Page 21 of Fun Together (Make Romance #1)

Eli

I love first dates. I’m good at first dates. I look forward to first dates.

That was my mantra as I brushed my teeth before heading out to meet up with Dani.

It was my mantra when I was waiting outside for her to arrive.

I thought if I repeated those three things to myself enough, I’d start to feel excited about meeting her.

I figured maybe my lack of enthusiasm was because it’d been a while since I’d gone on a first date.

I was rusty, and that’s why I was dreading it all day.

No matter what, though, I couldn’t stop thinking about Faye and her date. Was she wearing that dress? Was Cameron making her laugh? Was she going to kiss Cameron in a not-pretend way?

I’m leaning against the wall next to the building’s entrance, checking my phone yet again for any texts from Faye.

I was sort of hoping she’d text me something funny about how awful the date is, and I would be able to make some kind of excuse to Dani to go meet up with Faye instead.

I shake my head, trying to physically shed those thoughts because that’s not exactly fair to the woman I’m about to be on a date with.

A woman approaches, and I know it’s Dani based on my mom’s description of her. “She’s petite with beautiful brown eyes and the kind of curly dark hair I’d pay a fortune for,” she had said.

And she wasn’t wrong. She’s very pretty, with a calm sort of confidence and a kind, smiling face.

“Eli?” she asks.

“Hey, Dani. How are you?”

“Nice to meet you,” she says with a smile.

I open the door for her and follow her inside. We get in line to order our beers. “My mom told me you moved here recently from Mexico?”

“Yeah, I was living with my dad in Mexico City.”

“I’ve always wanted to go there. It seems really cool. And beautiful.”

“I loved it, but my mom wanted me closer to her. You were in New York, right? How have you been adjusting to being back to non-big-city life?”

“It’s been mostly fine, but I definitely miss being able to walk to the store without having to cross a major highway.”

She chuckles as she looks up at the chalkboard drink menu. “Seriously. I feel like I need to re-learn how to drive a car.”

We get our beers and sit at the picnic tables outside in the back, making more small talk about what we do for work.

She just started working at a law firm, and we bond over being newbies at our jobs.

She seems funny and kind, but I’m forcing it.

I sort of get the sense that she is too, though.

About five minutes later, she puts me out of my own misery.

She places her palms down on the table. “Let’s get something out of the way.

We’ll tell our moms we had a great time tonight, but I’m so busy with my new job and you’re focused on your—” She pauses and makes a vague gesture in my direction.

“Something or other. We’ll part amicably, knowing we’ve fulfilled our duties. ”

So she doesn’t want to be here either, which piques my curiosity.

“Is it my hair cut? I just got it cut today and you know a hair cut kind of needs to settle in a couple of days before it looks good.”

She looks confused. “No, your hair looks fine.”

“Is it this shirt? My friend Faye told me I wear too many plain shirts. Is she right? Is this shirt too plain?”

She seems to pick up on my joking. “Yeah, I saw you standing there in that basic shirt and knew it was a no-go,” she says with a grimace.

“I appreciate your honesty.”

She takes a sip of her beer. “Actually, I’m already dating someone, but it’s early days and my mom doesn’t know yet.”

“Ah, I see.” Now, I feel more relaxed, pressure easing a bit. “So, tell me about them.”

Her face lights up, like she can’t wait to talk about this new relationship. “We work together and I kind of hated her at first. Attorneys are very competitive.” She grins, like she’s thinking of something amusing. “But then we started talking more, and the rest is history.”

“That’s awesome. Honestly, I’m kind of relieved.”

“Are you already seeing someone too?”

“No, not seeing anybody.” Again, my stupid brain goes to Faye. My stupid brain wants to date Faye. I want my face to light up, too. “Can I ask you for some advice?”

It sucks having the one person you normally go to for advice be the last one you should.

I haven’t heard from Andrew since he left, and no news is usually good news with him.

Maybe he’s falling madly in love, and he won’t care at all if I date Faye.

This will be a funny story we talk about some day.

“Go for it.”

“I’m sure you took all kinds of ethics classes in law school, right?”

“Oh yeah.”

“On a scale of one to ten, how ethical is it to want to be with your best friend’s ex?”

“I feel like I have to say that this is not legal advice, and all opinions are my own. But if one is murdering someone and ten is Mother Teresa, I’d say you’re sitting at a solid seven to eight on the ethical scale.”

“So it’s not bad, then?”

“Not bad . . . necessarily, but it sounds messy. That’s for sure.”

“Yeah.” I sigh. “It does.”

Messy isn’t really what I need right now, either. It may not be ethically wrong to date Faye, but it might create waves neither of us want to deal with.

“Ultimately, you have to follow your heart,” she says and then shakes her head. “That was incredibly cheesy.”

I laugh. “Cheesy, but true.”

I wonder if my feelings for Faye are coming from the heart or just from my insatiable curiosity about her. Could those two things be one and the same?

“Speaking of cheesy—” She gestures to the grilled cheese food truck parked on the street. “Want to get some food?”

“Never been one to turn down a grilled cheese.”

I end up having a good time hanging out with her, despite how much I didn’t want to be there at first. She even mentioned she was looking for something active to do and I invited her to come check out the softball league this week.

After parting ways with Dani, I’m in pretty good spirits. But as I walk to my car, I can’t stop thinking about how Faye and Cameron might be ending their date. Or if their date doesn’t end at all, and they spend the entire night together.

I don’t drive home yet. Instead, I spend about an hour driving around aimlessly before heading back to my parents’ house.

A few hours later, I can’t sleep and decide to call Faye.

I tell myself it’s just to make sure she’s home okay. We both have trouble sleeping, so I don’t think she’ll be in bed yet. The phone rings a few times.

What if she’s still with Cameron? What is she’s having sex with Cameron right this second? I pull the phone away from my ear to hang up when I hear her answer.

“Hey,” she says, a little groggy.

I feel my stomach unclench. I sit up and prop my pillow behind me. “Hey.” I’m suddenly at a loss for words.

She laughs out another, “Hey.”

“Sorry, I don’t know why I called. I?—”

“I’m glad you called.”

“Yeah?”

“I couldn’t sleep anyway.”

“How did it go tonight?”

She groans. “I don’t know. I think my expectations were too high.”

“So it was bad?”

“Not bad, just a little disappointing.”

She tells me about how he took her to some kind of abandoned warehouse for a five-course dinner and that he was weirdly obsessed with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“How did you two leave things?” This is my very bad way of asking if anything happened.

“He offered to wait with me while the Uber arrived.”

“Chivalry isn’t dead,” I say.

“Then he kissed me.”

A hot wave jealousy hits me right in stomach. But for some reason I ask, “Was it a good kiss?” Why am I doing this to myself?

“I’m not sure.”

I can’t help but laugh. “I think you’d know if it was good.”

“At first I thought it was bad, but I keep thinking about it.” Her voice is muffled, like she’s rolled over and she’s partially speaking into her pillow. “I think maybe I forgot what a good kiss feels like.”

If she’s lying in bed, unable to stop thinking about the kiss, that means it was at least a little good. “Are you going to see him again?”

“I don’t know. We’ll see. How did it go with Dani?”

“She was nice. We had a good time.” I don’t tell her that Dani and I won’t be more than friends. It’s like I need to keep some kind of tether to something else right now.

“I would take someone nice at this point. Do you know any nice guys? That are kind and don’t make the entire conversation about them?”

I think through the guys I know and selfishly don’t want to introduce her to any of them. But that’s unfair. I think I might know exactly this type of guy and he’s on my softball team.

“Do you want to come to my softball game Tuesday? There’s a guy on my team, Chris, you might like.” Chris reminds me a lot of Andrew, actually.

“I was joking, but . . . maybe?”

“Worst case scenario, you get to see my prowess on the field.”

She giggles. “Be still my heart.”

This has gotten so complicated. I can admit to myself that I want Faye but can’t have her. But trying to set your best friend’s ex up with someone else still feels wrong in some way, too. I can’t think straight. It’s like I’m caught in a current of shoulds and should nots with her.

Guess I’ll just go along with it and see what happens.