Page 66 of It's a Date (Again)

“Thanks, Debbie. You’re the best.”

“I know,” she says with a small smile before cleaning up the kitchen.

“Robbie was wasted last night?” Maya chews on a piece of bacon and glances at me.

“Yep. He was kind of grilling Tyler too, and I barely got him home in one piece. And then ...” I pause. “Never mind.”

Maya’s eyes bulge, and her forkful of egg lingers midair, hovering in front of her mouth. “What? Tell me.”

I bite my lower lip, deciding whether or not to tell them about Robbie being kind of flirty toward me. Maybe it wasn’t flirty. No, it wasn’t. He was just drunk. But he did undress in front of me and flexed his pecs and muscles. But that could have been unintentional. Sometimes muscles just flex, right?

“It’s nothing,” I say, sipping the rest of my orange juice.

Maya points at me. “You’re biting your lip.”

“So.”

“That’s your tell.”

“I don’t have a tell,” I argue.

“Yes, you do,” Debbie says. “You bite your lip when you lie.”

“So, spill.” Maya eats a hunk of her toast.

“Fine. I think Robbie was being a little flirty with me.”

Debbie pauses her cleaning and whips her head in my direction. She leans over the counter, propping her chin up on her hands, waiting for me to say more.

“It was nothing,” I say, flicking my hand.

“We’ll be the judge of that,” Debbie says. “Go on. Tell us more.”

I glance to Maya and then Debbie. They both stare at me, waiting for me to spill. “He mentioned the pact, and I think he said he didn’t actually forget about it.”

“Did he say that?” Maya asks.

“I don’t know. I think so. He also said maybe the pact wasn’t silly.”

“Aww,” Debbie says.

“I told him he was right about it being silly.” I glance at my hands and then back at Debbie and Maya. “And then I reminded him whathe said about us not being good together anyway. And he said he says a lot of things.”

“That sounds like flirting to me,” Debbie says with a nod.

“It’s borderline flirting,” Maya adds.

“Your generation is too used to communicating via emojis. You wouldn’t think it was flirting unless there was one of them eggplants thrown in.”

Maya squints. “How do you know about the eggplant emoji, Debbie?”

“It was an accidental discovery when I tried eharmony.”

“You online dated?” I ask.

She nods. “It’s impossible to meet a man in person anymore. They aren’t at the grocery store because of DoorDash. They’re not out shopping because of Amazon. I had no other choice.”

“What I don’t understand is how you learned about the eggplant.” Maya chuckles.