.

"If you weren't driving, I would so..."

"Hug me and thank me for always having your back?"

After a second or two of silence, Kristen quietly said, "Yes."

"You're a single woman, Kristen. Aaron is a single guy. A nice...single guy. So just go hang out with him and the fam. See how things go. Worst case, you have a nice meal, get to hold a beautiful new baby, and move on."

Kristen latched onto the mention of a baby and began talking about the one she saw through the newborn window.

"I wanted to just eat that sweet little girl up!"

Bonnie again got serious and said, "I know how much you want a baby, hon. At 40, our biological clocks don't just tick, they hammer at us."

"Forty," Kristen said with a sigh. "That was last year."

Bonnie reached over and put her hand on her friend's and said, "Don't give up, okay?"

"That's easy for you to say. You're married and have a child."

"Yes. Yes, I do," was all her friend could say in reply.

As they pulled into the park and found Kristen's car, Bonnie looked over at her BFF and told her again not to give up.

"Sometimes, love is just a matter of being at the right place at the right time. And unless you put yourself out there you can't be at either one."

Kristen gave up trying to argue because she knew Bonnie was right.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," Kristen said as she leaned over to hug her best friend.

"Same here, girl."

"And thank you for listening even when I'm a total bitch."

Bonnie laughed and assured her she'd been nothing of the sort then said, "Not to be too cliché, but today really is the first day of the rest of your life."

"You're right," Kristen told her. "About everything."

Bonnie started to say something like, "Well, duh," but before she could, Kristen shushed her.

"Ah-ah! Don't say it! Not one word."

"Who..moi?" Bonnie asked with extreme feigned incredulity.

"Seriously, though, you are right. This is a new beginning. So I'll go have dinner with the Corbetts and snuggle with that beautiful baby, then try and start putting myself out there."

"Does that include...putting out?" Bonnie asked with a straight face until Kristen gasped.

Bonnie lost it and so did Kristen before they hugged again and told each other 'I love you so much'.

And as Bonnie drove away, Kristen realized that was true. With the exception of her own immediate family that didn't live in Portland, Bonnie was the only person on earth who truly loved her.

And then as Kristen got ready to leave, she sat there with the car idling and pulled out her phone and stared at it for a few seconds then found the number she wanted and hit 'dial'.

When Aaron picked up on the first ring it startled her.

"Kristen? Hi," she heard him say rather pensively.

"Aaron, I...I want to apologize," she began then tried explaining why she left so abruptly.

"No, that's fine. I understand," he told her sincerely.

"I don't know why I felt so confused, but I acted very inappropriately and I really am sorry."

"Forget about that. I'm just glad you called," he replied in a very upbeat tone of voice.

"So...was it a boy or a girl?" Kristen asked, her voice now equally upbeat.

"A boy! I'm an uncle!"

"Ahh! That is so wonderful and congratulations!"

"Thank you. We're all really excited. I'm gonna go out and buy him a baseball bat tomorrow!" Aaron told her.

Kristen laughed a happy laugh that was almost a giggle.

"I'll pick up a little baseball mitt before I come over for dinner," she bubbled before remembering she wasn't sure that was still on the table. "If I'm still invited."

Aaron's reply answered her question.

"Of course you are! I'm really looking forward to seeing you again, Kristen."

"Yes. Me, too," she said rather sweetly before letting him know she was getting ready to drive home.

"Oh, sure. I won't keep you then," Aaron told her. "I'm just really glad you called."

"Yes. Me, too," she said again before asking what time on Sunday.

Aaron told her he'd text her the address and the time once he talked to his mom to make sure on the time—and that they'd be having something other than pot roast.

"That sounds great, Aaron. And thank you again for understanding."

"Are you kidding?" he replied. "This has to have been a really difficult day for you."

"Yes. It...it has. But, well, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been...after meeting you."

Very quickly she added, "And your wonderful family."

"I'll pass that on to them," he told her.

"Okay. Well, bye for now then," she said.

"Bye, Kristen," she heard his gentle voice say just before the phone went dead.

The horrible confusion she'd been feeling was now gone, and as she drove home, she felt...free. Yes, she was free of her former husband. That was true. But it was more than that. For the first time since she learned he no longer found her desirable, she felt happy.

As she thought about potential reasons why, the only one she could come up with was Aaron. His family, too, of course, but he was the one significant thing in her life that had changed from less than 24 hours ago. And as she thought about Bonnie's advice, Kristen realized the worst case scenario was that she'd made a new friend and met a very nice family, and there was nothing bad about that. And especially on a day like today, that was a very good thing.

The following day Kristen smiled when she saw she had a text from Aaron.

"Hi, Kristen. As promised, here's the address and we eat around 5 o'clock on Sundays."

She had a very good idea where the house was, and she didn't think the relatively early time was all that unusual for a Sunday. It was the rest of the text that made her smile.

"I wanted to say something else when you called, but we got onto my nephew, my new favorite topic, btw, and I didn't get a chance to mention this. I did tell you how glad I was you called, and that's true. What I didn't get to say was that I honestly thought I'd somehow offended you at the hospital. I kept racking my brain trying to think of what I could have said to cause you to want to leave so abruptly, but I couldn't come up with anything. As I alluded to when we were there, my sense of humor can be a bit much for some people, and I thought perhaps I came across as a...goof off or worse. Anyway, I'm saying all of this because you made quite an impression on me, and I really am glad you're joining us for dinner."

She read his text a second time then smiled. She thought about texting him back and explaining why she left, but if after thinking about it, she decided not to. Aaron was letting her know in an indirect way that he liked her, and that's what had scared her so badly she'd run away, and there was no way she was going to even mention that.

This time what he said not only didn't make her feel afraid, she even found herself flattered that a guy that attractive and funny could be interested in her like that. It was possible she was misreading his kind words or perhaps reading too much into them, but her intuition told her Aaron's feelings were more than just platonic. And after having talked with Bonnie, that part of her was more than a little bit flattered. It was also very close to forcing her to admit she might also be just a little bit interested in him.

As she sat there trying to sort through her feelings, she decided to text him back without sharing what she was thinking beyond the most basic aspect.

"I can't wait to hold your little nephew! And I want you to know you didn't offend me at all. I think I may off left because, well, you also made quite the impression on me."

She reread what she wrote then added, "I'll see you at 5 o'clock on Sunday!" and hit 'send'.

As soon as she did, Kristen realized she hadn't asked if she could bring anything. She started to ask when Aaron's reply came.

"You have no idea how happy it made me to read your very kind words. Yes, see you on Sunday."

In the end, she decided she'd bring two bottles of wine—one white and one red—no matter what, before laughing when she thought about them being Mormons. After a quick laugh she realized how unlikely that was, but it was at least possible, and bringing wine would be about the same as showing up with snake oil. Then again, the entire family got together for Sunday dinners, so it wasn't completely out of the question.

By 2 o'clock on Sunday, Kristen was also wondering how formal dinner was at the Corbett house. Jeans were out of the question and so was a cocktail dress.

Erring on the side of caution, she chose a cute dress she'd only worn once before. It was solid pink from the waist up but black from the waist down with a pink floral print. It fell to a little below her knees and while the top was very form-fitting the bottom was slightly 'puffy' and loose fitting. With a pair of black flats it would be perfect.

So why then did she choose a pair of 2 1/2" heels instead? She pretended not to know the answer to her own question as she painted her nails the same shade of pink as the dress after getting out of the shower.

After they dried she blow dried her hair until it was almost dry then put it up in large rollers and applied her makeup, matching her glossy lipstick to the shade of her nails.

By 4 o'clock, she was ready to go and thought she looked as nice as she could, which, to her at least, never seemed to be good enough. But the truth was she looked more than good enough, and with a single-stranded silver necklace she looked nice enough to be even be called beautiful.

Kristen rang the doorbell at 5:02 not wanting to show up early or be too late. She felt a little silly holding two bottles of wine, but it was a little too late to worry about that now.

When Aaron answered the door, her heart fluttered. When he smiled at her it did it again.

"Aaron. Hi," she said with a broad, happy smile.

"Hello, and please come in," he told her as he stepped aside.

Kristen thanked him before walking into the older, but-very-nicely-decorated home.

"Oh, these are for you," she said as she nodded toward the bottles she cradling.

"Whew," Aaron said with a straight face. "For a moment I thought you might be a two-fisted drinker."

It took her a second to catch on, but when she did she laughed a happy laugh and assured him she was not.

"I can drink just fine with one hand," she told him, hoping to emulate his sense of humor.

Aaron laughed and said, "Beautiful and funny. Nice," as he relieved her of her cargo.

As he did, he told her she looked amazing, and the way he looked at her when he said it caused another flutter.

"Thank you," she told him as he asked her to follow him into the kitchen.

As she did, she heard the sound of adult voices and some laughter before hearing a baby's cry.

"Someone can't wait for dinner," Aaron said as he leaned her way a little.

"Oh! Poor thing!"

"Let me reintroduce you then we'll go see Mini Me."

Before she could ask him to explain, Marvin and Sally saw her and stopped talking.

"Well, hello there, young lady!" Marvin boomed.

"Hello yourself, handsome!" Kristen told him as he gave her a polite hug.

"Don't you look beautiful!" Sally said as she waited her turn to give their guest a hug of her own.

"You were right, bud!" Kristen heard Marvin say to his son with a wink as he looked at her.

"I uh, I kind of mentioned I thought you were, um, well, a very attractive woman."

Kristen opened her eyes in surprise but she was actually thrilled to hear him say that. She knew was as least considered attractive when dressed up nicely, but she also knew she was only in the 'slightly above average' category otherwise. And as she looked at Aaron, she was very well aware he was in the 'way above average' category regardless of what he was wearing, and she had to admit the dark-green button-down shirt he was wearing with khaki-colored pants looked very nice on him.

"Well, thank you. Both," she replied with a kind of curtsy. "And may I say you look quite dapper yourself."

"You may," Aaron told her, again without a smile.

Kristen laughed then said to Marvin, "Does he ever let up?"

"No. Not really," the older man said. "Well, when he's asleep maybe."

"Oh, I see," Kristen replied with a smile, never taking her eyes off Aaron.

He then extended his elbow for her take and told her they should go upstairs and see the baby.

"Yes, please!" she said immediately and excitedly. "And what's with the 'Mini Me' thing?"

"Oh, that. Well...let me explain," Aaron told her as she looped her arm in his.

As they headed toward the stairs, Aaron shared Ginger's decision to name her baby after her brother and Kristen was genuinely moved.

"That is so sweet! And from what I know, I think she made a very good choice."

Aaron laughed politely, then as they reached the top of the stairs asked, "So I really did make a reasonably good impression on you?"

Kristen returned his glance, smiled and said, "Yes. Very much so."

The crying had stopped, so both Aaron and Kristen rightly assumed Ginger might be breast feeding. Aaron tapped on the open bedroom door and let his sister know Kristen was there.

"Oh my goodness! Please ask her to come in!"

"Are you..."

"He only eats a tiny amount and he's already full," Ginger quietly replied as she covered her bare breast.

He turned to Kristen then said, "After you."

As she stepped into the bedroom, Kristen's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Oh, my heavens! What a beautiful little boy!" she said as she bent down to hug Ginger.

"Thank you," Ginger replied before asking Kristen if she'd like to hold him.

"Are you kidding! Yes! Yes, please!" she said as Ginger carefully wrapped the loose end of his blanket around him.

Making extra sure to put a hand behind his head, Kristen took him from his mother like he was made of solid gold.

"Oh, my goodness! You are just SO sweet! Yes, you are!" she cooed as she pulled his little face next to hers.

"He's amazing!" she said to Ginger.

"Just not at 3am," the tired-but-happy new mother replied.

"Oh, I bet," Kristen agreed as she cradled the newborn and gently rocked him in her arms.

Aaron stepped up beside her, put a hand in the middle of her back then looked over her shoulder at his nephew, his face right next to Kristen's.

"Hey big guy! You doin' okay?"

The baby's eyes were fixed on Kristen's face, and he paid no attention to his uncle.

Aaron gently ran his hand up and down the middle of Kristen's back as he said, "I don't blame you, buddy. I'd rather look at her than me, too."

Kristen laughed happily, and Ginger said, "I never really got to see you at the park or even in the hospital, so I had no idea you were so pretty."

"Oh. Um...thank you! That is so sweet."

"No. It's true. Aaron told us you were beautiful, but we were all kind of busy with some minor little detail like me having a baby," Ginger said with a laugh.

As she stood there holding baby Aaron, his Uncle Aaron still right next to her, Kristen felt almost overwhelmed with joy. She was happy, to be sure, but the feelings she was experiencing were more than fleeting happiness, and she wanted to hold on to them as long as she could. She also wanted to hold onto little Aaron as long as she could and asked Ginger if she like some relief.

"Oh, my heavens, yes!" she replied without hesitation. "That would be SO nice!"

"Is it okay if we take him downstairs?" she asked his mother.

"Yes. Definitely. I may even try and lay down for a few minutes."

"Well, you rest and we'll take very good care of this sweet little boy," she assured his mother.

"Just wake me up for dinner if I fall asleep, okay?" Ginger asked Aaron.

"Will do," he told her as he moved to the side to let Kristen turn around.

"Can you steady me when we go downstairs?" she asked when they got to them.

"Sure. My pleasure," he told her with a smile.

Aaron put his hand on her elbow for support in the very unlikely event she lost her balance, and when they got to the bottom, Kristen turned and looked at him.

She smiled warmly and thanked him. When she did, Aaron also felt a kind of 'flutter' only his was in a very different place. He had no idea he was staring until Kristen asked him if everything was okay.

"Oh. Sure. I...I didn't mean to stare. You're just...well, you really are beautiful, Kristen."

Now it was her turn to stare at him as she stood there maybe a foot away. Even in her heels, she was still a good three inches shorter than Aaron, and as he smiled at her, her heart began beating fast.