Page 65 of Perfect Pairing
“Chateau Delatou sounds perfect,” I assured him.
“Great. How about tonight?”
I gave him a sly grin. “Eager, are we?”
“To be seen with you? Absolutely.”
“In that case, tonight is great.”
“Perfect,” he said with a wide smile, accepting his order from Celia. “Where do you live? I’ll pick you up.”
I pointed toward the ceiling. “Upstairs.”
“Then I already know where to find you,” he said. “See you at seven.”
With a wink, he was gone.
Delia came to myapartment ahead of my date under the guise of helping me pick out something to wear.
But I saw it for what it was: nosiness.
Thankfully, I called in Ella for reinforcements, and she was doing her level best to run interference—not an easy task, considering Delia was a bulldozer.
“Lia, you are aware that I’ve been dressing myself for years,” I said as I flicked through the hangers in my closet. “I can get ready for a date alone.”
“No, you need us, baby sister,” Delia cooed, walking over to pat my head despite the fact that we were the same height. I swatted at her, and she leapt away from me with a cackle.
“God, you’re annoying,” I told her, though I couldn’t help but grin when I turned away.
“You love me,” she quipped, throwing herself onto my bed. The cheap mattress folded dangerously under her frame, and she grumbled, “I don’t know why you don’t move into a bigger place so you can get a bigger bed.”
“I like it here,” I said. “And how come you guys don’t bug Ella about her shoebox apartment?”
“Hey!” Ella exclaimed. “Don’t dragme into this.”
“I’m just saying,” I sighed. “Ella’s place is actually smaller than mine, but no one tells her to move to a bigger one.”
“Maybe we should,” Delia said, turning her gaze on Ella. “It’s not like you guys can’t afford it.”
“I like being close to the shop,” Ella and I said in unison, then both broke into a fit of giggles that had Delia pouting.
“Just because you bought a huge farmhouse with enough rooms for our entire family doesn’t mean we have to do the same,” I told Delia when I settled.
Delia shrugged. “I’m just saying. A little more space for sleepovers wouldn’t kill you. And how can you stand sleeping in that tiny ass bed?”
“I like my bed,” I said, though from the looks my sisters gave me, they saw it for the lie it was.
Okay, so I didn’t love it. I’d much rather starfish on a large mattress than be stuck within the confines of my full one, but it was all I could fit. And it’s not like I had anyone to share it with.
I refused to let myself remember the one and only time I’d had a guest stay here with me. Those three years had passed in a blink but painfully slow at the same time. It was the first and last time I’d let a man I wasn’t related to into this space. As much as I tried to forget, there was no scrubbing my memory of the way Ezra had wrapped his long, lean body around mine, both to avoid falling off the bed and to keep me close—not that I would’ve gone anywhere. I’d learned that night that his arms were my favorite place to be, and I hadn’t felt that way about anyone since.
This date was the first step in moving on. I was finally letting go of that tiny spark of hope in my chest that said Ezra wouldcome back.
“Can we get back to the matter at hand?” I asked, blowing my hair out of my face. I was grateful the building’s central A/C serviced the shop and my apartment, because it was unseasonably warm out, and I would’ve been sweating otherwise—both from nerves and the temp. I opted to wear my hair down—something I rarely did. The thick, heavy curtain was usually more of a nuisance than it was worth, and I secretly wished I was as brave as Ella, who had long ago chopped hers to her collarbones. If she wanted length, she added clip-in extensions.
Braids were my go-to, my signature hairstyle, typically a single one, the tail hanging between my shoulder blades or draped over my shoulder. Sometimes, if I was feeling spunky, I’d do two.
But this was a date, which meant stepping out of my comfort zone and putting some effort into my appearance. I even applied makeup, another thing I rarely did.
