Page 22 of Choosing Her

I saw all three of them pull out their phones, but none of them responded.

And then they went back to their ridiculous actions from before.

I just hoped my date didn’t get weirded out by them.

Crap, had I forgotten her name already? It started a K, I thought.

It was like Katie, but not Katie because I had just seen her.

And it wasn't Caitlyn, either, because I'd gone on a date with her three days ago. And she didn’t have the same name as either of them. When Mako said it, I hadn’t thought it was one I’d gone out with before.

Crossy

HELP

WHAT’S HER NAME??

I saw Mako grabbing his phone and breathed a sigh of relief. But just as he started typing, somebody behind me said, “Caleb, right?”

I quickly shoved my phone in my pocket before she could accidentally see the message on my screen, the jumped to my feet so quickly that the chair clattered loudly as it was pushed backward. The perky blonde who was now standing next to me took a step back in surprise.

“Sorry,” I choked out. I cleared my throat. “You took me by surprise.”

I stuck a hand out for her to shake, realizing a second too late that it was the most awkward way to start a date.

The girl thought so too, if the look of disgust on her face as she slipped her hand into mine was anything to go off.

Should I have hugged her? No, that seemed really forward.

I tried to remember how I’d started out all the other dates I’d gone on recently.

I guess with most of them, we hadn’t touched at all—no handshake, no hug, no anything.

I guess the panic of not knowing her name had thrown me off a little.

“Should we get drinks?” I asked the girl.

Cassandra? Catalina? Katherine? She nodded with a small smile and I gestured for her to go first to go into the line behind a middle-aged couple.

They seemed like they’d never been to a coffee shop before, based on how the husband kept asking the wife basic questions about the drink, like what espresso was and if a matcha latte had coffee in it.

I had a feeling we'd be standing in line forever behind them.

I turned to the blonde girl. Her hair was pulled back into a braid, similar to the one Saylor had been wearing in the stable the other day.

It was neater than Saylor’s braid, with no pieces hanging out like hers had been, that I thought came from Saylor’s workout. Strangely, I found myself missing that.

“So, how are you?” I asked, trying to push thoughts of Saylor from my mind. Thinking about the girl I was trying to get over while on a first date probably wasn’t a good idea, right?

The girl shrugged. “Fine.”

Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best question for me to start off with, but with being on my third date of the day, I was running out of good conversation starters.

I didn’t want to just have the same conversation over and over again.

I thought of New Year’s Eve and of the way that the conversation had flowed so easily between us.

Why hadn’t I been able to recreate that on any of these dates?

Maybe it was because going on a first date from an ad was too planned.

We hadn’t stumbled upon each other, we agreed to meet and we had to stay here for a certain amount of time to not be rude.

It was completely different than stumbling upon a girl in a party and knowing that anything could come of it—a thirty second interlude or an all-night, never-ending conversation.

“Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” I suggested.

I hated using that as a first question since it was the way everyone started set-up dats like this and it was awkward to answer, because you had to just randomly list stuff you thought the other person would find it interesting.

But my mind was blank on any other questions right now.

“Uh…” The girl said, squinting her eyes. “Why don’t you go first?”

Okay, fair enough. I couldn’t ask her to answer if I wasn’t able to answer myself.

“Well, my name’s Caleb Cross, as you know.

” I was hoping that might prompt her to say her own name, but she stayed silent and stared at me, clearly waiting for me to continue.

“And I’m on the Hartwell hockey team. I’m a senior, so lately I’ve been thinking of what college I want to go to.

And…” I tried to think of one last fact to add on since I thought I hadn’t shared enough, and came back to the one I always said: “And I’m the eldest of five siblings. ”

“Oh,” the girl said, not looking remotely interested. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and looked around, her gaze not staying on any one place long enough for me to think she was actually distracted by anything. She just didn’t want to be looking at me, apparently.

“Do you have any siblings?” I asked.

“No.”

“Only child, huh? What’s that like?” I couldn’t imagine what it was like to be an only child.

The only time I came close to it was when I was staying with my mom in the summer, while Aspen and Alivia were with their dad, but even then, I was always in contact with all my siblings.

I couldn’t imagine not having them to talk to all the time.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “It’s fine, I guess.”

I waited for her to continue or to start a new topic of conversation, but she just fell silent, still looking anywhere but me.

I looked at the counter, where the middle-aged couple was now asking the barista questions instead of each other, and wondered if there was any way I could get them to hurry up.

“Boarding school must be a big change for you, then,” I said, turning back to the girl. Surely, there was something I could say that would get her to start talking.

She shrugged. “Yeah. More people around.”

I cracked my knuckles just for the sake of something to do and looked around.

I could see the boys in the corner, still acting as unnatural as they could possibly be, and wondered whether they could tell how terrible this date was going.

I wished that we’d made some sort of signal for them to get me out of here, like Aspen had done for me last week.

My hand itched to grab my phone and just text them SOS or something, but I was sure with the girl standing right next to me, she would notice.

Maybe I could excuse myself to the bathroom after we ordered and text them there.

Or maybe we could just go our separate ways after getting our drinks, since we’d been in this line for so long that it felt like we’d already had the entire date.

“So, what are you going to get to drink?” I asked.

“Just coffee.”

My answer was probably the same, although somehow the word coffee had never seemed so boring. But this was the first crumb of information she had really given me, and I tried to jump on it.

“Like iced coffee?” I asked, thinking of Saylor again. “You know, they have tons of flavor shots you can get. My favorite?—”

“Hot coffee,” she interrupted. “With one cream and one sugar.”

“Oh. Right.” I cleared my throat and stuck my hands in my pockets. “Well, that’s fun too. A classic.”

“Mh-hm.”

I looked around again, hoping for anything to start up a conversation about, but there was truly nothing. Finally, I just tipped my head back towards the ceiling and started counting the seconds until we got to go.

If you were wondering, it was one-hundred-and-eighty-one seconds before the barista called us up.

That was three whole minutes of total and utter silence.

And then more silence while we waited for our drinks to be made.

And, you guessed it, the silence continued once we sat down—because I hadn’t found a way of suggesting that we could just walk home now that didn’t sound ridiculously insulting.

It was so much silence that I was genuinely considering faking a heart attack right here, because at least the emergency room would have something going on.

Please, universe, I am begging you to make this date even mildly more interesting.

The door chimed as somebody walked in, and I was bored enough that I actually turned around to look. Then I immediately spun back around to the table and told the universe never mind, I didn’t mean it . If I could fit under this table, would that be enough to hide me from their view?

“Caleb!”

I sighed. So much for that plan.

“I thought that was you,” Naomi continued in a sickly sweet tone, as she came up beside the table.

My date glanced at her, then at me, then just stared down at her coffee without saying anything.

I wondered what was going on in her head.

Was she mad that another girl was interrupting our date?

Or did she just not care about anything at all?

Saylor came up beside her sister a second later, leaving a small gap between them.

It had been a while since I’d been with the two of them together.

The last time had to be when Naomi and I were still dating, but it hadn’t happened much even during the relationship, when I thought back on it.

After I’d tried to break ties with Saylor by telling her that we should forget everything that happened between us, she’d kept her distance, even when I was over at her house.

But could I blame her for it? All I’d been trying to do was follow my mom’s advice that if I got to know Saylor again, I would realize she wasn’t as magical as I remembered her being from that one night, so it was best to leave it in the past. I thought it was best if I told her outright that nothing would be happening between us, so I didn’t lead her on at all.

But then, when I saw her face fall, I wondered if I’d been too harsh about it.

Especially when she said she didn’t understand how her sister could ever love me, then pushed me in the pool.

When I saw the Saylor sisters up close like this, I could see the resemblance I’d somehow missed when I first met Naomi.

The silky dark brown hair, soft jawlines, and rare but bright smiles.

But their mannerisms were all wrong. Where Saylor stood with perfect posture, Naomi always seemed to be on a lean, popping a hip out one direction or the other.

Where Saylor was usually pretty reserved, Naomi was always flirting—even with guys who weren’t her boyfriend when she was in a relationship.

“Naomi,” I said flatly. “Saylor. Nice to see you.”

I tried to turn my attention back to my date, but as I looked away from Naomi, I accidentally made eye contact with Saylor, who almost seemed to be catching my attention, though I had no idea why.

“Hi,” I said to her, unable to help myself. I cringed afterward, realizing that I’d just said hello to her twice for no reason. Her mouth quirked like she was thinking the same. I cleared my throat and looked back at my date. “Do you know Naomi and Saylor?”

She shook her head and glanced at them, not quite smiling, but not really frowning either. She was completely indifferent, the way she'd been since the moment she walked into this coffee shop.

“Oh well, uh, Naomi and Saylor, this is…” I’d started the introductions without thinking, but my mistake suddenly became glaringly obvious as I realized I still didn’t know the name of the girl in front of me.

I should have gotten Mako to write it on my hand or something.

Not Katie or Jessica—those were the girls I saw earlier today. Not Caitlin or Cassandra or Kendall.

The silence had gone on too long now. Everybody knew why I wasn't saying anything, so I cleared my throat again and said, “This is my friend.” I tried to make it sound like the end of the sentence, but it still sounded like I was hanging there, waiting for her name to be tacked on. But what was I supposed to say? I didn’t know and I couldn’t just make up a name.

Before I could even begin to think of a solution, coffee was hitting my face.

I sputtered from shock and wiped at my eyes, as the girl snapped, “It’s Kira, you jerk!

” By the time I could see again, she was gone.

But a new person was appearing in her place—Tino, with napkins in hand.

I assumed he would just hand them to me, like a normal human being, but he started wiping at my face for me, almost smothering me with the white cloth.

And out of the limited vision I had, I saw him smile up at Naomi and Saylor and say, “Sorry, he's still learning how to interact with other people.”

I punched his shoulder until he pulled away.

As he did, he muttered something about that being what he got for being such a good friend.

I shot him a dirty look as I grabbed the extra napkin he’d left on the table and wiped up the last of the coffee on my face.

There was still more all over my shirt and the floor, but I guess I could deal with that later.

“Sorry,” I said to Naomi and Saylor, even though they were the ones who had come and interrupted. Not to mention, they ere both smirking like they’d just seen a great show, so I couldn’t imagine they were too upset.

“Same old Caleb,” Naomi sighed, crossing her arms. “You just don’t know how to keep a girl happy, do you?”

She spun on her heel and flounced off toward the counter. I expected Saylor to go with her, but she continued standing where she was, watching me impassively.

“Are you okay?” She asked eventually. “I mean… she didn’t burn you or anything?”

“No,” I said. I was quickly losing my train of thought as I felt her gaze move over me, like she thought I might be hiding third degree burns under my shirt or something. “No, it wasn’t that hot.”

Saylor’s eyes drifted back up to mine and she held my gaze for a few moments too long. It had been a while since I’d looked into her eyes like this. Had they always been such a pretty light brown? I swore I remembered them darker.

“Rebecca!” Naomi yelled from across the room. Saylor started walking backwards, taking such small steps that she was barely moving. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought she wanted to stay with me.

“Nice drink,” she mumbled. Then she turned around and ran to catch up with Naomi, who was already ordering. I glanced at the cup in front of me and smiled.

Iced coffee with a shot of caramel . I didn’t even like caramel that much, but she’d looked so happy when she drank the one I brought her the other day—eyes closed as she took a sip, a long sigh of contentment after each taste—that when the barista asked me what I wanted to drink, it was the only thing that had come to mind.