And to top it off, being a dad made him look even better. Yeah, he wasthatdad. Seriously? I needed advice. I quickly pulled out my phone and dialed Bre.
“Hey,” her I’m-about-to-fire-someone voice greeted me.
“Bre,” I paused, letting her tone sink in. “How are you?”
“At work. We’ve been on a three-hour waitlist, and I have no dishwasher. Oh, and one of the guests keeps going out of theemergency exit to vape. He doesn’t notice the alarms going off each time he does that. Yeah, it’s been a day. What about you?”
“Walking back to work. I ran to get coffee, and guess what?”
“I got nothing. What happened?”
Checking behind to make sure the bookstore door was still shut, I continued to stride forward farther away before blurting out, “You will never guess who was working at the coffee shop.”
“Ed Sheeran!” her voice pitched into an excited squeal at the end.
“W-what?” I fumbled, trying to figure out where she was going with this. “Doesn’t he live in England?”
“It’s a small world, and you called me at work during my lunch rush. It had better be Ed Sheeran.”
“No, not Ed, although that would have been epic, and yes, I would have called you.” I paused while I pressed the WALK button at the crosswalk. “It was Graham. Remember that guy who lived next to me that summer in high school?”
“Yeah, I remember him.” Her cadence was thoughtful. “The one you cried about for months.”
“I didn’t actually cry real tears.” Lowering my chin into the light breeze, I rushed across the road because I had gone over on my lunch break. “We’re getting together tonight for dinner to catch up.”
“Hmm. Bad idea.”
“I know! It’s a horrendous idea,” I squealed as all my emotions burst. “I just died thinking about it. I should be planning my funeral.”
“Is it a date?”
“I don’t know.” My heart rate ticked up a notch. “He nevercalledit a date.”
“Unless you want to get your heart crushed again, I would avoid him. But I also know you’re stubborn and won’t listen to me. I have to work until close tonight, but text me later to fillme in on all the ways he broke your heart again this time.” She was giggling by the end of her rambling, tipping me off to her sarcasm.
“It’s just dinner.”
“You say that now, but just…” Her voice dropped off mid sentence and spiraled into a yell, “Sir, you cannot use that door!” After a rustling noise, Bre jumped back into our conversation. “Call you later, bye.” Click.
I ended the call more confused than before. It was not a date.He would have called it a date if he had meant it that way.
There are rules about this.I think.
The rest of the afternoon, I was chattier than usual, and that’s hard to accomplish. Usually when I went to big fairs, kids came with their parents, and I stayed busy because the parents always had questions. Today, I was tucked away in the lobby and expected to catch kids in between classes, and they were avoiding me. Something interesting I noted was that my inner monologue had taken on a bit of a Shakespearean tone as I mused about my current anxieties.Alas, we are reunited. What will our fate be this time?It was amusing—to me, at least, and made the painfully slow hours go a little faster. After work, I bolted out of the double doors and almost ran down the street as I texted Graham.
Me: Hey, are we still on for dinner?
Graham: Yeah, I forgot I need to pick Hadley up from an art class at the park tonight. Do you want to meet downtown, and we can grab something while I wait for her?
I let out my breath. Casual.Grabbing a bite to eat while he waited for Hadley. Totally not a date.
Me: Perfect. Text me an address.
I waved from where I was sitting on the metal park bench in the little downtown square. Graham had changed his clothes and now wore one of his famous fleece shirts and jeans. He looked like a rockstar, his hair longer than what would have been clean cut. It added to hisdon’t-give-a-hootvibe that I loved about him.
Since I didn’t want to walk around as an alligator, I changed, too. If I’d known I would be going out, I’d have packed something that made menotlook like a grandma. I had planned on relaxing in the hotel after work, maybe watching a movie. All I’d brought was sweats and an oversized floral maxi dress I usually wore as a swimsuit cover. Swimsuit cover it was, with bonus points for having giant magnolias on my butt.
At least it did not have scales.
