Follow ups and New Plans

By the time I got home tonight, Neil had left an voicemail on my phone, asking if we could try to hook up and talk about some things. I didn't want to ask my neighbor to watch Kara again so soon after the last time - I love her dearly, but she has to be taken in small doses.

While I'm fixing dinner, I'm thinking about whether or not I want him to come over. He's the first guy I've seriously dated since I left Christopher. By the time I finished cooking, I decided that we would have to work things out over the phone. Hopefully he'll understand.

I helped Kara with her bath and let her play on the computer for awhile - after issuing a very stern warning about trying to hack into the DOJ's computers to get information on her father - and sat down to place the return call to Neil.

He picked up the phone on the first ring. He was breathing heavily as if he had been working out. That would account for all those muscles I saw bulging under his shirt.

"Hi Neil."

"Hey Terra." Man, his voice is just fantastic. "I wanted to apologize again for the other night. I shouldn't have left like that."

"True...very true. But had you waited I could have told you that it was someone calling me from my other job."

"Oh. I thought it might have been, um....."

"Another man?"

"Yeah. So, um, can we try this again? And you put your other job on notice?"

I laughed and thought about it. Why not? I agreed and we went ahead and set up our arrangements to hook up later on in the week.

*sigh* I really shouldn't have even started this relationship. How will I explain to him about what I really am? And about my ex?

I sat down and took a deep breath. I could hear Kara still tapping away on the keyboard. While she was still occupied, I could move on to my next problem.

I need to try to talk to Leroy tomorrow. He's been unusually quiet. Not that he's somebody that's loud and rowdy, but he usually stops in to say hi. He even took off Friday without saying anything in advance, even though he was filling in for Bill. But more than anything, the fact that he didn't call to make fun of the mayor is a flag that his mind is elsewhere.