“Sure.” He adjusted his position, his long legs butting up against the seat in front of him, before clearing his throat and adding, “It’s gonna be a blowout. We’re probably gonna bail early in the fourth quarter to beat the traffic. I know you don’t know me from Adam, but…these are my friends, Mike and Ryan. They’re both married. Mike’s got kids. Ryan’s got one on the way. So, if you need a ride somewhere, we’d be happy to take you.”
“You’re not a serial killer, then?” I asked, smiling slightly.
“Not on a Friday. I try to take the weekends off.”
Mike and Ryan leaned forward to smile at me. Mike, with his Hawaiian shirt and spiky blond hair seemed so familiar to me, though I couldn’t place him. The one called Ryan reminded me of a snowboarder. It wasn’t just the easy way he smiled and his lazy movements, but the black beanie on his head and the Vans he wore on his feet that rounded out the effect. They did look like decent guys. Old college buddies out for a guys’ night. Mike kept yawning. Nine-thirty probably was late if he had kids. I wished I wouldn’t have gotten in Jason’s car to come to the game. I hadn’t been comfortable enough with the arrangement to allow him to pick me up at my house, so I met him at a well-lit Chick-fil-A parking lot a few miles away from the arena.
While I was thinking, Jason’s beefy arm settled around my shoulders, pulling me close to him in a weird side-hug squeeze. Again, my body tensed, stiff as a board.
I hated situations like this. I hated making a scene. Dreaded it, in fact. But I couldn’t let this go on.
“Please don’t touch me, Jason.”
My heart banged wildly in my ears. I could sense Duke listening intently to our conversation. He hadn’t moved a muscle since Jason put his arm around me. Even after my rebuke, his arm still hung limply around my shoulders.
Jason was staring at me like I had grown two heads. “I don’t mean anything by it. I’m just being friendly. I do the same thing with my grandma.”
The tips of his fingers stroked my shoulder.
I jerked forward. “I’m not your grandma. Stop.”
He rolled his eyes. “Good hell, does your MixNMingle profile say prudish bit—“
Suddenly, Jason’s arm was jerked off my shoulder and flung over my head toward him like a kicked rag doll.
Duke leaned across me to lock eyes with a livid Jason. “She told you not to touch her, so don’t touch her, jackass.”
Holy crap.
Jason leaned forward, eyeing Duke with obvious annoyance. “You want to take this outside?”
Beyond the obvious ridiculousness of traversing approximately eighteen thousand stairs downward to then take the escalator down even more stairs until we actually got outside, I didn’t think Jason was worth a meeting by the flagpole for a fight. I jumped up between the men. This date was officially over.
Turning to Jason, I said, “I don’t think this is going to work out. Thanks for the ticket, but I’m going to go now.”
“I’m your ride, remember?” Jason said, still looking annoyed and eyeing Duke with obvious disdain.
“We’re leaving now,” said Duke, standing up and motioning for his friends to do the same. “We can take you home.”
“Hold up! Excuse me.” The four of us turned to find a man wearing an official Utah Jazz vest making his way down our row, past a floor littered with popcorn containers and drinks. When he caught my eye, he asked, “Were you two on the kiss cam?”
“Yeah.”
“What?” Jason demanded. He looked like he wanted to stand up, but the man in the vest stood in his way.
The man held out a paper to me. “You both get a free cookie at the Chocolate Melt cookie store in Murray. Thanks for participating in the kiss cam. It took you long enough, but you were definitely a crowd favorite.”
“Uhh, thanks.” I took the coupons from him, and he turned to leave.
“I didn’t figure you for a two-timer, Nora from the Block,” Jason muttered, quoting the horrifying MixNMingle handle Mira picked for me.
“We never one-timed.”
Jason scoffed, his eyes finding mine. “You sure you trust these guys?”
I turned to meet Duke’s gaze, clutching my purse. His fiery yet warm eyes waited patiently for me to respond. I didn’t know him. Or his friends. But I had had more meaningful interaction with Duke’s elbow tonight than anything Jason had said to me.
“Yeah. I think I do,” I said before following Duke and his friends down the row, squeezing past knees and legs.
