After shoving the last napkin into the basket, Lacey answered. “Yeah, let’sdothat.”
The two of them brought everything to Lacey’s car. Since her roommate was the Date Maker, it was much easier for her to return the quilt and blanket to Morgan. When they were done, they walked the short distance to the old-timeytheater.
Trevor didn’t reach for Lacey’s hand, but the way his shoulder kept brushing hers on the way was enough to keep hersatisfied.
Fornow.
“How was themovie?”
“Not nearly asengrossing as the couple Ibumpedinto.”
ChapterThree
Conrad wasn’t bitter about not gettingset-up by the DateMaker.
Notatall.
In fact, he was completely fine that his sometimes-nerdy roommate, Dominick, was going out with the hot coffee shop chick while he stayed home playing on his Xbox. Conrad had really only signed up for the service for the chance to win a gift card to that same local coffee shop. He figured if he had a reason to go there every day, he wouldn’t need the Date Maker to snag one of the hotties working behind thecounter.
At least that’s what he toldhimself.
When Dominick had come back one day after completing the required interview for the dating service, Conrad had pretended to ignore him, but had signed up thesameday.
He had a surprisingly short, and awkward, interview with Morgan two days later. Unfortunately, Conrad still hadn’t heard back from Morgan, despite Dominick getting a hand-delivered date. He also hadn’t won thegiftcard.
And all of that wascompletelyfine.
Conrad played Death Count 2 while watching his roommate out of the corner of his eye. Dominick tried on outfit after outfit, each one worse than the onebeforeit.
“Dude,” Conrad finally said, after Dominick pulled a fedora from the small dorm closet and tried it on. A fedora! The poor guy was worse than a high school girl with all this clothing anxiety. Conrad decided to put him out of his misery and said, “Keep that teal polo on and grab the khakis out of my topdrawer.”
Dominick took the ridiculous hat off his head and looked at Conrad, his mouth open and his eyes wide. Conrad was pleased to know he could still surprise his roommate even after living together for severalyears.
“We wear the same size,” he added when Dominick continued to stareathim.
“What makes you think I want to wear any of yourclothing?”
Conrad sighed. “Because they’re better than the ill-fitting pants you have on now and will look good with the shirt you’re wearing.” He knew he sounded like a jerk, an image he sometimes cultivated just to get a rise out of people. But that wasn’t the reason he said it to Dominick. Conrad genuinely wanted his roommate to have a good date, and tough love was something Dominickrespondedto.
Dominick cursed under his breath—the same curse he always uttered whenever he gave into Conrad’sadvice.
He grabbed the stuff from the drawer and got dressed, even going so far as tucking the shirt in. Conrad shook his head from his spot on his bed. But when his roommate asked him what he thought, he bit back his true thoughts and answered, “Knockherdead.”
After all, there was only so much he could do in onenight.
Once Dominick was gone, Conrad saved his game, and got dressed himself—trading in his gym shorts for jeans and a clean tee. He had plans for the evening, and they didn’t include staying in and playing videogames.
Conrad was going to the Polk Theater—not that he would ever admit that to anyone. He had his image to think about, and a theater that played independent films and had a guy playing the organ as pre-show entertainment didn’t exactly fit what he was trying toputoff.
But he loved it, and had ever since the first time Dominick had dragged him down to see a showing ofThe Gooniesduring one of the theater’s classic movie runs. Conrad had instantly fallen in love with the Mediterranean feel of the place—from the fake balconies to the sconces on the walls. Even the twinkling lights on the ceiling, meant to look like starts in the night sky, had captured hisheart.
He’d simply looked over at Dominick on that first visit and said, “I guess it’sprettycool.”
But now, Conrad was a regular face at the Friday or Saturday night movies. He didn’t even look to see what was playing anymore, knowing he almost always liked what theyshowed.
“How ya doing tonight?” the older man behind the window asked as Conrad walked up to the small ticketbooth.
Conrad shrugged his shoulder. “Same ol’, same ol’, Iguess.You?”
