“Nope.”
“Justin Bieberfanboy?”
Conradlaughed.
“Then what’s wrong with you?” Lacey cringed at her bluntness, but she hadtoknow.
He let out a long breath and shook his head. “I’m a walking, talking cliché.” Conrad paused, giving Lacey an opportunity to comment, but she waved a hand at him, urging him tocontinue.
“There’s not much to it really. I came to college to enjoy the freedom, I act like an idiot, and have a total broattitude.”
Lacey lifted her eyebrows. “How self-awareofyou.”
He chuckled. “Well, when you’re as awesome as I am...” Lacey didn’t laugh along with him, and eventually Conrad’s smile fell. “I don’t know. I didn’t like the idea of putting myself out there during the interview with Morgan. That chick’s pretty intimidating. Anyway, I acted like I only cared about the gift card. As soon as I said it, she was done. I knew I’d messed up, but was too embarrassed to admit my lie, so I playeditoff.”
“Yeah, she really hates it when people don’t take herseriously.”
“Apparently.” Conrad’s easy smile was back. “It was obviously enough to put me on the ‘do-not-date’list.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not all it’s cracked uptobe.”
“What? Just because of the mysterious badmatches?”
She groaned and put her head in her hands. While Lacey was upset about how the night had gone, she didn’t want Morgan to suffer any more for what were honest mistakes. If she couldn’t convince Conrad to forget what she’d said, maybe she could appeal to his compassionate side. “Please don’t tell Declan about that. It would be the final blow forMorgan.”
Lacey held her breath as she waited for hisreply.
“I won’t.” Conrad shrugged. “But only because you asked me not to. I’m still pretty bummed I didn’t get set up on a date. I’m curious what would havehappened.”
“Well, you did see what happened on a Date Maker date.” She bumped her shoulder into Conrad’s, surprised by how comforted she felt by the contact. “It’s adisaster.”
“Wait.” He sat up. “I haveanidea.”
“Oh,yeah?”
Conrad didn’t answer right away. Lacey watched as he rubbed his hands on his thighs. He took a deep breath. “Will you go on a datewithme?”
She snorted, until she realized Conrad wasn’t laughing. “Are youserious?”
Conrad bowed his head. “I just thought since your date went so poorly, and I never got one, and that the Date Maker might be going defunct, it might be nice to take you out on aproperdate.”
“Conrad…”
“I promise to pay attention to you instead of some girl trying to swallow aspoon.”
Lacey laughed. “It was pretty bad, right?” She started to run her tongue all over her lips in a dramatic fashion as she bobbed her head back and forth. When Conrad chuckled, she took it one step further and ran her hands over her arms like she was making out withherself.
Suddenly, she became very aware of the couples and families still walking around the lake. Embarrassed by her little performance, she started laughing harder thanbefore.
“Go out with me,” he said, causing her laughter to haltabruptly.
She looked into his eyes, afraid she’d see amusement, or worse, pity, but they were free of either emotion. He just looked like a normal guy asking a girl on a date. It was sweet and exactly the kind of thing she’d been hoping to happen for years. She took a deepbreath.
“Okay.”
His face lit up in a heart-squeezingly cutesmile. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
