She’s had a habit of locking herself out of her apartment next door for as long as she’s lived there. The problem being that her brother has also had a bad habit of barging in unannounced.
I manage to wrangle Mila onto the street, the car horns blaring in the distance, and the water quietly lapping in the harbor oddly peaceful after several hours of questions that are designed to keep you in a constant fight or flight mode.
We amble to my car, and when she settles into the passenger seat, she lets out a dramatic sigh.
“You okay?” I ask, turning the key in the ignition.
“We need to find boyfriends,” she mumbles under her breath.
My lips tighten. “I’m good, but we can find you one.”
“I think you need to open up more. Get on a dating app. Zara could probably get you onto that one for celebrities. Find yourself a cute baseball player,” she rants, continuing to list off all of the people I could hook up with.
I notice she doesnotbring up the Cobras, and I don’t call her out on it.
“I just think it would be fun for you. Give you something else to do.”
“I don’t need anything else to do,” I assure her as I pull onto the road, heading out of the city to where her apartment is. She and Heidi used to live together in the cutest little place, and when the lease was up, Mila decided it was time for her to take a step and live completely on her own. “And I love my job. You know that.”
My catering company has grown over the last year, and we’ve gone from one event every few weeks to multiple a week. In fact, some summers we have one every day.
It’s grown so much, in fact, that I have a manager. And an assistant. Although I make the final call on all business decisions, I’m not as hands-on anymore, which is both wonderful and annoying.
I do miss the act of building the business, but not enough to build another one at the moment. I think I’d actually rather go back to Bartending for a while, actually.
A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into Baltimore Bites, and I’ll baby it until I can’t anymore.
But the best way to make sure that I can’t do that is to get distracted by some man.
“I just think it would be cool. All of us together with our families. All running around, barefoot in, well, definitely Briar’s kitchen.”
While everyone, including Heidi, believes Briar will be the mother of the friend group forever, Idothink Heidi has a firm chance of becoming Martha Stewart overnight and taking over the role.
“One day,” is what I tell her. But in my head, watching the stoplight shift, I’m not sure that’s true.
“You know, there’s that show coming o?—”
I cut her off with a shake of the head, my ponytail suddenly super uncomfortable pressed against the seat. “That’s not happening.”
“But don’t you think that could be soromantic?”
“Having to give up an entire week? Or is it two? To do challenges to get paired up with a stranger? No thank you.”
“Well, you’re not just paired up. You get married. And then live life together.” She crosses her arms over her chest with a little huff. “I think it’s really cute. A perfect show, actually. And it’s a few months, not just a week.” She says it like that small fact makes itbetter.
“Then why don’t you go on?”
She purses her lips. “I would, but I think I’m nervous I wouldn’t be paired up with anyone.”
The Final Pick is a reality TV show that’s been up my ass with ads for the second season casting. The first season did great, but it was low-budget, as any first season is, and the show took off. They’ve been all gas and no breaks ever since.
“I think you would be.”
“Amara, you need to get all of those questions right to get matched. If you don’t match with someone perfectly, they don’t match you. Then it’s a whole week in the gutter for no reason. You don’t even meet a man.”
I think about it, turning onto her street. “Then why are you asking me to sign up?” I try not to feel insulted.
“Because you just like messing with people. And you’re really good at reading others. I think you’d have a really good time on the show. Maybe even match with someone. It would be just your luck, right? You want to stay grumpy and closed off, but randomly get paired with someone on a reality TV show.” She laughs. “I would pay to see it.”
