“That was the plan. Not a plan like, ‘Hey, if I turn my back on her maybe she’ll come crawling back.’ I just couldn’t do it any more. The plan was— I don’t know how to explain it.”
Mike did. “Self-preservation.”
“Right. But, after a while, she started missing me and realizing there was more between us than just a casual friendship. I’d run into her once in a while and she’d start to realize it more. Then,one day, she came to me and said she’d like to start again. So we did. And now we’re married with a kid who likes to puke on me.”
“Every man’s dream.” Mike liked Mr. Amy.
“Chances are I got lucky that she came back. But, even if she hadn’t, I had to get out of there. It was killing me.”
Mike knew that feeling. “How soon did you jump to that idea?” Mike had only been trying his methods for seven years, after all. An entire decade wasn’t too long to wait. He rolled his eyes at how ridiculous he sounded.
“Not until everything else failed. Pretending I only wanted to be friends was Plan A. Actually asking her out a bunch of times was Plan B.”
Mike hadn’t moved to Plan B yet. “And walking away was Plan C?”
“More like Plan L or M.”
Maybe it was time for Mike to be a little more upfront about his feelings. He could try asking her out, try showing her his interest in her went past hanging out over coffee and YouTube concerts.
And he probably should also formulate a Plan C, D, E…
Chapter Five
By the next afternoon, Mike had decided that he was never going to attend another work party as long as he lived. Amy had come by his desk three times that day to give him pitying looks and ask if he meant to break things off with Celeste. He must have been crazy to have told her about his problems.
He thought about that on his drive home. He hadn’t talked about this with either of his sons; it just wasn’t the kind of thing that came up between them. They talked mostly about their jobs, upcoming trips and purchases. He also fielded a lot of questions from them about home repairs. But never his love life. Probably because they knew he didn’t have one.
Maybe that’s why I can’t sort all of this out. I don’t know anyone who has any idea how to navigate these waters.
He reached home still trying to convince himself to ask Celeste on an actual date. How clear did he have to be that it was a date? Could he just say “Do you want to go to dinner?” and hope she figured it out?
No. This was supposed to be him taking the direct approach so she would know where he stood and he could find out what possibilities she was willing to consider.
He pulled his car into the garage and, rather than go into his own house, he went straight to Celeste’s. He needed to issue his invitation before she ate and before he ran out of courage.
She opened the door and, before he could even say hi, she started talking. “I was just about to call you. Are you free tonight?”
That depended on how you looked at it. He was free. He was hoping by the end of their initial conversation that he wouldn’t be and that she wouldn’t be either. “What did you have in mind?”
She grinned as she closed the door behind him. “I can check another thing off my Holiday Bucket List.”
He hadn’t thought about their competition in a few days. “Really?”
“Really. And by next week I should be able to check off another.”
Ask her. You’re going to lose your nerve.
“How the Grinch Stole Christmasin the theater was one of my bucket-list things,” Celeste explained, crossing to her living room coffee table. She pointed to a digital projector on the table as well. “Joey, our IT guy at the office, lent it to me. He said you would know how to connect it to my computer.”
“I can do that.”Ask her.“But I haven’t had dinner yet. Maybe we could go have something to eat first.”Not too awkward; good.
“Sure. What are you in the mood for?”
That was easier than he’d expected. “Just about anything. What about you?”
She grabbed her purse off the counter, her brows pulled low in thought. “What about Curry MacMurray? I haven’t been there in ages.”
He liked Indian food, and, despite the kind of ridiculous name, Curry MacMurray had great food. “Perfect.”
