Page 35 of The Dating Game

“You know—” Sarah leans forward, but before she can finish her sentence, Sydney rounds the corner at top speed.

“Will!” she exclaims. “Thank goodness, there you are!” Her gaze flits to Sarah. “Oh, hi, Sarah.”

Sarah waves.

“Sydney? Is everything okay?” I ask; noting the concern on her face. Sydney’s attention whips back to me.

“It would be, if you would man up and answer Brooke’s text message!” she exclaims. “I texted you hours ago for goodness sake.”

I cock my head at her. “Youtexted me?”

Sydney’s cheeks redden. “She,” she amends quickly. “I meantshetexted you hours ago. Obviously it was her and not me,” she adds shrilly. “Why wouldItext you from Brooke’s phone?” She tosses her head back and lets out an unnatural laugh.

Geez. So that text I've been staring at all day was from Sydney?

I mean, that I wasnotstaring at.

“I don’t know,” I say to Sydney, “whywouldyou be texting me from Brooke’s phone?”

“Ha-ha-ha,” she trills. “That’s right, I wouldn’t. So anyway, moving on,” she makes a fast circular movement with one hand, “why haven’t you replied?”

“I’ve just been a little busy with work,” I lie.

“Okay, but like, a text takes two seconds to send.” She mimes typing. “Sure, I’m free. What time?” she narrates her imaginary text.

I grab my phone and lift it toward her. “Since you know just what to say, maybe you should send it for me.” I grin. “But maybe that would be weird to have a text conversationwith yourself.”

“Oh, Will.” Sydney laughs operatically. “Silly, man.” She grabs the door jamb, preparing to make her exit. “But seriously, text her back. Brooke is a good one. Stop screwing this up.” And with these parting words she vanishes.

“Uh, sorry about the interruption,” I tell Sarah.

“Oh, no problem,” she says, but there’s an undercurrent of annoyance in her tone. “Who’s Brooke?” she asks, and I can tell she’s trying to sound casual. I repress a groan. This is definitely not a complication I need right now.

“A friend of Sydney’s that I’ve gone out with a couple of times,” I explain.

“Oh. I see.” Sarah purses her lips. “Is it serious?”

“I think we were going to talk about the mission trip, right?” I evade her question, hoping to gently let her know that my personal life is not up for discussion.

It’s bad enough that so many people around here know about me going out with Brooke. I don’t want even more rumors circulating about the seriousness of our relationship.

“Uh, actually I think you answered all of my questions,” Sarah says, getting abruptly to her feet. “So I’m going to go. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.”

“Of course, just shoot me an email if you think of anything else.”

“Yup. Will do.” Sarah nods and, with a far less genuine smile than the one she gave me when she arrived, heads out my door. I’m left alone with my phone, wondering how I want to play this text exchange with Brooke now that I know Sydney is the one who actually texted me.

The answer comes to me in a flash of brilliance. I have Sydney’s phone number from a staff group text about a joint birthday gift for Principal Novak. I’ll let her reply for me. I type a message to Sydney.

Since you’re doing the whole Cyrano thing feel free to copy and paste the following as you see fit, then send it to Brooke…Hey, yes, I’m free tomorrow night. What time should I pick you up?

I hit send and wait.

A few minutes later her reply comes in as two texts in a row.

So not funny, Will.

But she says seven. At Twist and Shout. And this time don’t be late.

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