Page 20 of Flirting with Forever

“But what if she actually takes me up on it? Then I have to go on a date with a bully or a drug dealer? How did he bully you, by the way?”

John ignored her question about Elijah Crawford. “I want to see just how far she’ll go. And if she follows through with a place and time, you can always cancel at the last minute.”

“Not my style. I don’t stand people up. Even if they...tied your shoelaces together?”

He chuckled. “Not even close. If you end up having to go on the date, then do you have someone who could go with you?” He thought of the two pretty women he’d met at Mary’s shop. “A girlfriend you could pretend to bump into at the bar? Something like that?”

“People have lives, John. I’m not going to tear one of my friends away from their Friday night just so you can see how far your mother will take this thing.”

An offer to be the one she bumped into trembled at the tip of his tongue. He almost,almostvolunteered to be her In Case of Emergency. No. Terrible idea. She’d see right through it immediately. He was positive that the second the words left his mouth, a mystical spotlight would shine on him and somehow, across town, she’d be able to see the stupid smile on his face right now, his undershirt and boxer shorts and studio apartment and lack of air-conditioning. No way. If he offered her that, he’d show his ass. And she’d know everything.

“But maybeyoucould be there?” she asked after a second and successfully stopped the world from spinning, like she’d firmly pressed a finger to a twirling globe. “You’re the one who’s curious about this after all.” She paused and he could practically hear the trepidation start to creep into her voice. “I mean, unless you’re busy. Or you think that the guy would recognize you and blow the whole operation—”

“No, no,” he said quickly.Blow the operation.Like they were spies. So cute. “I could be there.” He couldn’t believe that she’d been the one to suggest it. “We can choose a place where I can sit at the bar and not be too noticeable. If you need to pull the rip cord, I’ll be right there. I’ll, I don’t know, pretend to run into you and invite myself to sit down to dinner. I’ll be your buffer. And then you can go home. Or whatever else you’d want to do on a weekend.”

He immediately felt like a nerd for suggesting that she’d head home. Just because he packed it in and spent the night in his boxer shorts after a bad date didn’t mean that Mary would. He could picture her dancing the night away in some red-cushioned basement club, or strolling along the glittering water at Brooklyn Bridge Park, a slim cigarette between her fingers. No. Strike that. Something about that image was wrong. He mentally replaced the cigarette with a big red sucker. That was better.

“Okay. That sounds good.” She paused for a second. “Do you have any time constrictions or neighborhood preferences?”

For one semi-dizzying second, John felt like they were arranging a date between the two of them. She was asking him where and when they should meet. He cleared his throat. “I’ll be free anytime after seven. I can meet you anywhere.”

“I’ll set it up with Estrella, then, and text you when I know what’s what. You’re sure you want to do this? Trick her like this?”

“The woman deserves it.” And John really wanted to see Mary dressed up for a date again. Though he didn’t say that last part out loud.

CHAPTER SIX

“WEIRDLY, I’MACTUALLYfree right now. Via’s getting Matty from basketball practice and the two of them are going on a date. Wanna grab a drink?”

Sebastian Dorner leaned against the cashier counter at Mary’s shop, one eye still on the gorgeous dining room table he’d just dropped off. He was a furniture maker, mostly custom, but every once in a while, he built something on spec and let Mary take a crack at selling it.

“Jeez, I can’t remember the last time you were spontaneously free,” Mary mused. “If ever.”

Sebastian had been a single dad since Cora had died five years ago. Any time that he spent with friends was carefully orchestrated with babysitters. And considering that Mary and Tyler were usually those babysitters, it was often a thing of great difficulty to go out on the town with Seb.

“One of the wonders of having a live-in girlfriend,” he said with a small smile on his face.

Though Mary had been best friends with Cora since they’d met in undergrad, she’d never been particularly close to Sebastian while Cora was alive. Always just known him as the guy who’d accidentally knocked up Cora and then married her a few months later. After college Cora and Mary had visited back and forth between Mary’s hometown in Connecticut and New York, always making sure to keep in close contact even though they were a state away. Cora had begged Mary to quit trying to make her mother happy and just get the heck out of Connecticut already. But Mary had never quite been able to pull the trigger on the move. It had been Cora’s death that had ultimately spurred Mary’s move to Brooklyn; she’d found herself unable to turn away from Cora’s bereft husband and three-year-old son. She’d inserted herself into their lives, feeling like it was the last real gift that she could give to her best friend. It hadn’t taken long for Tyler, Sebastian and Mary to become a tripod. The three adults who kept Matty’s life running. Who kept Sebastian’s life running if they were truthful about it.

But the help hadn’t been one-sided. Mary would never have been able to get Fresh up and running if it hadn’t been for Sebastian’s handiwork around the formerly dumpy shop. If it hadn’t been for Tyler dropping off late-night food and helping her go over the books, charming the pants off of any female customer who happened to find her way in.

They’d become a family. One that, if she was being truthful, Mary missed very much. She knew it was the proper way of the world that Sebastian would fall in love and find a partner who could help him raise Matty, and Via was truly the jackpot of all jackpots. And Mary had been beyond thrilled for Tyler and Fin’s budding love. But she also had more nights to herself lately than she was used to having.

And thus, she was grabbing her purse and shouting to Sandra in the back room that she was cutting out of work early. If Sebastian had a free evening, Mary fully intended to occupy it.

Mary bobbled her small leather purse and Sebastian bent down to grab it off the floor. “Hey, somebody left an ID down here.”

He straightened up and handed it over.

Mary laughed aloud when she saw whose ID it was. And the absolutely terrible picture of him. Of course John Modesto-Whitford wouldn’t smile in his driver’s license photo. Of course he’d glower at the camera like it had just hit him with a your-mama joke. What must it be like to live inside his surly mind?

She pictured the flustered way he’d ripped bills from his wallet the other night. It must have fallen out in the scuffle.

“What a doof,” she murmured to herself, eyeing the glowering image of him one more time before sliding the ID into her purse.

“You know him?”

“Yeah. Have you met Estrella? He’s her son.”

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