Page 29 of No Rings Attached
I wanted to sag in relief. I’d been so afraid I wouldn’t be able to answer a question she might ask and raise suspicions.
“Hold your horses! I’ll be right there.” She rolled her eyes playfully. “I hope I get the chance to chat with you more at another time. It was nice to meet you, Ellie.”
She seemed sweet and genuine, and I got the impression she meant the sentiment. That her offer of getting to know each other wasn’t just a false platitude or one said in passing.
“You, too.” I tucked into my food and groaned with the first bite. “Either this sandwich is amazing or I’m more hungry than I thought I’d be.”
Drew grinned. “Probably both.”
I finished chewing, and after looking around to make sure no other customers were super close, I leaned toward him, “We need to get our stories straight. And learn more about each other.” Even with all the personal details we’d shared, there was so much more I still didn’t know about him.
He set his burger down. “Agreed. Let’s start small and work our way up to the bigger things. And if a question is asked that we don’t want to answer … ”
“We’ll be honest.” I thought about it a little more. If we were going to make this work, we had to have clear communication parameters.
And romantic ones, Bad Eleanor taunted me.
Shut up, Bad Eleanor.
“And—” I added, “We tell each other if it’s something we never discuss or might discuss later.”
“I can agree to that.” He dipped his fry in ketchup. “What’s your favorite color?”
“That’s a tough one. Sometimes it changes based on my mood, but I’d say teal.” All colors were beautiful. It was too difficult to pick just one and stick with it. “Yours?”
“Emerald green.”
“Ooh, pretty. Favorite grade in school, and why?” When I daydreamed about my time with Drew, I’d always hoped it would be easy like this. And learning more about him was a fun bonus.
“Probably junior year of high school. Everything seemed to come together for me then. I was able to balance my schoolwork, play baseball, and I was president of my class. It was also the year I interned at Kingsley Jewelry and realized I wanted to work there one day.”
Well, that blewmyreturn response out of the water.
“What about you?” Drew asked and popped the fry into his mouth.
“It’s silly.” I wanted to pass on this one, but also if we did that too often, then where would we be? Getting to know each was the whole point of this.
“Are you asking to invoke The Question Unanswered Clause, aka TQUC?” He teased gently.
“No.” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “It’s just not a big deal. It was fifth grade. My school had this contest where we created our own short story, typed it out, and made a book cover for it. That was the year I won first place.”
“That’s awesome. Why wouldn’t you want to share something like that?”
Heat bloomed on my cheeks, and raced down my neck. My family had said it wasn’t a real contest and likely didn’t have that many entries. I tried explaining that most of my grade had participated along with the rest of the school, but none of it mattered.
I shrugged. “It just didn’t seem all that important.” I wasn’t ready to admit how my parents made me feel guilty for stealing attention from my sister after she’d finally recovered from her illness. They were in the throes of doing all the things she’d missed out on and had little time for me. I hated how jealous I’d been of her and I felt like a terrible sister because of it.
“I disagree. Maybe someday you’ll let me read it?” He seemed genuinely interested. But I was pretty positive that my fantasy story was likely only interesting to ten-year-olds.
“Maybe.” A warm fluttery feeling started behind my breastbone at the thought that he cared enough to ask. I couldn’t remember the last time I had someone in my life that wanted to share in what brought me joy. “Tell me about your family,” I asked.
While our relationship was fake, I loved the idea of getting to experience the normalness of his family, even for a short amount of time.
“I’m not sure where to start.” He took a sip of water. “We’re close.” The guilty look he shot my way made me think that he already saw the discrepancies, too. The sad part was that I hadn’t noticed how badly my family treated me until recently. It was the real reason I left for Ruby River earlier than I’d planned.
“I’m excited to meet them. Your family seems pretty great.”
“They are. I mean we fight about typical stuff, but I always know they have my back. You met Glamma, my dad, and Wyatt. I have another brother, Marcus, and you’ve talked to my younger sister, Grace.”
