Tea Parties and Feather Boas (Luke Kuechly)

Chapter Seventeen: Cycles

•Then you knock, and you'll come in
If you come in, you'll sit down
If you sit down, I'll pour us a drink
And if we drink, then you'll be laughing if we laugh
We'll get closer, if we get close
We'll lose our clothes, and then we'll
Fall back in love for a while
We always go in cycles•

Checking her phone for the third time, Lydia sat in a nice Italian restaurant in downtown Charlotte nervously waiting for Ben to show up. She really shouldn't have showed up 10 minutes early, but she needed to get out of the house. Ever since Luke had found out about her date, he'd been acting weird and giving Lydia what she took as a judgmental look. The two of them had slept together several times since she'd gotten back a week ago, but they never spoke about it, even during their fairly intimate pillow talk. Especially if this relationship with Ben was going to go anywhere, the thing with Luke needed to stop.

"Hey, am I late?" Ben appeared, looking worried.

"Hey," Lydia smiled, standing up to give the man a hug. "You're not late. I just got here really early."

"Ok, I was worried there for a minute. You look beautiful, like wow," Ben complemented, his confident football demeanor not carrying over to his dating life.

Lydia blushed, biting her lip. "Thank you. You look nice. Blue really suits you."

"Especially the Carolina Panthers blue, right?" Ben grinned.

"Is that really what it is?" Lydia laughed.

"Pretty much, I'm awful at dressing myself and I know that look half way decent in this color. So, here I am," The linebacker chuckled as the two sat down. "Have you been here before?"

Shaking her head, Lydia picked up her menu. "I have not, but I've heard it's good."

"It's delicious."

"Oh? Do you bring all your dates here?" The woman teased.

"Every single one," The dirty blonde man replied with a charming smile and sarcastic tone. "I always have the ladies falling at my feet you know. They just push past Newton and Kuechly and come running right to me."

Lydia laughed, "It must be so tiring keeping them off of you."

"Completely exhausting," Ben laughed. "What about you? I'm sure I'm not the only guy interested in you. I bet you have them around you all the time."

Smiling weakly, Lydia shook her head. Lawson didn't really count as an admirer, and Luke, well who knew what he was. A lover? That sounded weird, like something from the movies or celebrity gossip.

"You're just being modest."

"I'm not. I promise."

"Then how is someone as beautiful and smart as you not taken already?" Ben asked.

"I was married, I guess you could say I technically still am..." the woman trailed off, nervous about Ben's reaction. This wasn't exactly first date material, but at the same time it was.

"Still are?"

"My ex.. or almost ex-husband is still refusing to sign the papers. We've been legally separated for several years now."

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

Lydia sighed, "It was a shot gun wedding right out of high school. I lost the baby soon after and he cheated. I left, much to the disapproval and shame of my mother," she smiled weakly.

"Oh wow, Lydia... I'm so sorry-"

"Don't, I've dealt with it," the woman smiled softly.

"You consider him your ex-husband? There's nothing between you two anymore?" The football player asked.