Evaline stood up and said, "The next part won’t be so shocking to hear so I guess we should get back to climbing,"

Lily shrugged. *I guess so? I’m sure my now natural grace will keep me from falling to my death as long as you don’t say anything too shocking. Aw well, I’ll trust myself not to be that clumsy anymore.*

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Lily fell in behind Evaline as they started to make their way to the summit. There wasn’t much climbing left anyway. Lily was pretty sure they’d finish the climb before the conversation. Hopefully there would be more convenient places to sit at the top, if not they might have to track back down the mountain to this rest spot to have lunch.

"Right… where was I?" asked Evaline two minutes into the climb. Before Lily could answer, Evaline supplied it herself, "Right, Harold had just unknowingly challenged my pride. So after that we started to go on dates. Looking back on it now… they were really cute, and super romantic. I didn’t properly appreciate them at the time, I was always trying to figure out new ways to make him crack instead.

"The first date we went on was this lovely picnic in the local park. Or well, not the local park you know here, obviously we moved, but you might still remember it anyway. I know Harold and I actually took you there a few times. It was that park with the little river on the other side of town,"

Lily searched her memories and managed to dredge up a half forgotten memory of the park in question. "Is that the one where you took me… and my old best friend who shall not be named, to play that one time and we tackled Dad into the river?"

Evaline clapped and nodded, "Yes that’s the one. I’m a little surprised you remember it. That was the first real date we had, or the first date your father planned, depending on how you want to look at it. He brought all the food, I know he said he made it, but I also know he isn’t quite that good a cook so he probably worked on it with your grandmother. It was a nice afternoon, but he kept things very PG.

"I was practically draped over him by the end of the afternoon, but he just gave me a small peck on the forehead and told me he had to attend a night class at the university, and that he’d set up another date soon. I was too stunned to do anything other than nod. That was where I really started to get to him you know?

"Second date, I was prepared. He asked what I wanted to do, and I decided that we had to go swimming at the beach. I might have gained a little of chub around the waist now I’m older, but when I was younger I looked damn good in a swimsuit. So of course, we both went to the beach. I brought the food this time, because I wasn’t going to be shown up in cooking skills. Of course, it wasn’t anywhere near as good, so I was totally shown up in cooking skills, but Harold didn’t mention that.

"I used every trick in the book I could to get him to agree to a night together. I convinced him to put sunscreen on me, but he was much too careful around my more… sensitive areas. I ended up getting some nasty sunburn around the area actually, which was fine, it would be a good excuse to force him to do better next time. Once that was done, I took him swimming.

"I was constantly jumping on his back, pressing my boobs to it or trying to get my hands in his pants, though he would just grab them and wrap my arms around his neck every time he caught me. God that man was patient. Perhaps he was also enjoying the challenge, and it was a wonderful date, minus the sunburn… but no, by the end of it I was the one who nearly cracked.

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"He left, once again to go to classes, and I stomped home and abused the fact I knew some of his friends to get his class schedule. I can barely remember if I was pleased or annoyed with the fact he actually DID attend the later classes, so he wasn’t lying. I would later find out that this is because he had a ’part time’ job that basically kept him busy fulltime with the extra work they piled on him. He got paid for it at least.

"Anyway, now that I knew he was busy most days, with classes most nights I tried to think of a way to convince him to stick around. I managed to secure a date on a day without work, or classes and I started my plan. I got him to take me around the shopping centre. My plan, and god do I feel like a shallow bitch for coming up with it now, was to walk around and buy things, with his money, and then suggest we could always go home and spend some time together if it was getting too expensive,"

Evaline paused here, turning to face her daughter. Lily stopped, meeting Evaline’s gaze. "Now, that date technically went well. I got all these things I wanted and Harold didn’t complain. My plan failed, but I wasn’t too mad at the time. Now though? I feel disgusted with myself. I, being an idiot, assumed Harold was getting most of his money from his parents, despite the fact I knew he had a job. This is because I WAS still getting money from my parents.

"I do not want you to ever think what I did was a good idea Lily. It was shallow, it could have potentially cost me the love of my life, and I never should have done it. But I wanted to ’win’ against your father, and I was an idiot. I didn’t love him back then the way I do now, even if there was a spark burning already. So… when I explain how it went, I want you to understand that it happened, and I’m sharing the story, but I’m not proud of it, and I don’t tell you this so you can emulate my behaviour,"

Lily nodded, "I understand. I… I’m not sure I could do that to Kat anyway…"

Evaline nodded and turned back to continue the climb, "Yes I suspect you won’t repeat that particular mistake, but I felt the need to make it clear. Anyway, Harold put up with it the whole time. I didn’t get anything too expensive, for the most part just things I could tell myself I needed. I didn’t want to be thought of as a gold digger, and I did like him, so I wasn’t trying to bankrupt the man… but I did buy a lot of things.

"Anyway, the day ended, I had all this new shit, and I still hadn’t managed to make him crack. I thought about how I should go about my next idea, but it took me a while to plan things. We went on a few dinner dates, met up at his university a few times, went to some college parties but neither of us drank. Harold because he doesn’t really like to, and me because I wasn’t going to drink without him. Because at that point I was pretty focused on Harold. I’d decided to make him a long term boyfriend, I wasn’t really thinking of marriage yet… but I was settling down. I just needed to know if he was good in bed or not,"

Evaline shook her head sighing, "It really does seem silly now. Your father was showing me a wonderful time. He proved he was willing to work. That he had money and would take care of me. That he cared for me as more than just a good lay, and I didn’t understand how precious what I had was. Anyway, I planned another shopping trip. This time, I was going for appliances, more expensive things. I wanted him to crack…

"And he said no. He looked me in the eyes, and said ’I am your boyfriend, not your wallet. I’m not playing this game again. If you really need something, we can talk about it, and maybe I’ll buy it for you, but I am not a credit card,’. Which, of course, was very understandable even to my younger self. But this was it. He’d cracked! Or so I thought. So I said to him, ’Ok, well if you’re not going to indulge me with money, why not finally let me take you to the bedroom,’

"I was so sure I had him… so sure that he would cave. I was willing to go along with him. I didn’t want him for the money, so it wasn’t hard, but seeing him constantly deny my advanced was getting to me. I was so sure… and yet he still said no. He said that he wasn’t ready for that. I slapped him. Not particularly proud of that either, even if I’m not too mad about my younger self for it. So I slapped him once and said ’I don’t know if you’re waiting till marriage, or waiting for something closer, but I’m sick of waiting. I want you to think about that, and talk to me in a week,’ then I stormed off,"f𝑟𝐞𝙚𝘸𝐞𝑏𝙣𝑜v𝑒Ɩ. c𝐨𝙢

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