“Cheers.”
They clinked glasses, and Elissa took a sip of her margarita. She much preferred her margaritas on the rocks with salt. But this was uncommonly delightful for frozen, a nice balance of lime, sugar, and tequila. Top shelf tequila. And was that a touch of Tajin? Tasty.
“So you like sci-fi?” Nice-Ryan’s voice pulled her back to their previous convo.
“Only the funny stuff. Scalzi is also a favorite. You said you run. Do you do races or just for exercise?”
“Treadmill at the gym. Lets me customize my workout.”
As Nice-Ryan went all rhapsodic about the fantastic equipment at his gym, her attention wandered to the other Ryan. The way he moved through the crowd, the smile on his face as he greeted customers, the occasional laugh carrying over the noise of a busy restaurant. What was wrong with her? Pining over some dude who didn’t even acknowledge her existence. She was better than this.
But every time she tried to pay attention, her eyes glazed over. She gave encouraging nods, asked a few follow-up questions, but Nice-Ryan seemed more than happy to talk about himself, while the handsome, mysterious jerk kept invading her thoughts as he’d done for the past week. Her brain wanted nothing more to do with Jerk-Ryan, but she needed to have a serious conversation with the rest of her body.
When he distracted himself with his almost empty glass, she glanced at her watch. Forty-five minutes! It seemed like hours.
“Do you have somewhere else you need to be?” he asked, catching her checking her watch.
Dang it!
“Yes, actually.” She decided to play the family card since he had last time. “I promised to bring home dinner for my kid brother tonight. My parents are out with friends, and if I don’t bring him food, he’ll play video games until they get home.”
Elissa opened her clutch and pulled out a credit card.
“No. I’ll pick up the drinks. Family comes first. I had a nice time, Elissa.”
Crap. She’d hoped he’d been as bored as her. Apparently, her politeness had passed for interest, and he hadn’t even noticed she’d been a bad date. Elissa was at a loss for how to let him down easy. She needed Jules’s advice. Instead, she stuck out her hand.
“Thank you for a lovely evening, Ryan.”
Another face popped into her mind as she said the name. A leaner face, framed with dark hair, and brown eyes that did uncomfortable things to her female anatomy. Damn.
“I’d like to do this again.”
Double damn. And add two dollars to the swear jar. The way she was going, they’d have family fun night before the end of the quarter. She really, really needed to talk to Jules. But she had an ace up her sleeve.
“Sure, but tax season is around the corner, so I need to check my calendar. I’ll text you in a couple days.” Maybe she would try again. She owed him a better date far, far away from hot guys who kept distracting her.
Nice-Ryan signaled to the object of her distraction, and Elissa left before she had to confront him again. The sun was down and the chill had her rubbing her arms as she walked to her car in the well-lit parking lot. She texted Leo as soon as she shut the door.
E: I’m getting sandwiches. Want one?
L: Yes date bad?
E: Ugh.
L: U didn’t want 2 lie so ur bringing me dinner
E: Why do you insist on using abbreviations? Autofill is there for a reason.
L: Ur old
Elissa sent an emoji with the tongue sticking out.
E: Do you want a sandwich or not?
He sent back the drooling emoji, which Elissa took to mean yes. Teenagers were weird. There was a Baggins between here and home, and he loved their jalapeño popper grilled cheese. She placed her order via the app, choosing the Thanksgiving dinner sandwich.
Motion outside caught her eye. Nice-Ryan—no, too boring to be nice—Beige-Flag-Ryan strode out of the restaurant. She was supposed to be in a hurry, so she ducked down and hoped he didn’t look around for her. A few minutes later, a car pulled out.
