“What did the poor puzzle ever do to you?” Quentin laughs.
“It’s taken years off of my life sitting here and looking at the same shade of green for what feels like hours to find one piece.”
“Fair enough. Sorry about that, by the way. Pauly’s driving me up a wall.”
“Don’t apologize. What’s going on?” I ask as I tap the new puzzle piece I’m holding against the table.
He chuckles softly, picking up his own piece to try and fit somewhere. “He’s on this dating app and wanted my, Ryker’s, and our other friend Cole’s advice. The problem is Pauly is thirty-two, but acts twenty at times. So we give him all of our advice and try to help him, only for him to start talking to a new girl anyways.”
“It sounds like he doesn’t know what he wants and just likes the attention,” I surmise.
“You got that right. What’s your dating history like? You know mine, but if you don’t want to answer, it’s okay,” he asks as he places his piece in the puzzle.
I don’t mind that he asked at all, as I have nothing to hide or be ashamed to talk about.
“I’ve never had a boyfriend. Growing up at ESA in high school, everyone was too motivated to seriously date, and I had that same mentality once I graduated. I’ve had my fair share of fun, but nothing ever serious. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever even been on a real date before.” I giggle but stop when I see the look on his face.
He looks put off by my admission, eyes narrowed, brows drawn together. “Seriously?”
“Is that a bad thing?” I counter.
“No, it’s just that I expected everyone to jump at a chance with someone as beautiful as you,” he says easily.
My belly flutters at his compliment, but I try not to read too much into him calling me beautiful.
“It’s fine. I liked being single.”
Quentin picks up another puzzle piece. “What would your ideal date be?”
“Are you insinuating we should go on a date?” I raise a brow at him, wondering where he’s going with this.
“Just answer the question,” he says, not taking his eyes off the puzzle.
“It might sound silly, but I’ve always wanted to go mini golfing. I’ve never been before, so I always thought that would be a fun first date.”
Quentin tosses his puzzle piece on the table and pushes his chair back as he says, “Let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“Mini golfing. That sounds like a lot more fun than staring at this puzzle any longer.”
“We can’t go on a date. Remember the pact?”
“The pact says we can’t touch one another. It says nothing about going out and having some fun,” he points out, and goddammit, he’s right. It does sound more fun than this puzzle, and it would be nice to get out for a bit.
“Fine. But it’s not a date,” I say as I wave my finger from side to side.
“Not a date.”
And yet…
Chapter 28
Quentin
This is totally a date.
I told her it wasn’t so that she wouldn’t freak out, but when she told me she had never been on a date before, I knew I wanted to be the first one to take her on one.
