Julian
A third first date.
One final chance to convince Leticia I’m the one she should be with.Batter up.If I don’t put my all into this, there’s no world in which I get another shot like this.One more strike, and you’re out.I’m not letting that happen a third time.
I refuse.
“I get why you believe we wouldn’t work,” I explain. “You’ve never trusted Andrew a day in your life, so why would you willingly attach yourself to his best friend? It’d be like asking for this relationship to blow up in our faces like it did last night, only worse. Much worse.”
Don’t you see what a mess this is?
The last relationship I had nearly upended my entire family and resorted in my father seeing himself out of my life for good. Leti and Andrew were on bad terms long before I entered the picture, but I can’t let what happened to my family happen to theirs. Not because of me. Not again.
“Well, yeah.” She shrugs. “Do I really need to present you with the evidence again?”
“No.” I shake my head. “Like I said, I get it. You’re not ready for more. But can you be ready for a chance at more?”
“A chance at more.” The words are spoken under her breath, like she’s testing them out. “And how exactly does this fix the Andrew of it all?”
“It buys us some time, for one,” I tell her. “To figure out a way for you to coexist in peace.”
“Yeah, not likely.”
“We’ll see about that,” I say. “What are you thinking?”
“How would this even work? We date other people non-exclusively while we’re physically exclusive with each other? How is that not asking for more of a mess than we’re already making?”
“We’ll put a limit on this to mitigate the possibility of hurting someone’s feelings in the process. How does one date for each of us sound?”
“Fair enough,” she says, “as long as you’re doing this too.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to correct her when Leti said she knew there was someone else, until the conversation veered so far left it spun out of my control.Even if there wasn’t someone else you were into before me, I’m not so sure we’d work anyway.The last thing I want to do is lie to her, but I have to tread carefully here.
“If that’s what you want.” My eyes scan her face for any hint at what she’s thinking, but aside from the slight purse to her lips, she gives away nothing.
“It is,” she says. “Think you can get this mystery person to agree to go out with you?”
I’m halfway there already.
“Let me worry about that,” I say. “After each date, we’ll debrief here at the end of the night and give our final rankings once we’ve gone out with everyone.”
“What happens after we choose?”
“If we choose each other, we date,” I say. “Exclusively, until we’re ready to commit to a real relationship.”
“What does dating exclusively mean to you?” Her brow rises. “We’re not keeping this chaste, are we?”
“It means we get to know each other.” I smirk. “Biblically, and otherwise.”
“If we’re exclusively dating and having sex, how is that any different from committing to a real relationship?”
“Committing means we’re in this through thick and thin. No walking away the minute things get hard. We work through it together,” I say. “Dating exclusively gives us a chance to make sure that’s what we want from each other.”
“That’s what you mean by a chance at more,” she says, and I nod. “What happens if I choose someone else?”
Yeah, that’s not a possibility I’m willing to entertain.
I shrug. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
