Page 74 of Just Friends Forever
“Go hard or go home,” he says. “When’s your date?”
Right. I’m going on another date. “Tonight. We’re going glow-in-the-dark mini-golfing.”
“You’re one busy woman,” he says.
“It’s just two dates,” I reply, feeling the need to downplay things. “Firstdates. I don’t have anything tomorrow, though. Maybe we can hang out here? Unless you have work stuff.”
“I’d like that. I have a showing in the morning with Evelyn, but the rest of the day is free.”
“Howarethings going with real estate?”
“Good, thanks to you. Evelyn and Rocco couldn’t be more different, though. She balances him out, I guess. You’d love her, Stevie. Sweetest lady in the world. I’m tempted to adopt her as my grandma.”
“I bet she’d agree willingly,” I say. “I’d love to meet her sometime.”
He lifts a shoulder and flips my hair carelessly. “You could always come along tomorrow if you wanted.”
I scrunch my nose. “Would that be weird?”
“She’d be thrilled. Trust me.”
I smile and nod. “Okay, yeah. I’ll come, then.” Because I can’t say no to more time with Troy.
* * *
I gripthe edges of the bathroom counter and stare myself down in the mirror.
Something is wrong with me.
I shouldn’t be looking forward to going to a work appointment with Troy and sitting around with him in loungy clothes all day tomorrow more than I look forward to my date tonight.
“Get it together, Stevie,” I say. “You made your bed. Now lie down in it andbe happy!” I smack the counter with the last two words.
Shockingly, my tactic doesn’t work. I sigh and walk away.
I slip on a baseball cap and peer through a tiny crack in the curtains. The Cannes Film Festival is going on, which seems to have called some of our glorified Peeping Toms away. That’ll make it a lot easier to leave on my date. My haircut should help too.
Troy lets me take his car, and the paparazzi don’t even attempt to follow me. I’m vaguely offended. Is it my new hair? Am I boring them? Or maybe Troy wasn’t joking and they really are here for him. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for news stories about him to get out. They’d be wholesome, at least.
My date is with Guy, who meets me outside the miniature golf place. He’s attractive and nice and funny and weirdly good at mini-golf and… I feel nothing for him.
No sparks.
No desire for a second date.
And the worst part? He seems to like me a lot. Enough that, at the end of the date when he walks me to my car, I have to dodge a kiss.
Maybe it’s too soon after the divorce and my brain can’t wrap around the idea of getting physically involved with someone. That’s a plausible answer, right?
It might be, except for one tiny problem: my brain has already wrapped itself around the idea of Troy. Wrapped around it like a boa constrictor.
Is my two-first-dates record the beginning of a pattern? Or do I just need to keep hunting until I find somebody besides Troy who doesn’t make me want to high-five them when they give me the I’m-about-to-kiss-you look?
26
TROY
A lotof people work out twice a day.
