“I’ve got it.”
“Oh, that’s not—” I turn to see the generous owner of the reaching arm, faced with a familiar man; blond hair, brown eyes, and a killer set of cheekbones. “Hey, Ethan, right?”
“That’s right,” he smiles. “Is that for here or to go?”
I meet his smile, a warm blush creeping over my cheeks. “It can be for here.”
I wait while he orders his own drink, and the two of us move to the side to wait for them to be made. Once we have our drinks, we move to a small table near a corner of the café, sitting across from one another. We spend at least an hour talking; chatting about hobbies and his job, because I’m certainly not going to talk about mine on a spontaneous first date. That’s more of a third-date kind of conversation, I think.
Another hour passes, full of conversation, and I can’t help but feel like I’m doing something wrong in enjoying spending time with him. Like I’m cheating on someone who doesn’t even exist in my life anymore.
He wasn’t more than a blip in the timeline my life, but I feel guilty about this all the same.
•
“It was just a coffee,” I laugh, pulling my hair back and securing it with an elastic. I press the green upward arrow button to make the treadmill that I’m on pick up its speed. “I’ve had coffee before.”
My dad beams at me from the screen of my phone, propped up in front of me. “A coffee, a dinner…”
“And a wedding, yeah, I know,” I laugh. “You’re just dying to get me married off and settled down so I’m not your problem anymore. You thought my vacation would end in an elopement.”
“It should have,” he insists. “You were heartbroken when you came home.”
“Oh my god, it was notheartbreak,” I say with an exaggerated roll of my eyes. “You’re such a drama queen.”
“I should have taken a tally of how many times you said ‘Eric’ in one week of phone calls, peanut. I would have run out of paper.”
“I’m hanging up now,” I laugh. “I have to get ready for that dinner, you know, so I can get married after? Love you, I’ll call you Wednesday.”
I blow him a kiss before I end the call, and I don’t miss the skeptical look on his face before I do. My dad thinks that every guy that I see is going to wind up being ‘the one,’ down to my first boyfriend in middle school, who wasn’t even actually my boyfriend, but a boy who was my friend that I ate lunch with every day. When I told him about Eric, I thought his brain was going to explode, and then his heart, once I told him that I had lost track of the mystery man from Cancun. He’s a hopeless romantic, emphasis on thehopeless.I got the romantic parts of me from him, but thankfully, I didn’t pick up any of his hopelessness.
Sometimes I worry about how he would react if he knew how I lived out here. My parents think that I’m a waitress; I don’t think that they could take knowing that their daughter is made to have sex with people she doesn’t want to. I think it would break them – and they would never be able to look at me the same way again.
Thatwould breakme.
•
Ethan and I settle into our booth seats, surrounded by the sound of conversation and the football game playing on the TV just a few feet away from our table. We quickly fall into an easy conversation while we eat, learning the basics about each other, as people do on their first – or, I guess this is technically our second – date.
I’m about halfway through my second margarita and not nearly enough of my burger when Ethan asks, “What do you do for work?”
“I do VIP service at Envy,” I tell him. “I pour drinks and dance around in cute outfits and overall serve the customers.”
It’s not a complete lie. It’s just not the whole truth – kind of like telling Eric that my name was Noelle. Do IoweEthan the whole truth? I haven’t dated anyone since I started working for Nash, so I’ve never had to navigate this kind of conversation before, and I don’t think that I like the weight of that decision on my shoulders.
“Oh sick, do you like it?”
“I love it,” I smile. That one is an absolute, flat-out lie.
“I might have to stop in and see you in action one of these nights.”
I almost choke on my drink at the thought of himseeing me in action, but I manage to catch myself and turn the would-be choke into a flirty chuckle, instead. I can’t tell him that it would be my nightmare for the guy that I’ve been ontwo dates with – in one day – to come see me at work, and I definitely don’t think that I can tell him that seeing me at work could very potentially mean seeing me with another man, depending on the night.
I’m able to steer the conversation away from me and my job, and toward Ethan and his interests. I ask about his hobbies, his family...anything that could possibly keep the focus off of me.
It’s almost nine by the time that the check comes and we head out to Ethan’s car. For the first real date that I’ve been asked on in a long time, it really wasn’t that bad. Do I see myself marrying the guy? No, as much as that will disappoint my dad, I don’t ask him to stop by the express chapel on the way back to my apartment.
ELEVEN
