Page 8 of The Last Date

As I approached the back table, I saw that she already had a glass of Riesling in front of the empty chair beside her.

“Drinking on a Sunday,” she grinned. “Bottoms up.”

Raising my glass before I’d even sat down, I took a much needed swig.

“Geez, girl, what’s wrong?” Sarah laughed. “You don’t normally call an important meeting like this on Sundays,” she laughed.

“Wait until I have half a glass in my system,” I said. “How is work going lately?”

“Absolutely brilliantly. Timothy can now both order lunch and swear in three languages,” she giggled.

Sarah was a tutor for high school kids whose parents wanted to take them traveling, without too much of a language barrier. She specialized in conversational, real-world phrases that they would need on the road in both French and Spanish.

Like me, her parents were quite well off so she didn’t exactly have to work, but she needed to feel useful.

“Any word from that guy you were going to go out with?” I asked. “Brent?”

“Britt. We made plans, then he was going to call to confirm the time, and he didn’t.”

“Well, crap. I’m sorry,” I said before taking another big slug of wine.

“How was your date last night?” She asked. “Did it actually go well, and that’s why you’re off-kilter?”

“Shockingly,” I said, “it was the best date I’d had out of all the ones my mom set me up with.”

“That’s amazing! Are you going to see him again?”

I shook my head. “No. We established right from the start that we weren’t right for each other, so we just hung out and had dinner. It was surprisingly refreshing.”

“Well, that’s something,” she shrugged. “At least now you know what a mellow date feels like.”

“True, and it really did help me relax while talking to a guy.” I took another sip, then realized it was time to try to make sense of the strange feelings swirling around in my belly. “Since I got home a bit early, I went out to have a swim after. It was my dad’s guys night.”

“So you were surrounded by older guys pinching

your cheeks and telling you how cute you were?” She laughed.

“No. I actually saw the hottest guy I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Sarah’s big blue eyes grew wide, as she set her glass down, steepling her fingers on the table. “Details, Sasha. Right now.”

My cheeks were already getting hot. “He’s my dad’s friend’s younger brother, so he’s probably in his mid to late thirties, I would guess,” I began.

Sarah nodded. “You’ve mentioned a few times that you might like older men. Go on.”

“He’s charming, and weird, and sort of…” There was no articulate way to describe him. “Ridiculously cocky, but in a totally adorable way.”

Sarah’s fingers tapped together like an evil overlord making plans. “And when are we seeing this fine man again?”

“I have no idea. He didn’t get my number.”

“Well, frick,” she muttered under her breath. “Do you know where he works? Maybe you could accidentally drop by.”

“I have no idea what he does for a living.”

“Then what did you two talk about?” she asked.

“We barely talked at all. We were only in the pool for ten minutes or so, and he swam around me in circles, not quite touching me every chance he got.”

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