We’re bothoohing andaahing over his phone, so neither of us hears Mary Jo until she’s right beside us.
“Ready to go?” she says in a sharp voice. From Aiden’s expression, I can tell it’s one he’s heard before.
“Sure, I’m ready when you are,” he says. He stands up and nods to me. “See ya later.”
I nod back, then look at Mary Jo. Yeah, she’s pissed.
Aiden walks away, but Mary Jo stays put.
“I would think you’d be too busy with all these dates to be so flirty-flirty with my boyfriend.”
“Seriously, Mary Jo, we were just talking. He was showing me pics of his nephew. You’re totally overreacting.”
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, I guess that’s what us Evil Joes do.”
Yikes. I didn’t think they knew we called them that.
Before I can come up with a response, she moves to the board and picks up one of the dry-erase markers. “I won’t be able to come by in the morning to write down what your date is, so I’ll just do it now.”
Oh no.
This won’t be good.
Mary Jo writes:
Huh. That doesn’tsoundbad. But then she turns around and gives me a creepy smile. The same smile she had when she turned the lock on our condo, trapping Charlie outside in his underwear.
She walks away and I’m left staring at the words she wrote like there’s some secret message there to uncover. There’s no way it’s just dinner and a movie.
No way.
I’m not sure how long I stand there, but eventually Charlie and Olivia end up on either side of me.
“It can’t be that simple,” Olivia says.
“Use the ‘get out of date’ card. Use it now,” Charlie says.
“But there’s still Aunt Maggie Mae,” Olivia argues.
And then we’re all silent, still trying to figure out what the Evil Joes have planned.
Olivia and I show upto Nonna’s after the slowest day of work ever to find the house bursting with people. I would have thought two days without any dates would have made the excitement wear off, but it seems to have had the opposite effect.
Since Charlie, Wes, and Olivia go to the same high school as the Evil Joes, they came up with a signal if they think I should use the “get out of date free” card: dragging a finger across their neck.
Obviously, Charlie picked it.
Aunt Maggie Mae is standing over the betting chart that’s in the middle of the table. “Camille, why are you picking such an early time? Sophie won’t be home that soon!” Aunt Maggie Mae has been pretty obnoxious telling everyone how wonderful this boy is and what a fantastic time we’re going to have.
“It’s dinner and a movie,” Uncle Sal says. “I would think it’s pretty easy to figure out how soon it will be over.”
“I’m still in the lead for Best Date,” Sara reminds everyone.
The Evil Joes are here, without boyfriends this time, so I guess this isn’t a triple-date sort of thing. But I’m still a little nervous about being one-on-one with a guy they chose.
I decide to ignore them and check on Margot while I’m waiting.
ME:How’s Anna today?
