THE INVITATION

So, days went by and he was there, day after day watching me walking by, always smiling, maybe gathering courage to speak, or just calculating his best time and approach, like a prowler approximating its prey. One day I found myself thinking, "Gosh! When are you going to invite me out?" and it was like magic, not long after that thought he did.
I went out with a work mate with whom I always went to have lunch and he was there, with his friend waiting for us. He approached me and asked, directly, "Where are you going? Having lunch? Can we join you?" Kind of cute, kind of teen-ager like.
I always laugh and make fun of when I'm kind of scared, so I replied, "No, we're not having lunch, we were just walking by. Of course we are having lunch! We still don't know where."
They suggested a taco place and we went. He interviewed me quite directly. He asked if I had a boyfriend, if I was married, how long ago I had been in a relationship, etc. He talked to me while his friend talked to my friend, suddenly we were two couples, not four friends. It felt nice, it had been a long time since someone had been interested in me, his eyes, his words, his intentions, were flattering. But I remembered, I had been warned. Of course he said he was married and that he had two grown up children; like a good married man he said he loved his wife, BUT that they didn't get along anymore, that she was troublesome, that she never listened, that she was always nagging at him, that she was always in a bad mood and that they had married just to give his mother a grandchild, which I considered quite a stupid reason and of course a lie. I knew everything was a lie, I knew he was trouble. I had been the wife, my ex had said the same things about me, to many other women and to me. I knew what he wanted long before he told me. I knew what would happen long before he asked me. I just needed a reason, I was not in love, as I said before, I didn't even find him attractive. But, I'm a writer and I needed the experience, that's how I convinced my decent self to be indecent for this time.