Page 191 of Love Me in the Dark
Eleanor frowned. “What do you mean, you can’t go? Of course you’re going.”
“Lens…” Flopping back against the couch, I covered my face with my forearm. “This stuff with Dad…it changes everything.”
I felt her fingers picking at the fabric of the sofa beside my thigh. It was a nervous tic she had, always picking at something. I placed my hand over hers, stilling the movement.
“I don’t see why you can’t go on a date. He may not even find out before you go. It’s tonight, after all,” she muttered.
I was quiet for a minute, processing. She was right. It was early days yet. There was a chance it didn’t blow up. A chance it blew over, instead. That Dad produced everyone’s money, and everyone just went away happy.
Maybe it was the pessimist in me, though. Somehow, that wasn’t what I saw happening at all.
“I think you should trust him,” she continued. “There’s a reason you like him. He’s a good guy. A good person. Even if everything does explode with Dad, I bet he’s decent enough to stay. That’s what good people do.”
Lowering my arm, I regarded her with a troubled gaze. “I wish that’s how it worked.”
She opened her mouth to argue, seemed to think better of it, and closed it again. Standing, she moved back to where she’d dropped her phone and picked it up and resumed her order. “Just think about it,” she said after a few minutes.
I thought about it. And then, after a deep breath, I tapped out a response to Jason.
I’m looking forward to it, too.
The Thai restaurantJason chose was near Columbia’s campus. I’d eaten there before but it was different tonight, seated across a tiny table from a guy I liked.
Jason was a little on the short side, but cute, with wavy brown hair and blue eyes I’d always thought of as kind. I’d figured out that his initial shyness had in fact been extreme caution. Jason had been burned by a past girlfriend and took his time, he said, with new girls. He wanted to be sure of someone before he spent any time with them.
“But isn’t that how you get sure of someone?” I asked, genuinely curious. “By spending time with them, getting to know them?”
He reached across the table and took my hand, turning it over in his and running his thumb across my palm. “Yes, of course. But I spend a lot of time trying to know them on social media and watching them in class and with our mutual friends and stuff like that, first. You know…just trying to see if there are any big red flags.”
I nodded, pursing my lips. “Okay, I guess I understand that.” I leaned forward a bit and pushed my plate aside. “Give me an example of a red flag.”
He grinned. “Putting me on the spot.” Tilting his chin up, he pretended to think. “Let me see…if a girl posted on her Insta account all day, every day, for example, that would be a huge red flag. It would indicate she might be really self-absorbed, or into that kind of superficial attention.”
“Agreed.”
“Or maybe someone posts a charity on their Facebook, but then walks by the person on the corner with the cup every morning on their way to get their boutique coffee.”
“Ouch.”
He shrugged. “Not really judging, but it’s revealing.”
“Maybe they don’t carry cash. Or are afraid of being mugged or something.”
“Valid points.” His light grip on my hand tightened a bit, and his gaze intensified. “I like you, Jude Tiernay.”
I wiped the corner of my mouth with my other hand, hiding the smile that wanted to bloom. I wanted to play it cool, but the truth was, I wasn’t a cool person. “I kind of like you, too.”
“I’m not ready for the night to be over. Would you like to come back to my apartment and…watch a movie?”
He was smooth. “I…uh.” I bit my lip. I didn’t want the date to end, either. “I would. As long as you understand that’s all it is. I’m a good girl. I don’t do sex on the first date.”
His eyes gleamed. “I respect that.” He tapped the folder containing the check, which he’d paid earlier, and started to rise. “Let’s get out of here.”
Jason lived in what would be a fairly modest apartment anywhere outside of New York but was prime real estate in the city and therefore worth a pretty penny. I lifted an eyebrow as he led me from the elevator into the vestibule and paused to unlock the door. “Parents?”
He grinned, not at all sheepish. “Of course. Yours, too, right?”
“Guilty. I have a place off campus with a few friends, but I mostly still live at home. I have a younger sister who I—” I broke off, thinking about the way Eleanor was always picking at something—the skin of her wrists, the clothes she wore, the furniture she was sitting on. “She’s never been diagnosed, but she struggles with anxiety. I don’t like to leave her for long periods of time.” I finished simply.
