Page 32 of The Catch

“Good,” she said. “It’s a date.”

“It’s a date.”

“Thank you for bringing me here.”

“You’re welcome.”

It was an ungodly hour for a Sunday morning, and only fourteen hours after her date with Josh had ended (most of which were spent sleeping), when Cat’s phone buzzed across her kitchen counter. She looked at the caller ID and nearly hit the ignore button before she realized Emma’s early morning wake up could only mean she was headed to yoga class, which happened to be right around the corner from Cat’s condo. If she didn’t answer, she would surely hear a knock on her door in about ninety minutes.

As she swiped the little vibrating phone icon to accept the call, her brain started scrambling for an answer to the obvious question: how to unpack her first date with Josh without it sounding like a major failure. Of her bet, that was. The date itself had been practically storybook. Prince Charming had taken her to a fairytale castle, one that just happened to be home to one of the most romantic stories she’d ever heard. She was still walking on air. Emma was going to love this one.

“Hey, Em. What’s up?”

“What’s up with you?” Emma didn’t even have the decency to hide the giggle in her voice.

“Spill it,” Sonya yelled in the background.

“Oh, good. Two for one.” Cat padded over to her couch and fell backward onto the cushion dramatically, even though no one was there to witness. “What would you like to know? Be specific because I don’t have time to go over the whole thing right now.”

“It’s Sunday morning. You’re lying on the couch in your pajamas, wishing you had remembered to set the timer on your coffee maker. You have time.”

“If you know me so well…”

“Just tell us how the date was!”

“It was very nice.”It was dreamy. Did people still say dreamy?She shook her head. “He was charming and sweet, but we knew that.”

“We did. Where did he take you?”

“To a wine festival.”

“Did he pay?”

“Yes.”

“What did he do when you reached for your wallet?”

Cat’s cheeks warmed, and her mouth turned upward into a slow grin, remembering. “He said, ‘Cat, please let me take you out. It’s the only way I know how to do this.’ Then he tipped the food truck guy really well.”

A duet of affectedawwwsrang over the line. They were so easy. Maybe she was too.

“Then what?” Emma asked.

“Did he come back to your place?” Sonya shouted.

“No. It was late by the time we left.”

“The festival?”

Here we go.“No, we went for a walk around the city.”

“Romantic. Where’d you go?”

“A few places,” Cat said, off-handedly. Unfortunately, she never could pull off off-handed. “The Abbott Building.”

“You didn’t make him go on that tour with you… ”

“Of a convent?” Sonya asked. “Was that like a subliminal message?”

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