Page 26 of Just Another Meet Cute

Unlike the uncomfortable car ride from earlier, this ride with Ian was nice.

Peaceful and almost friendly in the silence.

Thank God, since it was just the two of us in the car now.

Ryan ended up having to stay home to help Ollie with something .

Judging by Ollie’s bright red ears and the way he avoided my eyes, I decided not to ask.

At first, I was nervous to be alone with Ian, but the longer we drove, the more my nerves melted away. Maybe it was because of our awesome teamwork during Pictionary, but I felt like there was an unspoken truce between us now.

“Can I ask you something?”

And now the truce was over.

Wryly, I glanced over at him, but Ian was busy checking the rearview mirror as he changed lanes. “Haven’t you asked me enough questions already?”

His white teeth flashed in the dark. “One more won’t hurt.”

I doubted that. “I’ll probably regret this, but sure.”

“At the theater …” Ian trailed off a bit and chewed on his lower lip. “Who was that man you and Linh were talking to afterward?”

Oh.

I turned away to gaze out the passenger window. It was so dark that I could barely see the houses on the street unless their porch light was on. And even then, it was a quick blur.

My thumbnail scratched at the side seam of my jeans. “That was my dad.”

Ian was so quiet that I thought he didn’t hear me at first. I could see his reflection in the glass though. His head kept turning in my direction as he looked at me. But I couldn’t see the expression on his face.

“And are you okay?”

Out of all the questions he could have asked, that was the one I least expected. And the only one that made me catch my breath. Instead of the whys and hows, he was asking about me and how I felt.

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes. “That’s another question.”

“Consider it a continuation of the first one.” He lightly drummed his hands against the steering wheel. “You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.”

It was funny, but the fact that he was giving me a choice made me want to answer.

Was this some kind of twisted reverse psychology?

Whatever it was, it was working. I never liked talking about Dad to anyone.

Even Linh had to force my feelings out sometimes.

But for some reason, I wanted to tell Ian.

To talk to him, because I had a feeling that he would understand.

Even though a few hours ago, he was literally the last person I wanted to see.

“We don’t get along very well,” I said carefully. “Not that we fight a lot or anything, but we don’t … spend time together. At all actually.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Oh, really? So you don’t spend much time with your dad either?”

“More like the opposite.” He fiddled with the volume button on the radio. “I pretty much spend all my time with my dad. I was the only one who decided to live with him after the divorce. Everyone else wanted to stay with Mom.”

Surprised, I swung around fully to stare at him. “Your parents are divorced?”

His mouth twisted into a wry grin. “I guess Ryan never mentioned it?”

“No, he didn’t.” Now that I think about it, we never talked about our families much.

Even though Ryan met Mom and Dad, he never asked about us.

Or maybe he didn’t notice there was anything wrong.

And I guess I was so relieved that he never made me talk about them that it never occurred to me to ask about his family.

I wanted to know now though. “So you don’t live here anymore?” My finger pointed behind me even though his house was long gone by now.

“I’m still in Austin. Sort of. We moved to Marble Falls.

Been there for over a year now. Despite what everyone thinks, it’s not that far from Austin, but sometimes it feels like a world away.

Especially with the shitty traffic. This is the first time I’ve been back for more than a day or two …

” His voice trailed off a bit. “Even though everything’s still the same, it feels … different somehow.”

There it was again. Without knowing it, he was saying exactly what I was feeling. And from his words, I just knew that Ian was the one who wrote the essay. It made me want to lean closer to him, but I forced myself to stay still.

“Why’d you decide to live with your dad? You know, instead of staying here with Ryan and everyone else.” I knew I was being super nosy now, but I couldn’t make the questions stop. “Seems like things here are pretty great.”

Luckily, Ian didn’t seem to mind too much.

“Because no one else was going to.” He let out a short humorless laugh.

“Ryan and my other sisters wanted to stay with our mom and the rest of the family. Everyone you met was on my mom’s side.

My dad was an only child. My ? ng and B á N ? i died a few years ago.

So he didn’t have anybody else. Still doesn’t. ”

“But now he has you.”

“Now he has me,” he repeated like it was some deep and dark secret. Maybe it was to his family. “At least I get my own room now. That’s a plus.”

“If you could go back, would you still leave with your dad? Even knowing that it would make things different and you’d feel alone?”

His eyes jerked over to my face. “How did you know I feel alone?”

“I—” Damn, I was mixing up his words and his essay. “I assumed that’s what you meant when you said things were different now. Being away from your family.”

“Right.” Still not looking entirely convinced, Ian nodded. “I think I’d still go with him. My reasons for leaving haven’t changed, and there’s no point in thinking about what-ifs now.”

Everything he said made sense, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to let go of my what-ifs about my family just yet.

“I’ve only known my dad for two years,” I said, offering up my own secret. I tugged on my fingers, cracking my knuckles. A habit that Mom absolutely hated. “My parents weren’t married when they had me. Well, he was married, but to somebody else. They—he has two other kids.”

I wasn’t sure why I told him all that. But after everything I knew about him, in the essay and in person, I felt like I wanted him to know me—the real me—too.

Ian flickered a glance over, and I expected him to be shocked. But there was a thoughtful expression on his face. “And that’s why you sort of have a half brother and half sister.”

“Yep. Both of whom I’ve never met.”

“Does he ever talk about them or see them?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know if he’s not allowed to or if he doesn’t want to, but he doesn’t. Nor does he talk about them at all. It’s almost like they don’t exist to him anymore.”

“And now he’s with your family.”

“Now he’s with my family.”

One side of his mouth quirked up into a half smile. “No wonder you decided to come home with us. I would have done exactly the same thing.”

It wasn’t what he said, but the way he said it that made me believe him. I was super grateful that he wasn’t pushing for more answers or asking more questions. Or, oh God, giving well-meaning but totally unwanted advice. That was the worst. Instead, he just accepted how I felt.

It was nice.

“If you ever need to escape from your family again, you can call me,” he said, holding out his hand. “No judgment. Promise.”

And despite the fact that he spent the last few days blackmailing me to keep my secret, my instincts told me that I could trust him.

I reached out and gave his hand a light squeeze. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” His hand squeezed mine back before he let go.

We fell back into the silence again.

“So, any more questions? Do you need to know about my fifth-grade teacher, too? Or maybe when I learned how to ride a bike?” I teased with a grin.

His lips pressed together, and I could see him holding back his grin. “Not right now.”

“Okay, so now it’s my turn. Why did you ask me all those questions in the first place?”

“To annoy you?”

“Well, if that was the only reason, then it definitely worked.”

Grinning, Ian shook his head. “Honestly, I didn’t know you. We only met that one time, and suddenly, poof! There you were at my house with Ryan, eating ph? with my family. Sitting next to my grandma. And then I realized that you tracked us—me—down, and it was so crazy and weird.”

“Oh, sure, but when Prince Charming does it to find Cinderella, nobody called him crazy and weird,” I muttered to myself.

“Yeah, well, I’m no Cinderella, and you’re no Prince Charming.”

I shrugged but didn’t say anything, because he was right. I know I would have freaked out if our situation was turned around. Still, the double standards in fairy tales were a bit annoying.

“So, I had to find out more about you. Make sure that you were normal and safe and right for Ryan. I didn’t want him to get hurt or anything. He’s important to me. Obviously.”

“And now? What’s your verdict?”

Ian slowly pulled to a stop at a red light and turned to fully look at me.

His eyes examined me like he was looking at me for the first time, and I could feel myself turn a little pink under his intense gaze.

That didn’t stop me from looking straight back at him though.

Not sure if I could look away even if I wanted to. Not with him staring at me like that.

He was the first one to break eye contact. And that was only because the light turned green and the car behind us honked.

“I think … I’m glad that you found us.”

His words made me feel all warm and gooey. And the way he said the word us made me wonder if he wasn’t referring to Ryan. “I wasn’t sure at first, but I’m glad to be here, too.”

The grin that he sent me was different from the others. Like he read between the lines and knew that I was glad to be here. With him.

I didn’t know whether this secret bubble of ours would pop and tomorrow we’d go back to the way things were before. Maybe the Pictionary game was some kind of team-building activity. Building up friendships as easily as tearing down families. They should really put that on the box.