“So Ally told me you waitress down at Ginos,” he says as he climbs up onto the machine next to me. Not even skipping a beat when he realized I have a kid. “I love that place.”
“Yeah I work a couple of morning and night shifts a week over there. It keeps busy so I’ve been making some pretty good tips. Works out good with my school schedule.” The buzzer on my dryer goes off and I hop down to start folding it. Oh maybe I should’ve waited to do this upstairs. I did just meet the guy, I really don’t want to fold all of my underwear and bras in front of him. Well at least most of it comes from Victorias Secret, no granny panties here.
I start to fold some of my work shirts up and Chase looks at me with a smirk as he bends over and hooks a leopard bra around his pinky that had escaped from the dryer. “I think this is yours.” I snatch it from his hands quickly and toss it on to my pile. “Doesn’t look familiar, I think it came from your pile but it looks about the same size so I’ll keep it.” He crosses his arms over his broad chest. “Hey I’m not that kind of guy,” he looks at me like I offended him. “I don’t do girls laundry, they take it with ‘em.” He laughs and I catch the glint of light off his tongue ring.
Mmmhmm and I bet he has plenty of girls tripping over each other to claw their way to him. “So what are you majoring in?” I quickly change the subject as he tosses his laundry into the dryer.
“Well I’m in my last year actually. I’m majoring in secondary education and minoring in English. My dream job would be to teach English at a high school. It’s always something that’s interested me.” Huh. He definitely doesn’t seem the teaching type as I gaze at his tattoos. They could all be covered up with a long sleeve shirt so I guess there was no problem there. Well he could teach me a thing or two anytime he wanted.
“Really? I couldn’t imagine wanting to go back to high school, having to deal with all the drama. Doesn’t sound like a fun time to me.” He grins back at me, “Well yeah but you’re the teacher so you make the rules or be a dick and give ‘em a year’s worth of detention. I think Ally told me you’re in the nursing program, right?”
“Yep I’ve done some dual enrollment and summer classes too so I’m almost half way through.”
“Wow that’s really impressive. You must be very ambitious.” I shrug my shoulders, “Well I’ve always had to kinda be that way. Neither of my parents are around and I have that little man to take care of. I’ve always just pushed myself harder, I don’t want to end up like my mom. And he deserves a better life than I had.” Chase stares back at me with a hard look likes he’s contemplating the right words to say back to that.
I finish placing my folded clothes into my basket and rest it on my hip. “Well I’m going to head back up, I have a few things to finish up for one my classes.” He grabs the basket from me. “Here let me help you with that I can come back for mine in a little bit.” I gather Caleb up shoving everything back into his backpack. He’s colored pictures for both of us and Chase graciously accepts his scribbled page. “Thanks buddy I’ll hang it up on my fridge.” Hmm he seems to be pretty well with kids too. I think I just met Mr. Perfect. Surely he has a girlfriend.
We head up to my apartment and he sets the basket down on the kitchen counter when we walk in. “So I was wondering if you wanted to come out on Thursday. I have a band that I’m in and we play a few different spots around town. We’re playing at Kilroys bar and grill that night.” Okay soon to be high school teacher, tattoos, good with kids, hot body AND he’s in a band. Isn’t that like every girls dream type rolled into one?
“I don’t get out much with Caleb and I don’t think….” He interrupts me before I can finish my excuse, “Well that’s cool bring him too. It’s not a scummy bar, totally kid friendly I promise, just come on out to see us play.”
“Okay I should be able to make that work. So what kind of band is it, are you guys gonna be big someday and be a major headliner?” He shrugs his shoulder and gives me a crooked grin, “Well I don’t know about that but we’re pretty good. I guess if we had to put a label on it I would consider us like an alternative rock. It’s just kind of a thing that I do to make some extra money while I’m in school, instead of getting a real job to pay the bills I get to play the guitar.
“I wish I could play an instrument and make money off of it instead of running around on my feet all day and night hoping I get left a good tip.”