Free Confessions of an Ugly Girl by Alice Wasser Page B

his hands. But it takes me like five seconds to get out of the car and it takes him at least… two minutes.
    By the time we were in the restaurant, I was good and angry. Sam was trying to make conversation, but I was answering in monosyllables and mostly looking down at my menu. Finally, Sam said, “Okay, Millie, what’s wrong?”
    “Nothing’s wrong.”
    “Then why are you sulking?”
    “I’m not sulking,” I said sulkily.
    “Look,” he sighed. “You know me by now, Millie. I don’t like to play games. Some guys will mess around with you but that’s not me. I’ve been straight with you from the beginning. I like you and I tell you that. And I got the feeling you weren’t the kind of woman who likes to play games. So why don’t we be the kind of couple that doesn’t play games with each other and actually says when something’s wrong so we can talk about it?”
    “Okay,” I said. He was right. I don’t like games either. I appreciated the fact that he was always so straightforward with me.
    “So what’s wrong?”
    “I just…” I felt stupid now, telling him this. “Why did you have to tell my boss we were dating?”
    Sam frowned. “People from the company are allowed to date.”
    “I know, but…” I was blushing now. “Why does everyone have to know ?”
    He raised his eyebrows. “Are you embarrassed to be dating me?”
    He didn’t sound angry when he said it, just a little hurt. I immediately felt awful. I wasn’t embarrassed about him at all. Just the opposite. I feel like people like me are supposed to keep my private life private. Nobody wants to picture that stuff. “No!” I said.
    “You hesitated.”
    “I didn’t, I swear.”
    “Millie, we’re two adults,” he said. “We’re in a relationship. It’s not a big deal. It’s not something we need to keep secret.”
    “I guess so,” I said. He was right. Between the two of us, he had more relationship experience. I’d never had any relationships lasting close to a year and a half.
    “I told everyone at the Computer Helpdesk about you,” he reminded me. “And I told my parents.”
    “You told your parents ?” I was totally shocked by that revelation. Sure, I tell my mother about almost every date I have, but men aren’t like that. Usually they get around to telling their parents about their girlfriend sometime while they’re walking down the aisle. Donna told me she didn’t even meet her husband’s parents till they were dating for a year and she suspected they didn’t know about her until about a week before that.
    (Then again, her husband is an asshole. But don’t tell her I said that.)
    Sam’s ears turned a little red as he tried to play it down. “Well, I talk to my mother every week and she usually asks me if I’m dating someone before she even says hello. So… I told her about you.”
    “Wow, that’s really sweet,” I said. He looked relieved. “What did you tell her about me?”
    Sam grinned. “I told her that I’m dating an incredibly sexy girl with a horrible landlady.”
    “Well, you told her one true thing, at least.”
    “You’re right, Martha’s not that horrible,” he said, leaning forward as he teased me. When he was so close, I could smell his aftershave. I love that smell. It always turns me on like crazy. “So did you tell your parents about me?”
    “Yes,” I lied. I was exaggerating earlier when I said that my mother was okay with my marrying any man that had a pulse. I’m pretty sure Mama Glockenfeld is not ready to hear about my quadriplegic boyfriend, but Sam doesn’t need to know about that.
    The lie seemed to make him happy. He leaned forward and kissed me, right in front of the whole restaurant. He never seems to care who sees us together. “I want you to meet some of my friends,” he said. “I want to show you off.”
    “All right,” I said.
    “And I want to meet your friends too,” he said.
    “You met Donna,” I said.
    He rolled his eyes. “Your other