Courting Mrs. McCarthy Read Free Page B

person went on seventy dates before finding the elusive “one” who they were supposed to be with until death. Nathan grew disenchanted with the credibility of the whole process, having been surrounded in untraditional or broken marriages his entire life. The occasional Disney princess movie did little to make him feel otherwise.
    What he did know was that Sarah was his first girlfriend, not his soul mate, as she often liked to suggest. She was by no means the last girl he’d ever call his girlfriend. Nathan was sure to remember that high school romance should be fun before it was anything else. He told himself to exercise caution before entering a relationship like that again.
    This brought conflicting emotions which prevented him from taking the nap he so desperately needed. His relationship with Sarah was never going to last very long. Someone who couldn’t appreciate a fine French meal, no matter the age, was not fitting for a man of his disposition. But Sarah had been fun at times and he could not shake the idea that he was going to miss her.
    He thought there was a chance he might have made a mistake. She wasn’t perfect, but he hadn’t encountered many girls who could appreciate him for all his eccentricities and interests that were not typically shared by other teenagers. Before he met Sarah, kissing was just something he saw on TV or read about casually in books. Nathan had seen people hooking up at parties. But the exchange of alcoholic slobber while mounting each other on beer soaked couches wasn’t the romance he was drawn to. It was a release of some sort of built up angst that Nathan just simply didn’t feel.
    “You didn’t fight for a reason,” Nathan told himself as he tried to fall asleep. “It wasn’t right.” He couldn’t shake the sensation that this wasn’t just comfort speech to stop his mind from hammering him.
    What Nathan didn’t realize was that these feelings came naturally at the end of a relationship. He was without much experience on the topic as a result of not having much guidance in his life at all. There wasn’t anyone to talk to about it and he doubted Sarah would want to engage him in an analytical discussion as to what went wrong with them. Even if she agreed that the events of the previous night had been some terrible mistake, now was not the time to fix what shouldn’t be fixed. Nathan continued to ponder the ramifications of his indifference and indecisiveness until he finally fell asleep.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
     
    Nathan awoke to an unpleasant sound.
    “Now it’s my turn. Wake up, asshole,” Griffin yelled. There had been no alarm set, a byproduct of marijuana and self-pity.
    “You better not still be stoned,” his friend added. It had been almost four hours since their last toke.
    “I’m no lightweight, man,” Nathan replied. He felt groggy and annoyed that his slumber had been disturbed. This was a half-truth. Nathan had not been much of a pot smoker while he was dating Sarah out of fear of her father. The amount of time away from weed had affected his tolerance. Whether or not he had in fact become a lightweight was difficult to quantify.
    “Good. Brush your hair and let’s go or else we won’t get a good seat,” Griffin said.
    Nathan’s hair was a tangled mess since he had fallen asleep with it wet. This generally wasn’t an issue, since it made his pillow smell good, but time was now of the essence. “All right, be done in a minute,” he replied, and got out of bed. Griffin did not look terribly impatient.
    Both of Griffin’s mothers were waiting in their convertible as the two friends made their way outside. Victoria’s car was a yellow Camaro, which complimented her golden blonde hair. The car had been a gift from Megan after Victoria received her big promotion. The Rousseaus liked to buy American, especially after a family viewing of the Clint Eastwood film, Gran Torino. Her company also gave Victoria a mini-van, but