What a weird fucking coincidence. If I believed in fate, that’s what I would say this was. Here I’d wanted to ask Paige to dinner and the next thing I know she walks into the restaurant I’m in so we can have dinner together!
The girls were chattering about the concert and Gerard Way’s baby.
Paige tried to smooth down her wet hair and said, “If I’d known it was you I’d have dressed a little better. Honestly, I thought you were going to be some twenty-year-old kid and we’d be having Chipotle.”
I had to laugh. “You look fine. Beautiful, actually. And if I’m being honest, I was expecting some ditzy bimbo.”
“Oh, hey. The night is young.” She laughed and I felt it all the way down to my soul. Suddenly I wanted to become Jimmy Fallon and make her laugh again.
“I wish,” I said, picking up the menu. “I have to…work. My…friends and I are helping out with security for the concert. I actually should be there now, but wanted to meet who Lily was going to the concert with.”
“Yeah, me too. You never can be too careful these days.” She was looking at me and I sensed a double meaning in her tone.
“No. It’s important to have protection.”
“Well, there are times when protection is overrated.”
“Ew. Are you guys doing that again?” Lily wrinkled her nose and turned to Bailey. “The day we met your sister they were doing this gross flirting thing there, too.”
“Oh, really?” Bailey grinned at Paige as if she’d discovered a huge secret. “Is that so?”
Fortunately, we were interrupted by the waitress who’d come to take our order.
* * *
I barely ate my lasagna.Lisa’s food was as good as usual, but I was in a complete daze from running into Paige like this. It takes a lot to rattle me, but this did it.
When the girls got up to use the restroom after dinner, I finally had a chance to talk to Paige alone.
“I’ve been wanting to run into you again.”
“You have?” She was just finishing the glass of red wine she had with dinner.
“Yes. There was…” the words caught in my throat, but I remembered Sofia’s advice. “There was something I wanted to ask you.”
“Oh? What?”
“I wanted to see if you’d like to get dinner sometime?” I was actually starting to sweat! This was ridiculous.
“You mean like we’re having now?” She smiled and my heart melted. Paige was what my mother used to call “a heartbreaker.”
I laughed. “Well. Yes. Like now. But more of a…”
“More of a date?” She was looking at me with those blue eyes and I almost forgot where we were.
“Yes. A date. I wanted to know if you would go out on a date with me.” I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet. This was so awkward!
When she grinned, it showed deep dimples at the corners of those luscious lips.
“A date, huh? Well, I don’t know. You might need to ask my dad.”
“Your dad?” It was then that I realized she was teasing me. “Oh. Yeah. Well, I promise to have you home by midnight. You think that’ll fly?”
“Who’s going to fly?” Lily asked as she and Bailey came back from the bathroom. “I love airplanes.”
Twenty-Two
Paige
