Page 19 of Boyfriend Material
“Shh, boys. Let Theo finish his story. Don’t you want to know how he and Aunt Livie met? I sure do,” Geo said.
Livie didn’t appreciate his snarky comment, but that was her brother. Why couldn’t he be kind just once? Was it really that hard to believe she’d have a boyfriend like Theo?
Theo had been smiling at the boy's exuberance, but it slid from his face at her brother’s comment.
“Anyway, I was having a terrible day at work. One of my coworkers suggested meeting up with other friends at the Ready Room. It sounded like the perfect idea to blow off the horrible day, and it was better than I could have imagined. Although, I’m not sure Livie thought so.”
“Why is that?” Betsy asked.
Livie had almost asked, too, but stopped herself in time.
“When I got there, I kind of stormed inside and wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. As I came around the corner into the main part of the bar, I crashed into Livie. She was coming out of the kitchen balancing a big tray of food. Before I could grab her, she fell, dropped the tray, and food went everywhere.”
“Oh no. Aunt Livie must have been mad,” Georgie said.
“Shh, Georgie, let Theo talk,” Jean said.
“The tray made a racket when it hit the floor, and the entire place went quiet. I think we were all in shock. But not Livie. Nope, she was covered in food—chicken wings, nachos, and loaded French Fries—and laughing her a…butt off. She was gorgeous.”
“We’re supposed to believe this malarky?” Her mom scoffed.
“It’s true. I’d had a horrible day too, and it was like the icing on the cake. Lucky for me, the owner has extra shirts in the back. We cleaned up the food, and I went in the back and changed.”
“I offered to pay for everything, but Pam, the owner, told me not to worry about it. I felt awful, and I wanted to make it up to Livie. But she just brushed it off.”
“It was an accident. I wasn’t hurt. Well, maybe my butt was a little sore the next day. It really wasn’t a big deal,” Livie said.
“See how amazing she is? Most women would have torn me a new one, err, my head off, but not Livie. I offered to pay for her cleaning, but she refused. She went back to work, and I didn’t want to keep bothering her. I ended up sitting with my friends and having dinner. It would have been perfect if she’d been our server, but it was her friend, Patience.”
“He tried to pump Patience for information about me, but she wouldn’t tell him anything. Not until she asked if it was okay.”
“She’s a good friend.” Theo nodded.
“The very best.”
“How did you end up getting together after that?” Betsy asked.
“At first, I figured I’d make it up to her with extra tips whenever she was my server. I’d call ahead and find out when she was working and go as often as possible. But the more time I spent with her, the more I wanted to date her. It took almost a month before she agreed to go out with me.”
“You turned him down?” Her mom smirked. “Why am I not surprised?”
“I keep telling you, Mom, between school and work, I’m lucky I have time to sleep. He wouldn’t stop asking. I thought if I agreed to go out with him once, he’d feel better about the whole mess and it would be over. That’s not what happened, obviously.”
John choked on his coffee. “No shit.”
“John,” Betsey exclaimed.
“Mommy, Uncle John cursed. Does he have to put money in the curse jar like Daddy?” Georgie asked.
“Shh, we’ll talk about it later.”
Livie laughed. She bet her brother had to put a lot of money in that jar.
“How long have you been together?” Her mom stared across the table at her, waiting for Livie to answer. Theo came to the rescue again.
“Our first date was on Labor Day. I took her to a barbecue. My friend Tempest and her fiancé, Josh, were hosting it for his SEAL team. Livie knew most of them from the bar and I figured it might make it less stressful.”
“It was the perfect first date. Tempest and her sister, Grace, made me feel so welcome, and Harmony is just a total sweetheart.”
