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When Dale called me on Thursday night, I was utterly flustered in a good way. However, when he called me at 10:00 pm on Friday night, it fulfilled a secret craving that had only reared itself occasionally in my lifetime.
Dale made me feel thoroughly desired, appreciated, and needed. Things no man had ever entirely been able to accomplish.
We chatted about our day: Him telling me about the crazy fifth graders who kept leaving cold spaghetti noodles in his office drawers and me telling him about the call center representatives I had to deal with who thought I was crazy.
We chatted about our kids: Him telling me about how his twins decided to paint his sandwich with shoe polish thinking that it was like the dye Mrs. Dalton had used on their food and me telling him about how Mazie decided to paint Mandy's face with my favorite lipstick. Etc. Etc.
The conversation could be described in one word- gratifying.
While making plans for another call on Saturday at 10:00 pm, we decided to make it a ritual until we became annoyed with each other's company. Which he assured me was never going to happen.
I was not as confident considering how often my ex used to inform me that my personality just didn't mix well with others.
Saturday morning to kill time I decided to take the kids to the local aquarium. I figured the distraction would help me avoid counting the minutes till 10:00 pm. (At 8:00 am, that added up to 840 minutes.)
Surprisingly, while walking through the section marked "The Fish of the Amazon," we ran into one of the moms from the PTA. Appearing friendly for the most part, I decided to stop and exchange pleasantries in the hopes of building relationships that would help me be an active mom in my girls' education.
"Hi! Isn't your name Polly Wilcox?" I asked a woman with dark hair and glasses.
"I am Polly. Don't I know you from the open house?"
"That's right. Only I don't think we were ever formally introduced. My name is Kelly Jenkins, and these are my girls Mandy and Mazie. Are these your boys?"
"One of them is." Pointing to a strawberry blonde boy about the age of seven she said, "The little boy by the piranhas with the reddish hair is my son Tyler, and the boy next to him is Peyton. He belongs to my friend Trish, who's also here but had to run to the restroom."
"Are you originally from Danville? I've lived in Cecil County for the last 17 years, so I feel like I don't quite know anyone in town."
"Born, raised, and only left for college. As far as getting to know people, we'll have to remedy that. I'm on the PTA welcome committee, but apparently, I'm not doing my job correctly.
"My goal was to try to contact each of the parents with children entering kindergarten and invite them to our monthly pizza fundraiser, but I guess I must have forgotten to copy you on the welcome email. Since I'm waiting on Trish anyway, why don't you text me your email address to my phone number and I'll send you a copy of the last three newsletters?"
Just as I was hitting send on my text to Polly, Trish approached us. "This place is so disgusting! The bathroom must be across from the bait room because the smell of dead fish is wafting through the room," she said incredulously. "Please tell me you're ready to leave, Polly."
"I think the boys are about ready," Polly said sweetly, even though her admission wasn't reflecting itself in her eyes. "But before we leave, Trish have you met Kelly Jenkins? Her daughter Mazie just entered kindergarten at Danville Elementary."
"Pleasure to meet you. Patricia Samson," Trish said with a face that said that meeting me was the opposite of pleasure. "Now can we go? I want to have time to get ready for dinner with Dale. You know Dale Wilson right Kelly? He's the principal over at Danville Elementary. "
And then my heart broke into a million pieces.
In shock, I said, "Um, I've seen him around. He seems like a nice man. Have you been dating long?"
"Not yet, but I'm sure after tonight we will be quite exclusive," she said with a tone that screamed ‘MINE!'
"Well, I guess we'll let you get going then," I said trying to hide my hurt. "It was lovely meeting the two of you. Thanks again Polly for forwarding those newsletters to me."
Plastering a fake smile to my face and willing myself to focus only on my girls and not my broken dreams, I hurried through the remaining exhibits so that I could find somewhere far away from Patricia Samson and her happy existence. Finding solace at the nearby bookstore, I was able to give the kids some playtime before we finished up our day with some gourmet grilled cheese and headed home.
When we finally made it home, Mandy was so exhausted from her day of fun, that she went to bed in record time and Mazie was thankfully not too far behind.
At 9:30 pm, I finally let my devastation take ahold while treating myself to a nice cold beer from my uncle's brewery.
How did I not see this coming? We never said we were exclusive and I did tell him he had to wait till December before I could make time for him. Plus, Trish looked like a modern-day blonde Donna Reed, and I was more like the overweight sidekick of a rom-com, so I could see her appeal.
But, then again, he always made me feel like I was the only one. Like I was somehow designed for him. How could that be when he had been dating Trish?
Sucked into my vortex of self-pity, I almost miss the annoying buzzing sound coming from the coffee table in front of me. Worried that it might be my mom, I answered without even looking at the caller ID.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Kelly?"
"Oh, it's you!"