His dark eyes narrow, but he doesn’t scare me. It does cross my mind that maybe I shouldn’t have told Coop to go on ahead without me.
“She likes to play hard to get, but maybe you heard me wrong—stay away from her,” Bradley warns, checking my shoulder with his.
The goosebumps on my arms linger long after the encounter, and my number of questions for Alondra has increased tremendously.
CHAPTER 11
Alondra
“I’m sorry, you’re what?”Ellie asks, gaping at me from the beanbag she’s camped out on, while Macy refills our wine glasses in the kitchen.
“Finding Jack a girlfriend. Do you have any pictures of him you think I should add to his profile?” I ask through a fit of giggles at her reaction. The account I made for Jack is open on my phone, but I’m struggling to pick what pictures screamboyfriend materialinstead offuckboy vibes.
Ellie grins as Macy walks back into the living room balancing the cheap wine in her hands. “I told her it was a bad idea, but she’s hell-bent on this plan.”
“Oh, he’s going to kill you, but I’m totally for this.” Ellie snorts, pulling her phone out.
“Jack said it was fine!”
Macy shakes her head, and I roll my eyes, regretting telling her about the conversation in the first place. “No, tell her exactly what he said.”
“Fine. It was more so along the lines of ‘Sure, whatever you want,’ but if he didn’t want me to do it, he should have told me no,” I argue, but I did consider the idea he didn’t think I’d actually do it.
Ellie sends me a few pictures, and we arrange them in a specific order, starting strong with a gold mine from his mom’s post on social media for his first day of school photo this year. It highlights his dimples and makes him look more sweet than sexy, and I ignore the little flutter my heart does upon realizing he took the photo to make his mom happy. Ellie suggested following it up with a picture of Jack and his mom from a game she came to see last season, sliding in that he plays hockey and he’s a momma’s boy. Maybe he wasn’t giving me a hard time by asking where my blanket was from.
“I feel like a shirtless picture sends the wrong vibes,” I say, hesitating on the picture Macy strategically cropped from a trip he took this summer with his roommates.
Ellie shakes her head. “I disagree. I think if someone’s made it to the third picture, the shirtless picture could tip the scales in his favor if someone is trying to decide whether he’s worth a swipe or not.”
“Okay, shirtless picture it is,” I say, adding it in, and then we end with a picture of him and his friends in the booth at Twin City.
Based on pictures alone, it’s a solid profile, but a bio can make it or break it.
“What do you think? Something hockey or Texas related?” I ask, taking a sip of my wine, tossing the phone to Ellie.
“Can I just say one more time I think this is a terrible idea?” Macy chimes in, and Ellie shushes her.
“Don’t take away my entertainment. This is good practice for me because I’ll probably have to do this for Coop, considering he has the emotional depth of a toddler,” Ellie says, and I snort.
“Maybe Texas? I feel like there’s way more material.” Macy shakes her head, taking a drink from her glass. “What aboutI’m looking for the yee to my haw?”
“How aboutsave a horse, ride a hockey player?” I suggest through a fit of giggles. Ellie gasps and covers her mouth, and our laughter is so loud it’s echoing off our apartment walls.
Once she settles down enough to take a breath, she unfortunately brings up a very good point. “I feel like we need to change it tosave a horse, date a hockey playerinstead,” Ellie says, and Macy nods her head, using the hand holding her wine glass to point in Ellie’s direction, almost toasting her.
“Ride a hockey player might send the wrong message if you’re wanting someone to be girlfriend material and not just someone for him to hook up with and forget about.”
It makes sense, but it’s definitely less funny that way, and I stand by it. “Okay, fine, you’re probably right about that,” I agree, typing it in, and I hesitate before posting it. “So like, how bad of an idea is this?” I ask, finally considering Macy might be right.
“I think you need to drink more wine and accept however Jack reacts to this is a future Alondra problem,” she says, and I tip mine back, drinking a large portion of my glass before making Jack’s profile live.
It takes about three minutes of us struggling to all look at the phone at the same time before I realize we can stream my phone screen to the television. “You know him the best out of us,” I say to Ellie, my gaze sliding to meet hers. “What’s his type?”
“Blondes, so I say we pick out some brunettes. I mean, if you want to keep things temporary, you go for what you don’t like, right?” she suggests, and I’m absolutely dumbfounded by the logic. One look at Macy tells me she is also stunned by the logic, but in a way, it makes sense?
Why would you pick out someone you like if you don’t plan on them sticking around for long?
“I can’t argue with that,” I say, and I’m tempted to ask Macy if she and Chad are talking again or not, but I’m afraid to bring it up because I don’t want to upset her.
