Page 46 of Finding Jack
Ranée was wrong. I knew she had my best interests at heart, but mostly Ranée just liked to fix things while remaining a hot mess. Working on me meant she didn’t have to work on herself.
I tried to ignore her when Jack texted me Wednesday morning to ask if I wanted to go out again.
Yeah. Yes. So much yes. But…what if this wasn’t play time for him too?
Gah. Stupid Ranée.
I texted back with a short,Sure.
Cool. Call you tonight to figure something out.
I blinked down at his text to me. Call me tonight? If he was calling me tonight, then what was the date? Wasn’t the call the date?
I hurried home from work and scarfed down someph?before I turned on Netflix and tried to pretend my phone didn’t exist. I was halfway through an episode ofJane the Virginwhen Jack called.
“Hi,” I said. At least I didn’t have to go through a shame spiral from answering the phone this time.
“Hey,” he said. “Is now a good time?”
“I mean, I was busy improving my mind with some highbrow television, but I can pause it.”
“I’m impressed. I was watchingStorage Wars.”
“That one guy who drives the old fifties car always overbids.”
He laughed. “He does. So, are you free on Friday night?”
I nestled down in the sofa. “Friday works. But when one goes to Rome and London on a first date, how does one top that?”
“One doesn’t,” he said. “One changes directions completely. One upgrades the format and downgrades the activity.”
“I don’t follow, but you’ve got me very curious.”
“How about a low-key night of board games?”
That didn’t sound nearly as exciting as a stroll through Hyde Park, but I kept my voice light as I said, “Sure.”
He cleared his throat. “But over FaceTime.”
So that’s what “upgrading the format” meant. “Sure,” I said again, but I wasn’t sure I’d kept it quite as light this time. “So I have to find my conditioner?”
“Nah,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “But I’m definitely buying the good kind tomorrow.”
Man, he was smooth in the dorkiest possible way. “I’ll pencil in a tangle-free date for Friday.” We chatted a few more minutes and hung up.
For the rest of the week, the stomach-flipping and flutters recurred every time I thought about our first face-to-face date. Or “face to face,” I guess. But every time that happened, I also heard Ranée in my head.Make sure he knows this is all it will ever be.I imagined all the different ways I could shut her up when her voice intruded. Hand over her mouth. Duct tape. Or if it intruded a lot, maybe a pillow over her face.
That was the most annoying thing about Ranée. Once she planted an idea like that, I had to deal with it completely before I could dismiss it. So I tried.
The most uncomfortable part of her argument was that Jack’s expectations might be different than mine. Even planning dates suggested a deeper investment than goofing off in chats and texts all week.
Gah. Stupid Ranée. I was going to have to deal with this.
I could not feel any stupider about having a “define the relationship” talk with my online playmate. And yet it didn’t make me look forward any less to our game night.
Friday afternoon I rushed straight home from work and ransacked my closet trying to figure out what to wear. It all looked lame. I gave up and Googled “best colors to wear on camera.” It was more like a list of all the things not to wear on camera, which could be summed up as “everything.” Except blue. Blue was “safe” on camera, which was good because heaven knows tight patterns, dangly earrings, and above all STRIPES would make the camera explode, probably.
Google could only boss me up to a point, then I rebelled in very Emily-esque style by only kind of obeying but also not NOT obeying and pulled on a teal shirt because it wasn’t exactly blue but wasn’t NOT blue. Other famous Emily rebellions included high school spirit days when all the student government kids were required to wear our student council T-shirts. As the Club Coordinator, that meant me. I hated those boring gray shirts, so every Friday I cheered myself up by wearing a neon green bra underneath. No Google list was going to make me wear straight blue even though it’s my favorite color.
