Page 121 of Guys Can't Write Romance
Daisy nodded as she unlocked her car door and climbed in. She looked up at him. “Do you think fully charged Chad might make an appearance soon?”
Chad took a breath. “I hope so.”
“Me too. Because I miss him.”
Chad arrived home to find Rhino sprawled on the couch, watching a basketball game with the volume turned up too loud.
“How was the writers’ group?” Rhino asked, muting the TV. “And more importantly, how was hot teacher?”
“She’s good,” Chad said, sinking into the armchair. “And I’m an idiot.”
Rhino shot him a grin. “That’s not news, bro.”
“More of an idiot than usual.”
Rhino sat up. “Tell me you didn’t already blow it with her.”
“Not yet. But I’m heading that way fast if I don’t get it together.”
“What happened?”
Chad took a breath. “Remember me telling you about Daisy’s friend Ava?”
“Oh, yeah. Lawyer Barbie, with a stick up her butt. What about her?”
“She stopped by school today to give me a pep talk about how I’m not good enough for Daisy, and how she’ll bail as soon as she comes to her senses.”
“Since when do you care what some stuck-up lawyer thinks?”
“Since she basically told me everything I was already thinking.”
“So, we’re going full circle back to Ashley.”
Chad groaned and rubbed his hands through his hair. “You might be right about her messing me up more than I thought.”
“And you think Daisy’s gonna be like that?”
“I don’t know. I mean, Ava knows her better than I do.”
“Really? Because I don’t think she knows the Daisy Fields you know. The one who snorts beer out of her nose and sports the hungover werewolf look like a champ. Who pranks as good as anyone I’ve met. And takes both of our crap and throws it back at us.”
Chad just stared at the TV for a moment while Rhino’s words sank in. “When did you become such an expert on my psychology?”
“I told you. Dr. Phil, busted leg, six weeks of daytime TV.” Rhino tossed him a beer from the cooler beside the couch. “Look, I don’t think Ava knows this side of Daisy at all. I don’t think even Daisy knew it until you brought it out of her. So, stop being an idiot, and be the guy she fell for.”
“You really think she fell for me?”
Rhino shook his head. “I’m not even gonna dignify that with a response.”
“So, your advice is to stop being an idiot?”
“It’s a starting point,” Rhino shrugged. “We can work up to the more advanced emotional stuff once you’ve mastered the basics.”
Across town, Daisy sat alone at her kitchen table, pushing pasta around her plate and wondering what had gone wrong. Her phone lay silent beside her, with no messages from Chad. Her thoughts kept returning to his story, to Brandon and his ghost, to the fear of not being enough without a phantom to guide him.
She thought about texting him again, but decided against it. Whatever was happening with Chad, it felt like something he needed to work through himself. She just hoped that when he did, he’d realize she was still there, waiting.
She picked up her manuscript, flipping through the pages of Rick and Jessica’s love story, and found herself thinking about her own. The safety she’d sought with Ethan, the excitement and unpredictability of her feelings for Chad. The way his story had touched something deep inside her, revealing vulnerabilities she hadn’t known he possessed.
