But not him. Nope, nope. Not one bit.
I really hoped they got some kind of intestinal parasite–all of them.
My lab group had done some digging and it looked like Logan’s mom was right. He had lied to me about staying in Hilo for his doctoral program and had accepted a spot at a university on the East Coast.
Leigh had even found his old prep school girlfriend’s socials. Apparently, she’d made some posts about him when he’d gone home for part of winter break.
He’d known that he would be getting back with her. Yet he’d let me plan this whole trip to Bali, which had been something that we’d come up with late one night, when there’d been nonstop rain and we talked about doing something fun for our last spring break of undergrad.
That asshole.
“I know.” Auntie Kiki patted my hand. “It’s more about stability than money. While I know you can support yourself, getting through your PhD and achieving your dreams might be easier with a stable pack. We do worry about you. But you’re also young and just off a breakup. As long as they treat you nice, who cares?”
“Here, here. Though personally, I wouldn’t mind finding some alphas to show me a good time and treat menice?” Auntie Cookie raised her glass and waggled her eyebrows. She was a beta and her beta husband had passed away some time ago. While she loved him very much, she seemed lonely.
“There we go, why don’t you focus on finding Auntie Cookie a sugar alpha instead of setting me up?” I ate my last bit of waffle.
“We love you,” AuntieMimi said.
“I know. I love you all too, that’s why I put up with this.” I checked my phone. There was a text from Steven.
Steven
Are we still on for today’s date? Does the zoo still sound good? If you’re not feeling it, we can go to the indoor mini golf place or do some bowling. There’s a really cool bar full of plants by shops and a farmer’s market. I thought we could go there after, if you still want to do that movie? Maybe we can buy things at the farmer’s market and bring them home to cook? We could go out or we could order in. There's a Thai place we like. You have options.
I looked upplant bar Nashvilleand found it. Oh my goodness, that place was adorable. The farmer’s market was also open late. Making dinner out of farmer’s market finds sounded great to me.
Me
I think the zoo, the plant bar, the farmer’s market, and a movie sounds like the perfect day–unless we run across some cute restaurant we’d rather eat at.
I was feeling cute today. I wore a lavender romper and slippers, but I’d change them for some more comfortable sandals so that I’d be good walking around the zoo but still cute for the plant bar.
Auntie Kiki’s eyebrows rose as her glasses slid down her nose. “Them?”
“Yes. We're going to go to the zoo and a plant bar, then to a farmer’s market. Maybe watch a movie.Country music and bars are nice, but the guys are really taking the time to figure out fun things for us to do,” I replied.
Steven gave my text a thumbs up, then sent me a photo of him at the gym. Shirtless. My mouth watered. I sent the drooling emoji back.
“We went to the zoo one year because they were having a live music event. It’s really nice,” Auntie Cookie added.
“Are you sure it’s okay?” I still felt a little anxious about abandoning them to go off and do things, even if that was kind of the plan of whichever auntie had set this up. I hadn’t figured it out yet, but that was fine. I was still leaning towards Auntie Cookie, who would absolutely set something like this up without running it by Auntie Kiki.
Sure, I could ask outright, but I feel like they wanted it to seem like it happened naturally. Otherwise, they would have told me, since they were pretty blunt about their efforts. I’d let them have that for now.
“It's fine. I’m glad you’re having fun. That’s what this trip is about–you having a good time and not sitting at home being sad.” Auntie Kiki patted my shoulder.
“Thank you. I appreciate you for bringing me along, just like I appreciate you making me go down to the bar to meet those guys.” I looked at everyone. No reaction.
“A hotel bar is a good place to meet alphas with good careers,” Auntie Kiki told me.
We finished breakfast and went back to the hotel room.
I slipped on some comfortable sandals and put the top of my hair up in a ponytail, then attached the dragonfly clip on it that Claire had given me. Also,I wore the necklace.
My mini backpack was stocked with things, like my lactose pills, and allergy medicine, just in case Ashton’s allergies acted up at the zoo like they had at the arboretum.
Steven texted that he was on his way. Excitement shot through me.
