The fuck?
Yeah, no, we were done.
Just as I was about to give this jackass alpha a piece of my mind, or make an excuse to use the restroom and never return, my phone rang. The one in my pocket and not sitting silently on the table next to my plate. About fucking time. Bal was the worst friend back up ever.
Fishing it out of my pocket, I glanced at Chad, “Will you excuse me? I need to take this.”
“Why do you have two phones?” he asked, looking troubled. “Are you a drug dealer? Sadie didn’t tell me you were into nefarious things. I can’t be associated with drugs or illegal activities.”
“I’m not a drug dealer,” I rolled my eyes while answering the phone. “Mom? What’s wrong?”
A long sigh filled my ear, before Bal’s deep baritone rumbled. “Now I have to pretend to be your mom too? I don’t think I’m talented enough to make my voice go that high.”
“Oh no! I’ll be right there! Tell dad to try to hang on until I get there!”
“You’re fucking crazy, you know that? And I can’t believe I let you drag me along on your craziness. Where are your chips? I’m starving. Why do you just have microwave popcorn? I’ve already had some today, but I guess it will do in a pinch.”
Trying not to roll my eyes a second time in a matter of seconds at his whining about my snack selections, I hung the phone up. Pushing away from the table, I grabbed my coat. “I’m so sorry, but my dad has taken a bad fall. I need to meet my mom at the hospital.”
All my lies were going to land me on the naughty list for sure. Good thing I had an in with Santa, and hopefully he would understand.
Grabbing my other cell phone, I realized it probably did look shady AF to have two phones. I gave Chad what I hoped was a trembling smile. “She said it doesn’t look good.”
Fuck, maybe I should have studied theater in school, instead of education. I was pretty good at this acting bullshit.
“Let me get the bill and I’ll drive you,” Chad motioned to our server for the check and my heart sped up.
“No, no need. I need to hurry. Thank you for dinner!” I called over my shoulder, weaving around the tables of other diners and not looking back.
Hurrying out of the restaurant, I practically ran for my car, hoping Chad didn’t feel the need to follow me.
Turning on the heater to full blast, I rubbed at my chilled hands, blowing on them. Putting my phone–my regular one–on hands free, I nearly squealed my tires racing away from the restaurant. At least I’d gotten an excellent meal out of this. My steak had been delicious.
“Why are you calling me?” Sadie demanded, in a tone I had heard her use on her own first grade class more than once. She was a petite omega with a fierce voice when she needed to use it. “It’s barely nine.”
“Do you not like me?” I stopped for a red light, glancing in my rearview mirror like I expected Chad to roll up on me any second. “Is that what this was? Did I piss you off and instead oftelling me, you fixed me up on…whatever this was. How do you even know Chad?”
“He’s my brother's accountant,” she crunched something in my ear, probably a potato chip, knowing her. “He’s nice enough. I met him a few weeks ago.”
“A few weeks ago?” I was suspicious now. “Under what circumstances?”
She crunched another chip, then another, and the light turned green.
“Stop stalling,” I demanded, well aware of her stall tactics.
“I don’t want to tell you,” she mumbled over a mouth full of chips.
“Oh. My. God!” I screeched, knowing her family had been pushing her to meet someone too. “You got fixed up on a date with him, didn’t you? Ew, don’t be giving me your sloppy seconds! Girrllll, I’m taking your Christmas gift back! No, I’m keeping it for myself, and every time I wear it, I’m going to say, Oh look at my gorgeous scarf that I got for Sadie. But she decided to be a d-bag friend so now it’s mine.”
“Okay, drama queen, dial it down a notch,” she laughed at me. “He wasn’t that bad. He seemed pretty nice actually.”
“He wanted to come with me tonight to spend Thanksgiving with me and my family, so he could meet my parents. First date. This was a first date and he wanted to come on my holiday out of town with my family.”
Silence followed, another chip crunched. “Okay, that’s leaning a bit towards the psycho side of things. Honestly, he didn’t give me serial killer vibes, but that’s just weird behavior.”
“Right!” I pulled into my apartment building and parked in my assigned spot. “Besides, nice or not, boring or not, there was zero chemistry. Like none. I get more excited buying coffee.”
“Well, I mean, Josh makes a pretty sweet cup of coffee, but I get it. Oh, I bet Chad would be a terrible kisser.”
