Page 83 of Finding Jack
I opened the plastic bag he’d been holding toward me. “Sushi!”
“I want!” Ranée called.
I tipped him and shut the door. “I’ll share.”
I set the tray of assorted pieces on the table and handed her a pair of chopsticks. She took a bite of a California roll, nodded her approval, and then kept eating while keeping her eyes fixed on me in an expression I knew well. It was her “solving a problem” look.
“What?”
She swallowed her current bite. “I don’t see how you and Jack this week are any different than you and Jack in previous weeks. Tell me again what this is?”
“A friendship.”
“You don’t do this for any of your friends. None of your friends would do this for you.”
“Of course you would. Remember when we celebrated my last big work victory with shoe shopping and sugar and TV bingeing?”
“All right, but I’m your best friend. That isn’t what it means when a guy does this.”
“It means exactly the same thing. That we’re friends.”
She leaned over and petted my hair. “You’re so cute when you lie to yourself.”
“I’m not lying to myself.”
She ate a couple more bites of sushi. “Fine. You’re not lying to yourself. You guys are just friends. This is in no way a substitute for a real dating life.”
“No.”
“Give me your phone.”
“Are you going to text something stupid to Jack?”
“I could do that with my own phone, so no. I’m not going to talk to Jack at all. Give it to me.”
“I don’t know why I always obey you.” I handed her my phone.
“Because I’m relentless in wearing you down, so you’re saving yourself a headache by giving in up front.”
“Oh, yeah.”
She unlocked the screen and scanned it for a minute, then turned it around so I could see the icon for the dating app we both used sometimes. “This has seven notifications. When’s the last time you checked it?”
“I don’t know. I’m busy.”
“You’re no busier than you were three weeks ago when you were going on dates every day. And so far you’ve had enough time to hang out with Jack every night this week. And you guys are playing Scrabble and he’s ordering you food and you text all day and watch TV shows together on the phone. He’s your boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“He’s your something.”
“Yes. My friend.”
She squinted at me. “Is it hard to be you? With the whole not-living-in-reality thing, I mean?”
“Just because you don’t understand the concept of guy friends doesn’t mean I can’t have one.”
“I understand the concept. I have a ton. None of which order me dinners and spend hours on Facetime or the phone with me every night.” She pushed her sushi away. “Look, I’m only worried about you. You’ve said you’re ready for a relationship, and I think you are too. That’s why I’m worried. This thing with Jack is filling all the emotional spaces any other relationship would need from you, so now you’re not looking.”
