Page 34 of The Dating Game

“Well, we still could finish,” I suggest lightly.

“Are you sure you’re up for that?” he asks.

I nod. “I don’t want to go home yet.” Will’s eyes latch onto mine, and I get lost in the fathomless depths of his blue irises.

“Okay, then,” he agrees. “Let’s finish the round.”

Chapter 12

Will

TheOperationisnotgoing well. I’m supposed to be scaring Brooke away, but instead she’s reeling me in.

So I’m changing tactics once again. This weekend I said I’d call, and then I did. Now I’m doing the opposite; when I dropped her off after our golf date again I said that I’d call her, and now it’s Thursday and I still haven’t.

Nor do I want to.

Nor have I regularly found myself staring idly at her contact info on my phone.

That has not happened.

At least not enough times to be worth noting.

Really, the main thing is that I haven’t given into the urge to call her.

Even better—she reached out to me earlier today and five hours later I still haven’t answered.

Hey, she wrote in her text, since you planned the last two dates I thought maybe I should plan the next one. Are you free tomorrow night?

Let her wonder for a while if I’m free. Make her think maybe she’s already lost her precious bet.

That’s my goal with this no reply play.

Well, that and I had to make sure I didn’t reply during my initial excitement phase and give her the crazy idea that I miss her.

“Knock-knock.” I look up from my phone—what I was looking at is of no significance—to see Sarah Bochanan standing in my office doorway.

“Oh, hi, Sarah.” I smile and set my phone down. “Hi, friend, do you have a minute to chat?” She steps further into my office without waiting for an affirmative response.

“Yeah, sure.” I gesture to the chair across from me. “Take a seat.”

Sarah bounces into the chair, smiling widely at me. “I’m sure you can guess that I’m here to talk about the mission trip,” she says brightly. “I’m just so excited to be going.Soexcited to be going.”

That’s the other thing about Sarah—she says things twice a lot. Again, I think this is probably a hazard of her profession. She spends much of her work day repeating herself to a bunch of 7-year-olds. It makes sense the practice would bleed over into her everyday life.

“Well, we’re excited to have you. You saved the trip.”

“So I hear.” She lifts her chin. “I was wondering if I could possibly get an itinerary for the trip? Did you pass out itineraries to the other chaperones? Because I’d really like to have an itinerary. I’m a planner. I always plan.”

“Absolutely, I can get you one. I was planning on emailing them out next week and then giving out a physical copy on the bus, but I’m happy to send yours to you early.”

“Oh that would be great. So great.”

“You did get the other info I sent you, right? The packing list and basic rundown of the trip.”

“I did.” She nods. “You’re very organized,” she adds, batting her eyelashes. “Very impressive, Will.”

“Thanks.” I offer her a perfunctory smile, not wanting to offer her anything she might misunderstand as interest on my part.

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