Page 45 of Suddenly Dating
“Okay, right back at you—is Birta Hoffman really a big deal?”
Lola turned her head and gave him a look that suggested he was dense. “It could only make my career as a writer, that’s all. So yeah.”
“Well same here, cupcake. Are we agreed? We’re going to that damn party if we like it or not?”
“I’m thinking about it,” Lola said coyly. “I wasn’t prepared for this. And I have nothing to wear.”
Why was it that women with closets full of clothes always said they had nothing to wear? “You could try sifting through some of the clothes on the floor of your room.”
“Very funny, Bob the Builder. I don’t expect you to understand. I know it must be super easy for you, what with your never-changing look of hard boots and harder hats.”
“My clothes are functional. I didn’t come to East Beach to win a beauty contest,” he said as he pulled into the grocery store lot. “Those are clothes I wear to work, Lola. That’s why they’re called work clothes.”
“Has it even occurred to you that we could meet someone who knows Zach or Sara at this party and blow our sweet deal with that lake house?” she demanded.
Harry looked out his window a moment. She was right about that—it would only take one person to know either Zach or Sara to get the ball rolling toward disaster. “Yes,” he said. “I thought about it and I’ll be thinking about it all day. But for me, it’s worth it.” He shifted his gaze to her once more. “I guess I need to know if the risk is worth it to you.”
“I don’t know,” she said, and opened her door.
They got out of the truck at the same moment and marched in sync to the door of the grocery. Cool air and piped-in elevator music hit them squarely in the face as the glass doors slid open.
Harry grabbed a basket and started for the frozen food section. But Lola caught the front of the basket and forced it around, toward the fresh produce section. She grabbed a bag of spinach and put it in his cart.
“What are you doing?” he asked, staring at the package of baby leaf spinach. “I won’t eat that.”
“Spinach? You won’t eat spinach? What kind of Neanderthal are you, anyway?” She added a purple cabbage.
Had he ever eaten purple cabbage? It had probably appeared in some restaurant dish in his life, but he would never consciously pick that thing. Harry let it go—at the moment, he had bigger fish to fry. “Okay, Lola, let’s dissect this. We both want to meet people who could be very important to our careers at this party.”
“Apparently,” she said as she picked up two apples and examined them.
“Then let’s just do the date thing, and who knows, maybe even have a good time. Once I meet Albert, we can go back to this,” he said, gesturing between them.
Lola looked up from her apples. “This? What’s this?”
“The temporary roommate thing.”
Lola chewed on the inside of her cheek as if she were mulling that over. She put the two apples back on the pile and picked up two new ones, put them into his cart, then moved down the aisle, picking up a big, dark-green and oddly shaped thing.
“What is that?” he asked.
“Acorn squash. When you saydo the date thing,what exactly do you mean?” She put the squash in his cart.
“You know... pretend we’re on a date.”
“I’m not very good at pretending.” She walked on.
And what didthatmean? That she wouldn’t go along with it? Well, she had to—Harry was determined. He might never get an opportunity like this again, and he was fast running out of options. He followed her, tossing in some cheese sticks, bananas, and something that looked like donuts into his cart. He rounded the corner and followed Lola into the next aisle, where she had stopped to peruse the coffee selections.
Harry was momentarily distracted from his cause by her sexy-as-hell legs. He’d never really considered himself a leg man, but Lola was making him reconsider.
She happened to glance up and catch him checking her out. She rolled her eyes.
“Can’t help it,” he said with a shrug. “I’m a guy. So what’s the verdict?”
“You’re definitely a guy,” she said.
“I mean, are you going to the party with me?”
