Mason Ch. 12

Toni sat up long after Mason left and Jamie was asleep thinking about the brief kiss. Like the kiss on the cheek it wasn't an erotic kiss but it could have easily turned into one, the thought made her nervous. To help her relax, she unpacked her clothes and hung them up in the closet trying to figure out what to wear to dinner with Mason. She had several outfits to choose from but then decided not to wear any of them, somehow it didn't seem right. After she took Jamie to her parent's house, she would do the one thing that she hated more than anything that she could think of, she would go shopping.

She stopped unpacking long enough to take a good look at herself, maybe a visit to the hairdressers was in order and while she was at it a manicure and pedicure. It occurred to her that she was acting like a teenager going out on her first date. In a way she supposed, that she was, not the teenager part but going out on her first date. She hadn't been out with anyone since James and wondered if the rules of dating had changed.

Toni's stomach gave a nervous lurch, she was tempted to look at that last disc again but didn't. James had given her the freedom to be with someone if she chose to be, it was time to accept that gift whether it be with Mason or someone else. She couldn't deny that she was attracted to Mason and that she liked him, what was there not to like? He was tall- she had always been partial to tall men, he was a gentleman who was hell of a cook and he liked Jamie. It was a sincere like, not the kind of pretend like that people sometimes did when they were attracted to someone with kids and Jamie liked him in return.

When the last of her clothes was hung, she unpacked the boxes containing her underclothes, "new ones" she mumbled adding underclothes to her list of things to buy along with shoes and accessories for whatever outfit that she purchased. Finally finished, Toni took a hot soak in her Jacuzzi/bathtub grateful that no one was living below her as the sound of the jets filled the bathroom. Toni carefully climbed out of the tub, dried off and applied a liberal amount of 'Keri oil' to her dark skin before putting on her pajamas. She brushed her teeth, turned out the bathroom light and went into her bedroom to find Jamie sitting on her bed.

"Jamie? What's wrong?" Toni asked.

"My stomach hurts." he replied as he rubbed his stomach.

"Too much popcorn huh?" Toni asked sympathetically. "Come on, lets see if we can find the mint tea." she said holding out her hand.

An hour later, Jamie was back in bed saying that he felt much better. Toni sat on the edge of the bed until he fell asleep and then went to her own bed. For once, sleep came easily.

*******

Mason drove home thinking about how soft Toni's lips felt pressed lightly to his, it was all that he could do to walk away before he turned the kiss into something that he didn't think that she was ready for. The one thing that he was sure of was that Toni was drawn to him as he was to her and that she was struggling with the feelings, if she wasn't then she would be. He hadn't decided on what restaurant to take her to and had given some thought to calling Ethan's Caesar for a night at his restaurant but it was too short a notice and it might be a bit much. He would save that for another time, for a special occasion of some sort.

He arrived home to several messages all of them from Joyce.

"Hey Mason!" she said in a cheery voice. "I was wondering if you could cover me tomorrow night. There's a concert that I've been dying to go to and a friend has extra tickets, call me no matter what time it is."

Mason hit the delete button, he wasn't going to do anything of the sort, and Toni came first. It was the last message that made him call Joyce back.

"Hey Mason, it's eleven and you're not home yet or are you busy with Toni? Call me back when you're done!"

Mason picked up the phone and dialed Joyce's number. It rang three times before she finally answered it.

"Mason? It's about...."

"What did I tell you about minding your own business?" Mason interrupted.

"What's got your panties in a wad?" Joyce asked surprised at Mason's tone.

"We talked about this." Mason said. "Stay out of my business."

Joyce was silent for several seconds, "Mason look, if you don't want people talking about you and Toni then you need to stop having lunch together, of course then the topic will be why you split up so it's a catch twenty-two. I will admit that leaving that message on your machine was well... not the best thing to do but I thought that we were friends and friends do tease." she said.

Joyce was right he realized. If he didn't want any talk about him and Toni then they shouldn't have been seen together at the hospital but that didn't change the fact that Joyce was a busybody and they were not friends.

"So," Joyce said. "About tomorrow night...."

"No." Mason said.

"No?" Joyce asked surprised by his answer. "Why not?" she asked.

"I don't have to give you a reason." Mason said. "The answer is no." Mason said and then hung up before Joyce could say anything else.

As much as he hated to admit it, Joyce did have a point. They were in a catch twenty-two situation, "fuck" he grumbled and then stopped short. He couldn't talk like that with a child around, "oh fu..." he started to say and then stopped himself. Maybe he could curse in private he thought to himself but then decided that the best thing to do would be to stop cursing altogether. It occurred to him that it was going to be difficult to break a centuries old habit but for Toni and Jamie, he would try.

*******

Toni was up just after nine because she heard Jamie in the kitchen. She got up, put on her house robe and went to see what he was up to.

"Morning." Toni said interrupting him.

"Hi mom." Jamie greeted.

"What are you up to?" Toni asked.

"I was going to make pancakes for you." Jamie replied.

"I see." Toni replied with a smile. "So Chef Jamie, do you know how to make pancakes?"

"I watched gramma and it looks easy." he replied.

"Why don't we do this, when you go to grammas and grandpa's house today, you ask her to write the recipe down and then we'll try to make them here?" Toni suggested.

Jamie's face scrunched up in thought but he finally agreed.

"Good, now let's get dressed and we'll go get breakfast before I take you over to gramma's house." Toni said as she ruffled Jamie's head. It was too long and needed to be cut, she would ask her dad to give him a hair cut sometime during his stay there.

As Toni dressed, she made the phone calls to the beauty salon and to the boutique she shopped at on the rare occasions that she shopped.

"Amanda? Oh good you're there. This is Toni Jacobson, I'm fine thank you. I need a new outfit and was hoping that you would be there to help me out. Great! I'll be there sometime later in the morning. See you then."

Toni's stomach gave another nervous lurch, tonight she would be going out with another man. She was surprised to find that just as she was nervous, she was excited as well and maybe just a little bit scared. The fear wasn't because she thought that Mason would hurt her, it was because she was beginning to see him as a man that she liked being around. For a few brief seconds, the slight fear turned into panic and then eased turning back into being just a little scared.

"I am not betraying James." Toni murmured to herself. "I am not betraying him, he would want me to do this." she added and finished dressing.

Jamie was reading the last book that he and Mason read together. Toni could see his lips moving as he sounded out the hard words. He would have an advantage when he started school next year. School. Her baby was going to be going to school next year; it was time to start thinking about private versus public school but not now but later when she had the time to really think about the options.

They had breakfast at 'Denny's' which had remained her favorite place even after James had died even though she rarely went and had never taken Jamie there. The staff all knew them and many of them had gone to James' funeral service. The manager greeted her at the door with a smile.

"Dr. Jacobson! It's been awhile. And who is this handsome young man?"

"I know it has and this is our son Jamie." Toni replied.

"It is very nice to meet you Jamie." the manager said. "You're favorite booth is open if you want it." The manager said to Toni.

Toni hesitated and almost said no but then agreed. She took Jamie's hand and followed the manager to the booth. When they were sitting, she said to Jamie, "When your papa was alive, we used to sit right here every time we came here for breakfast. As a matter of fact, you're sitting where he used to sit." Toni said.

Jamie appeared suitably impressed and from that time on, whenever they ate at that 'Denny's he always sat there. Toni looked at Jamie and missed James, he would have been so proud of Jamie and she told him so.

"What did papa like to eat?" Jamie asked as he looked at the menu.

"He liked the 'grand slam' breakfast with the eggs scrambled." Toni replied.

Jamie chewed his lower lip like he always did when he was thinking. When the server came for their orders, Jamie ordered the same breakfast that James' always ordered bringing tears to Toni's eyes. That he wouldn't eat nearly all of it didn't matter, it was the thought behind the order that counted.

Toni ordered her usual order, a 'Denver omelet' and a cup of coffee.

Jamie ate a little more than a quarter of his meal before declaring himself full.

"Can I take the rest to grammas? He asked.

Toni had the remaining food packed up; she paid the bill and left the restaurant with promises to return soon.

After dropping Jamie off, she went for her manicure and pedicure. She had forgotten how much she had enjoyed being pampered. It wasn't something that she had done a lot of and when she did, it was because James took it upon himself to make an appointment for her sometimes including the whole spa package. She would often protest that they didn't need to spend money for things like that and he would just kiss her and push her out the door.

"Sweetness, you deserve to be pampered so go and enjoy, I'll be here when you get back." he would say.

Her nails really did look bad but by the time the manicurist was done, they looked absolutely gorgeous. The color of the polish that she chose was a deep red, her second favorite color. The nails on her hands looked so good that she decided to have her toes painted in the same shade.

The hairdresser was the next stop. Her hair had grown considerably longer but was in serious need of a trim. The hairdresser tried to talk her into putting blond highlights in her hair but Toni wouldn't budge.

"That just isn't me." she replied when the man asked her for the third time about adding some color to her hair.

"But a little change is good." he said as he examined Toni's hair. "Just think about it, a little blond here and here..."

"Look." Toni said finally out of patience. "I don't want blond, blue or highlights of any kind; I just want a wash, a deep conditioning and a cut. Is that too much to ask for?"

The hairdresser looked contrite.

"I'm sorry but they want us to push the other services and they actually listen to see if we are...."

"I get it." Toni replied. "What else do you have other than the coloring thing?" she asked.

Toni walked out of the salon feeling like a million bucks. The deep conditioning had done wonders for her hair as well as the new cut that Julian gave her. She also left the salon with over one hundred dollars in hair care products and with Julian's card which made his day.

Amanda was waiting for her at the boutique and greeted her with a hug.

"It's good to see you and I'm so sorry about James!" she said.

"It's good to see you too." Toni replied and told Amanda what she needed.

Three hours later, Toni left the boutique with a red dress that almost matched the color of the nail polish, matching undergarments and matching shoes. By the time she got home, it was almost four and Mason was coming at five-thirty. She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge on the way to her bedroom tossing the sacks with her purchases on the bed on her way to the bathroom. She ran the bathtub and went back to the bedroom to take the dress out if the bag to hang it up. It was a nice dress she thought as she looked at it again, the top part of the dress showed off her large breasts without making them look obscene, the waist gathered in and then the rest of the dress flared out minimizing her hips and behind. The hem of the dress would end just an inch or two above her knees, the three inch red heels would give it a slightly sexy look.

"Am I really doing this?" Toni asked herself as she undressed, added 'Keri bath oil' into the tub and climbed in. she turned on the jets and tried to relax. "It's just dinner." she mumbled.

*******

Mason had a very restless rest of the evening and day. Tonight was going to be one of the most important nights of his long life. Tonight, he hoped that the bond between him and Toni would kick in full force and that they could proceed to the next step-what humans called a monogamous relationship. They were already doing that but it wasn't "official" and wouldn't be until both of them acknowledged it as such.

He wondered what she would wear tonight but it really didn't matter, she would look lovely no matter what it was. The question was what was he going to wear? And he probably should have gotten his hair cut. It was longer than he usually wore it, it just barely touched his shoulders "f..." he started and then stopped himself. After deciding to leave his hair as it was, Mason went to his closet and looked through his many suits. The problem he realized was that they were all suits that he used for work.

Going shopping was out of the question, he loved shopping as much as he loved watching the news. He could wander around a store for hours and he didn't want to take the chance that he would lose track of time. In the end, he chose the suit that looked the least business like. It was the one that he wore the least specifically for that reason; it was charcoal gray with pinstripes that looked good with the gray dress shirt. To take away from the business look, Mason decided to forego the tie until he remembered that the restaurant had a dress code. It took him an hour to pick out a tie that he was satisfied with. As he was double checking the color combination of the suit, shirt and tie his cell phone rang.

Joyce.

"Hey look, I'm sorry about last night." she said as soon as he answered, not giving him a chance to say hello. "I shouldn't have left that on a message, so are you busy tonight? I really want to go to that concert."

"Joyce, I answered you last night, I said no and that hasn't changed." Mason replied.

"I can't bribe you somehow? I'll even work a weekend for you." Joyce said clearly begging.

"Sorry but I can't." Mason said and hung up.

A few minutes later the phone rang again, this time it was Toni.

"Hey look. Maybe we could do this another night." she said.

"Why? Are you not feeling well?" he asked concerned.

"No, it's not that it's just that... I don't know what it is." Toni said.

"Toni, are you nervous?" Mason asked taking the bull by the horns.

Her silence confirmed his suspicions. "If it helps, I'm nervous too." he said.

That revelation surprised Toni; he could hear it in her voice.

"You? Why?" she asked.

"You're not the only one that's going out for the first time since losing someone." he replied. He didn't consider what he and Gretchen had as going out, he didn't even consider it to have been a real relationship as it was only physical with no emotional attachment at least not his end and not too much on Gretchen's.

"I hadn't thought about that." Toni replied.

"You know, we don't have to go out if you don't want to. I can make dinner here and we could watch a movie if you want." Mason said actually liking the idea a little more than going out for dinner.

"I.... I don't know." Toni hedged.

"I don't bite and it would take some of the pressure off and I make a mean pasta. What do you think?" Mason asked.

The more Toni thought about it, the better she liked the idea. "What time do you want me there?" she asked.

"I'll come for you as planned." Mason replied.

*******

After Toni hung up, she thought about what had just happened. "What's wrong with me?" she asked as she picked up the phone again.

"Mason, look, I changed my mind. Yes I'm sure. See you soon."

And then she wasn't so sure but she refused to call Mason for a third time to tell him that she had changed her mind yet again. She glanced at the clock, time was racing by and she needed to start getting dressed, she oiled her body and put on the undergarments. The deep red color of the bra and panties looked good against her skin she decided as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. The black pantyhose went on next, Toni went slowly, she was notorious for poking holes in panty hose when she put them on; just to be safe, she bought two extra pair.

Toni slipped the dress on and examined herself again and decided that it would do, she applied a little lipstick not bothering with any other makeup, it was an art in which she had never become proficient at and she really didn't have the inclination to learn. She had just put her shoes on when the doorbell rang.

*******

Mason was early but he couldn't wait any longer to see Toni. He stood at the door patiently holding a bouquet of roses. He felt himself calm as he heard Toni approach the door to let him in, tonight was going to be a good night he assured himself.

When Toni opened the door, Mason's mouth went dry when he saw her. He had always considered her beautiful but tonight, dressed in red, she was beyond beautiful. He realized that he was staring at her and recovered himself.

"Toni, you look... beautiful." he told her handing her the roses.

"Thank you for the complement and the roses." Toni replied nervously.

She let Mason in so that she could put the roses in water. Her stomach was flipping so much that she was to the point of nausea. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and rejoined Mason in the living room. He really is handsome she thought to herself. Physically his dark hair and eyes reminded her of James but that was where the similarity ended. Mason was taller than James had been by a good three inches and was bulkier where James had been muscular but thinner. Personality wise, the two men were polar opposites but they would have liked each other if they had met when James was sober.

Mason waited for a few seconds before offering Toni his arm, "are you ready?" he asked with a smile.

Toni smiled back and took the offered arm thankful that there were no nosy neighbors to watch them. Mason helped her into the car making sure that she was comfortable before getting in himself. The drive to the restaurant was quiet with neither of them saying very much, Mason was waiting for Toni and she was waiting for him. Finally, Mason had had enough of the pussy footing around and took charge.

"I've never been to this particular restaurant before so I can't vouch for how good it is." he said as he pulled up to the valet parking space.

"I'm sure that it'll be fine." Toni said.

The valet came to the car as soon as Mason stopped, while he talked with the valet that would be parking the car, the other valet opened her car door and moved to let her out. Mason excused himself and moved in to offer his hand to Toni. The valet's eyes widened in surprise and he murmured "cool" under his breath.

As Mason and Toni walked away, Mason had to wonder what was wrong with people today. It was or should be common courtesy to hold doors open or to assist a woman from a vehicle. Apparently such things were no longer taught to young men.