Eloise laughed, a puff of powdered sugar covering her face making Ursula and Jen laugh. "Okay, so no man can keep up, but this guy Graham is cute, smart, and has potential," she said as she took their offered napkins.
"Yes. How about I call him and set something up? Tomorrow at the Black Hissy Floof?"
Eloise laughed. "I love that you cannot say the wordcat. Okay, yeah. Tomorrow around noon would be great. What time are we delivering the plants to the nursery?"
"Mmm, they wanted them sometime before ten tomorrow morning. Jenson is bringing his truck and we're borrowing one of his construction trucks too."
"Noon works then," she said to Jen.
"Oh! You should have Graham bring a red flower so that Eloise knows it's him."
"That's very You've Got Mail," Eloise replied with waggling eyebrows.
"Exactly. If he makes a fuss over it, he's not the one."
"I like it," Jen said as her manicured fingers tapped over her phone.
"Okay, but real question," Eloise's serious face made both women lean in. "Is he an adult? Like, I don't want some Ikea man where I have to interpret the instructions and build it so that it's usable."
"Yeah, and try to use that stupid allen wrench thingy that slips in your hands and makes you curse more than a sailor," Jen said nodding making a wrenching motion with her slender hand.
"Right! That was my twenties. Build your own man. I want an already built man."
"With real wood," Ursula added slyly.
Jen slapped the table and laughed. "Girl! Yes. I mean, dicks freak me out, but yes."
"I think Graham is a fully built man, has been on his own for years, his parents don't live here, and he's been taking care of himself. I think he's in his mid-thirties?" She gave Jen a questioning look.
"Yeah, mid-thirties, he was the lead on my account when I did marketing for my business, and no red flags. I mean, except for being a man, which kind of seems like a built-in red flag but I like women, so what do I know? Actually, women are full of red flags too," she said thoughtfully.
"Am I a red flag?" Eloise asked.
"Well, yeah," Ursula said. "You're independent and outgoing, and you literally have never lowered your standards that I have ever seen for a man, so that's likethered flag for a lot of people. But not the right one."
Jen looked over Eloise with a critical eye. "If you were a lesbian, we could rule the world."
"I'm flattered," she replied with a cheeky grin. "Oh, any news with your one-night stand a couple of months back?"
Jen's hand fluttered as she said, "No. Like, I didn't expect anything, but I sent her a text, you know, feeling it out. She neverresponded." Her voice sounded nonchalant, but something in her eyes gave away it affected her more than she let on.
"Sorry, J," Ursula said gently.
"Her loss," Eloise added.
"Right?" Jen said with a raised chin, her high cheekbones flashed angular in the sunlight. "I'm a catch." Her self-confidence was striking. She waved her hand through the air again, swatting away the feelings. "But you," she said pointing a finger at Eloise and holding up her phone, "have a date with Graham Bledsoe who will have a red flower which he agreed to without question, tomorrow at The Black Murder Puppy at noon."
"Great," she said with a laugh, a bubble of anxiety she wouldn't allow them to see settling in her lungs. Still, she kept her secret, the shadow she fled when she traded thick Florida heat for the north-eastern changing seasons.
5. Blind Date - Wrong Date
"Spin," Ursula said twirling her finger as she sat on Eloise's bed with a large Casper who made her queen bed look tiny.
"I don't know, the skirt is giving me Utah feelings," she said as she looked at herself in the floor-length antique mirror.
"Ah yeah, with the hair in a low bun, I see your point. Mmm," she looked around and then picked up the black mid-length pleated skirt that was faux leather. "I say this with red heels andthat red shirt," she said pointing to the red short-sleeved sweater hanging on the dresser.
"Oh, definitely more my speed," Eloise replied nodding. "With a black bow around a high ponytail?" she asked as she zipped up the skirt.
