Page 80 of Guys Can't Write Romance
“Not at all,” she said. “I like it when a guy’s into romance.”
Brett swallowed and turned to Troy. “Abort mission?”
Troy nodded. “Definitely. Abort.” He turned to the girl. “Sorry about the mixup. But you see the guy standing next to him?”
The girl looked down the bar again. “The guy in the tank top?”
“Yeah. Tell Carly to put your drinks on his tab. His name’s Rhino.”
“Okay?”
With that, the boys hurried back to Rhino and Chad, who had moved from scrolling through texts to tracing doodles in the condensation on his nearly full beer glass.
“What’s the prognosis?” Troy asked Rhino with the seriousness of a doctor assessing a patient.
Rhino gave his head a solemn shake. “Terminal.”
“Are you idiots done with this intervention?” Chad said. “Because I really need to get back to my book.”
“That’s the demon talking,” said Brett. “Fight it, buddy.”
“Which one of you is the boy who likes romance movies?” came a female voice from behind them.
The boys all turned to see a stunning blond and brunette standing there.
“That would be the guy drawing on his beer,” Troy said, pointing to Chad.
“The rest of us have normal T levels,” Brett added, and Rhino and Troy nodded in agreement, as if they couldn’t distance themselves from Chad’s Hallmarkaholism fast enough.
“Oh. My. Gosh!” the blond said, squeezing past Rhino and sitting down on the stool next to Chad, while the brunette sat down on the other side of him. “That’s so cute. What’s your name?”
“Chad,” he said, looking up from his beer doodle.
“I’m Tiffany,” the blond said, “and that’s Cassie.” She nodded to the brunette. “We overheard this girl telling her friends about you.”
“So, you really like romance movies and this isn’t just some pickup scam?” said Cassie.
“It’s research for my novel,” Chad said.
Ahem. Rhino cleared his throat. “I’m Rhino,” he said, trying to squeeze in on the action.
“Kiss off, Shrek,” Tiffany scowled, with the cold tone of someone who’d already been hit on too many times that night. She turned back to Chad, the smile returning to her face. “You’re writing a romance novel?”
“Yeah,” Chad said, his tone friendly but lacking any enthusiasm.
“How cool!” Cassie exclaimed. “What’s it about?”
“Hey. I like romance movies!” Brett tried to cut in.
“Yeah! Me too!” said Troy. “Huge fan. Can’t get enough of them.”
“Since when?” Rhino said.
“Shut up, Shrek,” Troy said.
“Yeah,” Brett said. “Go take your toxic masculinity somewhere else. We’re here to talk romance movies with these ladies.”
Rhino just stared in disbelief. “Since when?”
