Chapter 2
I changed my outfit six times.
Like a teenager getting ready for prom, except I was a grown woman who should have better emotional regulation.
“This is stupid. You look fine.” I tried to convince myself in the mirror.
My reflection looked unconvinced.
The black top showed too much cleavage, but the blue one washed me out. I settled on a deep red sweater that made my skin look less corpse-like and jeans that fit well enough to suggest I had a shape under there somewhere.
Minimal makeup. Hair down, because the fifteen minutes I’d spent with a curling iron had produced results that were “effortlessly beautiful” or “electrocuted,” and I was choosing to believe the former.
My phone buzzed.
Cole: Heading over now. See you in 20?
My stomach flipped.
Autumn: See you then.
I stared at my phone. Considered adding something flirty. Decided against it. Put the phone down. Picked it up again.
Autumn: I’m wearing red, so you can spot me.
Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.
Cole: I’d spot you anywhere.
Oh no. I was in trouble.
The restaurant was called Posana. Upscale but not stuffy, the place where you could wear jeans, but they had to be nice jeans. I’d driven past it a hundred times, always meaning to try it, never quite getting around to it because eating alone at restaurants designed for couples felt like admitting defeat.
I parked two blocks away because my hands were shaking, and I needed the walk to calm down.
It didn’t work.
Cole waited outside, leaning against the brick wall in dark jeans and a navy button-down rolled to his elbows, holding a jacket in his hand. The sight of his forearms should not have affected me the way it did.
He saw me.
Smiled.
Pushed off the wall.
“Hey.”
“Hey yourself.”
We stood there too long, staring at each other like awkward humans who’d forgotten how dating worked.
My brain screamed at me to say something. Anything. Instead, I just stood there drowning in his eyes. He looked so handsome in his jeans and button-down shirt.
“You look amazing.” He smiled.
“Thanks. You clean up nice too.”
“This old thing? What can I say? I’m fancy.” He opened the door and held it for me. “After you.”
