Isla:If there is an obvious opening for a movie quote, then yes.
“Uh, is that your friend?” Scarlet said, pointing toward the door.
My head snapped up from looking down at my phone and looked in the direction where Scarlet was pointing.
My eyes easily found Isla in the crowded dining hall. She wore the same outfit but had freshened up her makeup.
“Yeah, that’s her.” I lifted my hand to get her attention.
“You failed to mention she’s gorgeous,” Scarlet accused.
“Does that really matter?” I asked.
She shrugged. “No, but for a guy who doesn’t want to fall for someone, don’t you think being friends with a gorgeous blonde is going to be a problem?”
“Maybe for a regular guy,” I said. “But I don’t fall, remember?”
She gave me a look like she knew more than I did, and I didn’t like it. “This should be fun.”
Before I could ask what she meant by that, Isla was at our table, taking the empty seat next to me.
“Hi,” she said to me, her voice sounding a bit nervous.
“Hey,” I said to her before turning to my friends. “Everyone, this is Isla. Isla, this is Wilder. We grew up together. We’ve been best friends since kindergarten. This is Olivia, his girlfriend, who batted her pretty eyelashes at him two years ago and got him to give up living the bachelor life with me.”
Olivia nodded. “It’s true.”
“This here is Rush,” I continued, pointing to where Rush sat. “We became friends freshman year playing on the football team together. And finally, we have his girlfriend, Scarlet, our very own Georgia peach.”
Scarlet smacked my shoulder. “Really? You had to throw in a peach reference?”
I gave her a cheeky grin. “I know how much you love it.”
“Anyway,” Scarlet said, ignoring me. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Isla tucked some of her hair behind her ear. “Thank you for this pity lunch. I’m sure Slate’s filled you in on my sad and embarrassing story.”
Before any awkwardness could set in, Scarlet jumped in with a smile. “Honey, we all have one of those stories. Welcome to the club.”
A smile appeared on Isla’s face as Scarlet’s words seemed to relax her.
The conversation flowed easily after that, everyone getting to know Isla and where she was from.
I interrupted only to ask if she wanted some food since she had a class soon and I didn’t want my friends’ interrogation to have her going hungry. “Do you want me to grab something for you to eat?”
“What?” she asked, sounding surprised. “Oh, no, you don’t have to. I can go get something.”
“No, you keep talking, and I can go get it. I’m with these crazies all the time,” I said, jerking my thumb toward my friends.
She chuckled. “Okay. Can you get me a turkey sub?”
I stood. “As you wish.”
A smile broke out on her face as she looked up at me. “Princess Bride. I like it.”
I was glad she picked up on my movie quote and that it had made her smile. She’d had a crappy day. A crappy three weeks, really. If me saying a cheesy movie line brought her a sliver of joy, then it was worth it. Why? I didn’t know. Maybe because it felt nice to think about someone else and their problems instead of mine.
“I’ll be back,” I said in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger accent, and she laughed.
