“Who dared whom to eat bugs?” I asked.
“I can’t remember exactly,” Ryan said as he considered the question. “I think I dared Derek, or did Derek dare me?”
“Kevin dared me, and then I dared you,” Derek said. “It turned into a cult.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right,” Ryan said with a chuckle. “Yeah, we ate lots of bugs until we found something better to do.”
“So, when are you guys getting married?” I asked.
“Well, I spent pretty much everything on that rock she’s wearing.” Ryan nodded at her hand. “So, we’ll probably just do something small, something affordable.”
“Yeah,” Camille said. “As long as I get the dress I want, I don’t care where we get married. Maybe do something in the park. We’re just gonna dance and get drunk and eat cake, so we don’t need anything classy.”
“That sounds good to me.” I picked up my glass of wine and took a drink.
When the waiter came over, we put in our orders and then went back to talking.
“So, have any embarrassing stories about Derek to share?” I asked.
“More embarrassing than how he acts on a daily basis?” Camille teased. “Not really. Derek is a very…what you see is what you get kind of guy.”
Derek didn’t argue against that. He wasn’t very talkative, not even with his friends. That was just how he was, even around the people he was most comfortable with. “And a good friend always keeps their secrets.”
Camille zipped her lips.
“Derek is doing a book signing next week,” I said. “In Times Square.”
“This guy?” Ryan pointed at him. “Derek Hamilton?”
“Yes,” I said proudly. “And he’s going to be great.”
“This guy?” Ryan repeated. “We can barely get him to say two words most of the time—and that’s with us.”
“He’s breaking out of his shell,” I said. “Did you see his TED Talk?”
Ryan and Camille both stared at him in shock.
“Guess not…” Of course Derek didn’t tell them.
Camille pulled out her phone and pulled up YouTube. Ryan leaned over to look at the screen.
Derek turned to me, his eyes narrowed. “Thanks…”
“I figured you told your best friends,” I said. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“Aww, he looks so cute,” Camille said as she watched. “But who wears a hoodie to an interview?”
“God, you’re such a nerd,” Ryan teased. “I don’t even understand what you’re saying…”
Derek looked at me again. “That’s why.”
We said goodbye outside the restaurant.
“It was so lovely to meet you,” Camille said. “Now that Derek has a woman, we can go on double dates and do so many fun things.”
“So, you only want to hang out with me if I have a girlfriend?” Derek teased.
She shrugged. “I mean…it helps.”
Derek rolled his eyes.
“No one likes a third wheel,” Ryan said.
Derek turned to me. “My friends are assholes.”
“You’re an asshole too,” Camille said. “That’s why we’ve been friends so long.”
We said our goodbyes, and then they walked away together, his arm around her shoulders.
I turned back to Derek. “Well, they were nice. I wondered if they would be stuffy and studious like you.”
“Stuffy?” he asked, his eyebrow raised.
“Come on, we both know you can be a little stuffy. But your friends are nice.”
His arm moved around my waist.
“They’re more like my kind of people. You know, normal.”
“I’m not normal. Does that mean I’m not your kind of people?”
“You’re an exception. A good exception.”
He pulled back his sleeve and looked at his watch. “You want to come over?”
“I do, but Lizzie asked me to pick her up something. I can’t wait too long. Otherwise, she’ll be in bed.” Knowing he rearranged his schedule to spend time with me made me feel bad because that indicated that he didn’t like sharing me with my daughter, that we didn’t spend enough time together, that he wanted me out late so we could enjoy our evening.
But he didn’t show his annoyance. “Alright.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I understand.”
Sometimes I worried he would get frustrated with the arrangement and leave me, but he loved me, so he would be patient. And since he loved me, he might meet Lizzie sooner. Because if he met her, we wouldn’t have to do this anymore.
“Well, I’ll see you on Monday.”
His arm stayed around my waist. “I’ll go with you.”
“Derek, you don’t have to do that—”
“I don’t mind. I want to be with you—regardless of what we do.”
I grabbed her a burger, fries, and a milk shake.
“Did she do well on her tests this week?” He walked beside me as we headed to my apartment.
“No. She just gets tired of my mother’s cooking. I don’t let her eat out often, only once in a while. It’s a special treat.” I remembered what Cleo said, and I decided to segue into it since the opportunity presented itself. “She really struggles with math and science, actually. She’s like me, prefers the social sciences. She’s doing geometry right now and she asks for help, but I barely passed geometry at that age and I understand it even less now.” I held her bag of food in one hand and the milk shake in the other.
Derek didn’t say anything.
I was hoping he would volunteer himself, but tutoring a twelve-year-old in basic math was probably not at all interesting to him.
“Have you considered getting her a tutor?”
“We’ve tried before, but she still doesn’t get it. And honestly, I feel like the tutors just teach from the textbook, so it’s not any different from the teacher in the classroom. Then she’s getting the same instruction twice—which is pointless.” It would be helpful to have someone teach her in a different way, the way Derek approached things, doing something different than a stuffy textbook. It would be nice if he offered, not just so he would spend time with Lizzie, but because he would probably be extremely helpful. “But she’ll be fine. She’ll figure it out.”
“Most teachers don’t even understand what they’re teaching that well. They barely pass their own exams and are somehow qualified to teach other people. I never use textbooks in my classroom because I feel like they aren’t good enough. That’s why I create my own problems and my own worksheets.”
He would truly be a godsend for Lizzie. But I would never put him on the spot and directly ask.
“Private tutors are usually better.”
“How much does that cost?”
He shrugged. “Not sure. But I know they aren’t cheap.”
I was making more money now, but I was really stashing my cash away for Lizzie to graduate from college debt free. I didn’t want her to deal with student loans for thirty years like I had to. I could use that money to pay my own student loans, but I would rather give her a head start in life.