After spending a few minutes exchanging numbers and settling on a day that would work for their date, Conrad walked Lacey to her car, joking the whole time. He didn’t try to sneak a kiss when they said goodbye, claiming her terrible breath was a totalturn-off.
Lacey liked the way he made her feel treasured after her disastrous date. If Conrad insisted on being a cliché, she decided he would be the knight in shining armor instead. Although she kept that thought toherself.
Being asked out on the tail-end of a bad date shouldn’t have given her so much hope. But it did. And Lacey couldn’t wait to tell Morgan allaboutit.
“And how wasthedate?”
“Let’sjust say it didn’t have the markers of a DateMakerdate.”
ChapterNine
Conrad and Laceyhadn’t stopped texting since the night bythelake.
It had started out as a simple:Did you gethomesafe?
He wasn’t even sure why he’d sent it. They weren’t dating—hadn’t even finished planning their first date. But Conrad wanted an excuse to keep talking to her. So he had sent the text and was pleasantly surprised when his phone buzzed a few minuteslater.
Lacey: Aw. Are you worriedaboutme?
Conrad: I just wanted to make sure you didn’t attack any more garlicknots.
Lacey had sent the middle finger emoji in response that made Conrad literally laugh out loud, and that had been the start of their never-ending textconversation.
They’d messaged for days about their classes, favorite TV shows, hobbies, even random GIFs for no reason. They’d talked about anything and everything—everything except the Date Maker. Neither one of them mentioned Morgan, the dating service, or the disaster that had brought themtogether.
They hadn’t even decided what they were going to do, only that they were going to meet. They were supposed to go on a date in an hour and a half, and it was like they were playing chicken. Who would be the first one to mention the dreaded “D-word” and what they planned to do? Conrad wasn’t sure how he should dress or what he should be doing to prepare. It drove him crazy, but he still didn’tbudge.
He put his phone on silent and looked up at his roommate. It looked like he was on the way out the door. “Where you off to,Nicky?”
Dominick sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, just under the thick-rimmed glasses he wore. “I wish you wouldn’t callmethat.”
“And I wish I didn’t have to go to my classes, but we don’t always get what we want. So, where yougoing?”
“I need somecoffee.”
“Awesome.” Conrad stood up and grabbed his wallet off the nightstand. “I’llcomewith.”
Dominick looked like he might argue, but said, “Okay,” instead. Conrad grabbed his keys and the two of them walked out to the parking lottogether.
The coffee trip served two purposes. First, Conrad really needed a distraction. He was trying so hard to find the balance between opening up to Lacey without falling crazy fast, headfirst into this. A quick trip to get some coffee would keep him away from his phone, and from texting her like a lovesickpuppydog.
You know, assuming dogs texted orwhatever.
Yep. He was already acting like an idiot. Comparing himself to a texting dog had to be anewlow.
But there was another reason Conrad wanted to go with Dominick to get coffee, and that was that his roommate had been acting strange ever since his date with the coffee shop girl. While both Dominick and Conrad both knew the date was a mix-up, only Conrad knew the extent of how badly the Date Maker hadmessedup.
And he’d promised nottotell.
These dates weren’t meant to have a happily ever after. They couldn’t. But even knowing that, it was obvious that Dominick was still stuck on his date from daysearlier.
The two guys spoke a little about Harmony, Dominick’s bad match, as they got coffee. But all in all, it didn’t really accomplish anything. Dominick was still stuck on a girl he’d never have, and Conrad still hadn’t said anything to his roommate about his ownupcomingdate.
The only positive thing about getting a triple shot, white chocolate Frappuccino was that it kept him from obsessively checking his phone on the drive back to FSC. But as they got closer to campus, Conrad couldn’t stand it anymore. He pulled his phone out and saw a message fromLacey.
It was a picture of her sitting outside his dorm room. In her hand was a giant pizza box he instantly recognized fromPalace.
His leg bounced in his seat willing Dominick to drive faster. He even reached over to ruffle his friend’s hair from pure excitement. “That’s the Dominick we all know and love. All school, no play,” Conrad said in response to something he’d said about an economics paper. “I think this means I can play Death Count 2 and not have to worryaboutyou.”
