Page 31 of An Overdue Match
“We’re very close.” She walks past me to the drop-off box and closes the back door, locking it with a twist of the key. When she turns, she studies me for a moment.
I lift my chin. Then lower it again because I realize how defensive the gesture is.
Hayley sighs. “Look, I don’t know why you’ve pulled a 1990s Joshua Harris, but you should give Tai a chance.”
“What in the world is a 1990s Joshua Harris?”
“You know, the guy who wrote the bookI Kissed Dating Goodbye? Never mind. The point is, since you never talk about it, I’ve assumed some jerk broke your heart and you’re still not over it yet. But Tai is a good guy.”
I snort because I have to respond somehow and admitting the truth isn’t an option.
Hayley’s face pinches and starts to turn an alarming shade of red. I hold up my hands, placating her before she gets toohot under the collar. “Look, I’m sorry. Maybe he is a nice man. I don’t know him very well so I can’t really say, except he did dog-ear almost all the pages of that book. But the fact remains that I’m not looking for a romantic relationship right now.”
Hayley wrestles with what I’m saying. I can see she wants to argue but ultimately she decides against it. Instead, she shakes her head in disappointment. “It’s your turn to take a lunch break.” She pivots, stopping when she reaches the door. “Just so you know, he didn’t dog-ear the pages. I did. The book was going to the Friends of the Library book sale anyway so I bought it. The whole thing was just a joke, Evangeline.” With that, she marches back into the library.
I turn to follow but pause when the sound of a V8 engine pulls into the nearest parking spot. My shoulders sag. This day keeps getting better and better.
Tai steps out of his car. “I need to talk to you.”
“Can it wait? I have a lot of work to do.” It’s the truth. But so is the fact that I won’t be getting to that work until after I’ve taken my lunch break.
Tai thinks for a second, then nods. “Meet me at the gazebo at seven after you lock up.”
“Fine,” I say just to get him to leave. I can think of an excuse later as to why I wasn’t able to show up.
He opens his car door and turns back toward me. “Oh, and Angel? Please don’t stand me up. You may be putting me off now, but you won’t be able to avoid me forever.”
14
The library is quiet when seven o’clock rolls around, not a patron in sight. Which means I don’t have an excuse to keep Tai waiting. Although inconveniencing him with my delayed arrival is the least I want to do. I’m irrationally upset. I know he hasn’t really done anything to deserve my ire, but that’s what the wordirrationalmeans—not logical or reasonable.
I just wish he’d stop being there every time I turn a corner. Six months of coexistence in the same town without laying eyes on the man and now he seems to be everywhere. Showing up with his ready smile and easy manner and silver tongue. Asking me out and flaunting the chance of a future that I’m—
Well, let’s just say it out loud, shall we? A future of love and acceptance and companionship that I so desperately want but am too paralyzed with fear of the past repeating itself that I ... that I...
Argh! He should be a gentleman and stop harassing me!
He’s not harassing you. He said he needed to talk to you. That’s all.
We have nothing to talk about.
You don’t know that until you hear what he has to say.
I guess there’s at least one part of my brain that’s beingrational tonight, and it seems like it’s finally winning its argument.
I turn the key to lock the library and deposit it in my pocket. The sun has wholly disappeared behind the hills, casting the ridges in a dark blue silhouette, the sky behind them a vibrant sea of cascading colors. Already the chill of the approaching twilight has chased away what warmth the sun had left behind, causing me to pull my jacket closed around me and zipping the fleece material up to my throat.
There’s a footpath from the library to the small community park next door. The town uses the grassy space for Fourth of July picnics, and parents rent out the area for their children’s birthday parties. Now, however, the park is quiet and serene. I’d enjoy the setting, the picturesque gazebo standing innocently in the middle of the lawn, were it not the backdrop for a conversation I don’t want to have.
The warm-lighted, old-fashioned streetlamps lining the path turn on as the sky’s pallet mutes. A man leans against the support post to the gazebo’s entrance, ankles casually crossed and hands shoved in pockets as his shoulder rests against the wood. He appears as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. The blackguard.
He pops himself off the post and stands straight as I approach, watching me in an unsettling way.
“Angel.” He grins at me.
“You wanted to talk about something?” I walk past him and take a seat on one of the six benches lining each side of the hexagon.
“I’ve discovered your little secret.”
