Page 87 of The Singles Club

18

I Think I Love You

Vivian

Crystal kept looking around the bar, her foot swinging back and forth under the table, swiping me again for the third time. “Sorry.”

“Why are you so antsy tonight?”

“I’m not. I’m hungry, and you know how I get when I’m hungry.”

True. For someone so petite, I had no clue where she put it all.

“They’re here.” Crystal took a long sip of her drink, looking unusually nervous about all this.

Isabella headed over with a woman trailing behind her. She was pretty, blonde, and well dressed, but nothing that stood out. She fit the whole Northeast neutral color scheme. The brightest color most professionals wore in this city was red, and even that was rare.

They sat down, and Isabella introduced her. “This is Giselle, my, ah… friend… from work.”

“Hi, I’m Crystal.”

Giselle reached out her hand for a shake. “Nice to meet you, Crystal.”

Isabella gestured to me. “And this is Vivian.”

I shook her hand. “Nice to meet you as well.”

“You too.”

“So, Longfellow. You three have your meetups here often?” Giselle asked.

“It’s one of our frequent places,” I said. “But we try to change it up a bit.”

“Thank you for meeting me tonight,” she said. “An old college friend and I usually get together the last Friday of every month. I mean, I suppose Icouldhave canceled if I wanted to and tried to push for Saturday, but we made this silly pact in college, and neither one of us has ever backed out, which is probably for the best. People just get so busy these days that they’re always saying they don’t have time. But I read this really great book about time management and setting priorities. We can make time for something if it’s important enough to us, don’t you think?”

The three of us stared back at her. She hadn’t taken one breath between her sentences.

The waiter came and took their drink order, and Crystal ordered an appetizer.

“So, Isabella tells me you have a crush,” I said.

She blushed. “I suppose that’s what you’d call it. I thought he had a similar interest when he took me to lunch. Apparently, it was only a business lunch, but he very rarely does that, so I thought that maybe he was shy. I have a cousin Marlow who was like that. He had a thing for this woman, Maggie, who worked at a coffee shop.” She tapped her fingers against her mouth. “What was the name of that place, The Coffee Grind? No that’s not it…”

I gulped my wine, getting the feeling we were in for a long night. “A business lunch? So, do you two work together?”

“Yes, we—”

I cut her off before she had the chance to get off-topic. “This is good, because you have a constant form of communication.”

She grinned.

“But I have to warn you that work relationships can get a bit tricky.”

“Tell me about it, my aunt Marcia—”

“Sorry to cut you off,” I said, “but I can’t stay out late tonight, and if you want me to help you, we should probably focus on this guy.”

She nodded as if she understood. “I’m sorry, I talk a lot when I’m nervous.”