I sighed and took the sweater off. It had a snowman pattern with mistletoes and candy canes scattered in the mix. I didn’t want him thinking I was a nut for Christmas.
“I can’t believe he texted so soon,” Enzo muttered as I put on another sweater.
“Well, what do you expect when the poor guy has to get through twelve dates with me?” I grumbled, still trying to put my hands through the right holes.
“Poor guy indeed if he has to deal with grumpy Cole on all of them,” he replied.
“Please make an effort sweetie. It’ll do you a world of good to get back out there.”
I rolled my eyes, but thankfully they couldn’t see me since I was still in a battle with the sweater. A battle I seemed to be losing. Before I also lost the will to leave, I pulled the damned thing off and threw it at Enzo’s face again. It was the least I could after what they’d done to me.
“You think I’d be rude to a stranger? Please, you guys. I reserve that privilege for my family,” I told them, and Lilian laughed.
“Here, sweetie. Try this one. Simple sometimes is best.” She leaned down and offered me another sweater off the pile and handed me a plain forest green one.
“Great. Now I’ll look like a Christmas tree,” I said but grabbed it off her anyway.
“What else are we forgetting?” Enzo asked. “Breath mints? Cash? You need to pay on the first date.”
“He’s older,” I pointed out.
“So?”
I shrugged.
“Isn’t the older person supposed to pay on a first date?”
Oh gosh, now I was falling into the trap of calling this a date. It wasn’t a date. It was an arrangement. It was a situation we’d found ourselves in. OrI’d found myself in.
At least Samir had chosen to be there and participated in the auction. He’d chosen to bid on me. And why on earth had he chosen to do that? Did it mean he liked me? Was he just trying to help the sanctuary with his donation? Yeah, that had to be it, right? He loved helping animals; he had a shelter himself, so of course that was what it was all about. It had to be.
He was so much older than me. Why else would he bid on a young guy? What could we possibly have in common? Hell, for all I knew, he wasn’t even gay and was just doing this for the goodwill of it all.
“Pfft,” I let out before I could stop myself.
EvenIdidn’t buy the last part. He had to be gay. Queer, of some sort, to do this. Because he didn’t look at me as someone completely disinterested in me. He looked at me as if he could want me. Not that I have any idea why a guy like him—mature, sure of himself, self-made man—would want to be with me, chaos incarnate personified.
“Earth to Cole.” Enzo waved a hand in front of my face, and I snapped back to reality.
“What?” I asked, brushing his hand off me.
“I said, do you have condoms?”
“Oh my God, Enzo!” I huffed and had to take a step back. “For fuck’s sake. What’s wrong with you?”
“What? What’s wrong with what I said?”
I shook my head and sighed.
Was he seriously asking that? Did he not know me at all? Did he take me for a guy who slept with someone on the first date? Even with Sandra, it didn’t happen until we’d been together for a month.
“Do you really think I’ll sleep with just about anyone on hello?” I told him.
“Well.” He shrugged. “Not on hello. At least buy the guy some wine first. It’ll loosen you both up.”
Even Lilian felt the need to flick her son’s head, and she wasn’t such a prude either.
“You guys are making way too big a deal out of this.”
