Unexpected Hello's

The darn heater seems broken and I knew it was time to call my heating guy. My heating guy actually has a son, my age, attractive...but married. I like when he comes here because it's nice to have a cute guy around the house.

Doorbell rings and as I open it Jeff flicks his cigarette onto my lawn. I tsk him and state, "You did not just throw that cigarette on my lawn now did you?" and smirk at him. Jeff throws his head back to laugh and when he does I notice there is someone standing behind him. A handsome guy, about 5'9" with salt and pepper hair around my age, shyly smiles with his hands in his pockets. I smile back and let them in.

Explain what's going on and take them down to the furnace. Stand around while they try to figure out what is going on. Handsome sidekick, I'll call him Nick, asks me if I have a screwdriver as he looks at my ex-husband's old work bench. I quickly say, "I'm a girl, I don't have tools," but then remember the screwdriver in the upstairs drawer and bring it to him. I tell them I'd be upstairs if they needed me. Quickly jet to the bathroom to re-brush my teeth since I was on my 3rd cup of coffee.

I hear Nick come upstairs and walk into the kitchen, so I follow and he commiserates with me on how loud the furnace is. At this point I realize I hadn't taken a shower yet, nor done my hair and I have no makeup on. I feel incredibly self conscious. I talk about wishing I didn't have to run the furnace so much, but that the wood stove is such a chore. He ends up agreeing that times are tough for everyone and quickly eyes the unfinished ceiling in the kitchen and my half renovated porch. I look down and mention they were things my ex-husband never finished and that eventually I would get around to them. He looks me in the eyes and tells me he's been divorced for 2 years, the way he looks at me is as if being divorced makes us part of the same club.

We start walking around my house talking about everything that was unfinished, he asks me what I do for a living, "if you don't mind me asking," he states. The whole time he keeps his hands in his pockets and he appears almost nervous around me. He tells me where he lives, which is only 20 minutes away and that he has a son. Says, "I walked away from that marriage with just my clothes and $5 in my pocket. She got the two houses." Then mentions that he paints and does carpentry. "I can come back another time and look at what you need done and give you an estimate. I won't charge you a lot, I'll just be happy for the work." I smile at the thought of him coming back again because he is incredibly cute and nice. I agree and he asks for a paper to write his number down. I hand it to him and notice he gives me both his cell and home number. I say, "Let me give you mine, so that if you know of a day you want to stop by you can call and let me know." I consider giving giving him my cell, but then opt to only give him my home number. Really, I just wanted him to have my number so that maybe he would call me to go out.

The guys wrap it up and come upstairs to collect their fee. Jeff starts talking about the furnace noise, which somehow prompts me to remember waking up in the middle of the night last weekend because I thought I heard someone knock on the door...it was the ice machine. They laugh. I decide to further explain that I thought it was the convicted felon. They laugh some more, but I realized I should've kept that to myself. Jeff bids me farewell and Nick says, "it was nice meeting you" and they leave. I kick myself for not having showered earlier.

An hour later I feel my fingers burning to text him. Realize they never brought back up my screwdriver. "Hey Nick, it's Dating Diva. Can you ask Jeff where my screwdriver is." It's genius, I think, as he texts me back. We go back and forth a few times and once I say I found it he tells me to have a good night.

So as I sit here with my furnace acting up again (It sounds like a train) I think I will be calling them again tomorrow (since they obviously didn't fix it right.) But this time I am showering before I call.