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Chapter 3

DANI

I sat down at the table, grabbing the coffee Jordy bought for me—an oat milk latte with a splash of vanilla. I looked around the table, searching for the missing blueberry scone that he usually got for me as well.

He sipped his coffee and said, “Oh, are you looking for something?”

I tilted my head, knowing damn well that he knew what he was doing. He pulled up the bag that held my favorite breakfast pastry and swung it back and forth. “Before I give you this delicious treat, I need to know why you wanted to meet me in public. Seems like a defense mechanism that I’m not prepared for.”

I laughed, setting my coffee back down. “It’s nothing bad. I just wanted to keep this out in the open, making sure that you don’t freak out.”

Jordy laid the pastry bag down on the table and squinted his eyes at me. “Why would I freak out? What did you do?”

I leaned back with a shit eating grin on my face. “I have something that I think will help us out for this…wedding.”

“Ah. Wedding. Are we going to coordinate our outfits? Because I already bought my suit. So we’ll just have to not match.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not what this is about. I have some rules that I’d like for us to set going into this.”

He crossed his arms, his muscles bulging out of the sleeves, and it caught my attention. I didn’t live under a rock. Jordy was absolutely gorgeous, but he and I were simply friends. Nothing would change that.

“What kind of rules?”

I reached into my purse, grabbing the receipt I wrote on the back of.

“Oh wow, look at you writing words—”

“Ha. Ha. You’re so hilarious. Okay, seriously. Here are the rules,” I said, slamming the small paper in front of me.

A laugh fell through Jordy’s tight-lipped smile.

“It’s not funny, Jordy.”

“Ah. It kind of is. You seriously think you and I need rules for this trip?”

I leaned over, placing my elbows on the table, and pushed the receipt towards him. He reluctantly picked up the paper and started to read.

“Number one, no tongue.” Jordy laughed. “I don’t want to stick my tongue in your mouth to begin with.”

I gave him a pointed look before gesturing for him to continue.

“Fine. Number two, only one minute of hand holding per day. Okay, I don’t mind this one because we absolutely do have to show some sort of PDA on this trip. So one minute is good enough for me.”

I sipped on my coffee waiting for his response to number three.

“No ridiculous nicknames?” Jordy questioned. “You‘re so boring, Dani. You know that’s the first rule I’m gonna break.”

I raised my brows, leaning over the table to meet him face to face. “You won’t be breaking any rules—because if you break a rule, I get to retaliate.”

“Oooohhh, I’m so scared.” He held up two hands, trembling.

“You’re an absolute dick. You know that?”

He reached over, pinching off part of my scone and popping it into his mouth. “Eh. I might be, but you’re still my friend. Alright, moving onto number four. Touching Dani’s ass is off limits. Boo, you’re so boring.” He took another bite of my scone, that he swore he hated and didn’t understand why I liked to order it. “Number five, don’t fall in love with Dani.”

He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Same for you, Dani. Don’t fall in love with me either.”

“So, it’s a deal?”

He groaned. “Sure. Fine.”

He reached for another piece of my scone and I slapped his hand away. “Quit it, and here’s a pen. Sign the bottom,” I instructed.

Jordy seemed shocked. “You’re not fucking serious, right? This isn’t a contract.”

“It is now. Sign it.”

He grabbed the pen out of my hand, signing his name at the bottom. Handing it back to me, I signed my name as he said, “Pleasure doing business with you, Dani Corella.”

“Same to you, Jordy Hughes.”

“Wanna get out of here? I wanted to go see if that shoe store on the corner got the new—”

“You don’t even know how to tie your shoes, Jordy.”

We stood, grabbing our coffees and trash to throw away. “Okay. Rude,” Jordy scoffed. “I do know how to tie my shoes, it just takes some time.”

I smirked. “We could get you some Velcro ones.”

He rolled his eyes at me. “You’re more of a dick than I am. There are people in this world that really need Velcro shoes, and here you are being an asshole about me—”

I reached out, gripping his arm with mine. “Okay. I’m sorry. I wasn’t being very kind. I apologize.”

“Thank you. Now are you gonna be nice and go to the store with me?”

“Yeah. I’ll be nice.”

We walked in silence for a few minutes, but I just couldn’t help myself. “What about slip on’s—”

“For the love of God, Dani!” he exclaimed. “Okay, that’s it. You are uninvited to the store with me. Go be an asshole to someone else.”

“Aw, c’mon, Huey.”

He stopped walking, standing stoic in the middle of the sidewalk. “What the hell did you just call me?”

I giggled. “Huey. I don’t know, it just flowed out. Your last name is Hughes… Huey.”

“Aren’t you the one that wrote the contract between us to begin with? And here you go, breaking it.”

“Fine. We’ll cross that one out.”

“Good.” We continued to walk and I could see the storm cloud of thoughts brewing in his mind. He was trying to find a good nickname for me. Something that would embarrass me.

“Got nothing?”

Jordy groaned. “I hate that you can figure out what I’m thinking.” He reached over, grabbed the handle to the door and opened it for me. “I’m gonna get you back. Don’t you worry.”

I smirked. “I can’t wait, Velcro boy.”