My date with Hot Dad

I've been crushing on a particular dad ever since I started working at TT. His daughter is 3 and therefore not one of my students, but since I'm the closer every night, the late kids all "condense" into my room around 5--so I'm the one who has her when he picks her up around 6. We've had a mild flirtation going on, but he's just a flirt by nature--plus, he is HOT--so I really didn't think too much of it.

Last night, we had a TT night at a local restaurant--10% of the sales went to our center, so we were really pushing the families to go. I talked HD into going; they were going to stop by the park afterwards, but I (jokingly) told him, "Well I won't be able to get there till 7--so maybe you can go to the park FIRST and then we'll see each other at Culver's later." Lo and behold, he pulled up at almost exactly the same time I did, just before 7. Mom was with me, so I couldn't sit with him and his daughter, A.--I had to settle for stopping by their table a couple of times to socialize (as I did with ALL of the TT families, of course). ;)

Well TONIGHT, when he picked A. up, he mentioned that they were going to Crazy Bounce (for those of you not familiar with this magical place, it's a huge warehouse filled with giant moonwalks, GINORMOUS inflatable slides, etc). I said, "Oooh, Crazy Bounce, A.! I'm so jealous! I've been wanting to go there!" HD said, "Why don't you come with us, then?" I laughed it off at first, thinking he was joking around. "No, really!" he said. "Meet us over there!"

"I can't go without a kid," I told him. "Sure you can," he said. "You'll be with us."

I changed the subject because I was getting all flustered and nervous (HD has that effect on me), but HD stuck around for another 20 minutes or so, just chatting with me while his daughter finished playing. Finally he said, "Okay A., let's go to Crazy Bounce."

"Have fun, guys," I called as I wiped down the counter.

"Maybe we'll see you there," he said, smiling at me.

"Are you serious?" I asked. "You really want me to go?"

"Yeah!" he said. "I'll let them know at the front that we're waiting for you and that you're with us."

"All right," I said. "I'll be there."

I got there about half an hour later--I was done with work almost right away but I had to swing by Walmart to get a pair of socks (LOL, of COURSE the pair I was wearing today had a gigantic hole in them). He saw me come into the lobby area and came out to greet me. It was really cool, because we had the WHOLE PLACE to ourselves--seriously, no one else was there for the first hour or so, and only 2 other families came in during the entire two hours we were there. It was AWESOME. I had a blast and I thanked HD for "twisting my arm" and "making" me go. (And he thanked ME for coming, too.) When we walked back out to our cars, he said, "Hey, this is the second night in a row that we've hung out after you got off of work."

Still, I don't think this was a "date" or anything, and not just because his daughter was there (and man, did she think it was cool that Miss Jenny went to Crazy Bounce with her, LOL). I don't know...I mean, we were flirting and stuff, but I don't think he sees me romantically; I think it was just a friend thing. Plus, the TT grapevine says that he has a girlfriend. (He's divorced from A's mom.) And did I mention how HOT he is? WAY out of my league.

I'm not going to advertise the fact that I met them out there tonight--I don't know if there's any rules against teachers "fraternizing" with the parents--but I suspect that, being a 3-year-old, A. will announce to SOMEONE that "Miss Jenny was at Crazy Bounce with me and Daddy!" And at that point, the rumor mill will REALLY start, since I've been accused by the director two nights in a row now of flirting with HD. ("Hey," I defended myself last night. "It's all public relations and marketing. Gotta keep up a good rapport with the parents." She said I was full of shit.)