Page 29 of Until Tomorrow (Love Doesn’t Cure All: The Ashwood Duet #1)

Logan

What did I do to quell my nerves? I fixed my sleeves. Three times over. Because that somehow would fix the problem, right?

I stood outside a coffee shop with every intention of walking inside. Eva had given me a pep talk while we got ready, I’d psyched myself up the whole drive across town, and now I wanted to run away.

Was I going too fast? Was this the right time to do this? What if I sucked at dating? I had more questions than I had answers. I hated that.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I rushed to grab it in case it was Chad. A message from Eva lit up my screen.

EVA : Stop fretting on the sidewalk and go inside.

How do you know?

EVA : Because I know you.

EVA : Now, go. You’ve got this. Be a sexy badass and show Chad how lucky he is that you’re going on this date with h im.

Thank you.

I didn’t quite believe her—I didn’t feel like a badass. Running a hand through my hair, I took a steadying deep breath. People were nervous before dates all the time. This was normal. Nerves were normal. There was nothing remotely wrong with me for having them.

With that little notion on repeat in my head, I made myself go in. Considering the later hour, it wasn’t hard to find Chad.

He was every bit a frat boy who never grew up. I felt overly dressed compared to his jeans, Patriots jersey, and old gym shoes. At least he looked like he tried with his dark hair combed and his face cleanly shaved.

“Logan!” he greeted loud enough for everyone in the small shop to hear. I smiled, doing my best not to feel awkward as I joined him. “You look nice. Had I known you were going to dress up, I would’ve tried a little harder.”

“It’s not a big deal,” I said. Taking his offer, I sat at the table across from him. “This is my casual wear.”

“ Oh .” He laughed, and I did my best not to frown. When I didn’t laugh with him, he sobered quickly. “Oh, you’re serious. Damn . Don’t take this the wrong way, but while you look handsome in the dress clothes, you really should work on getting a pair of jeans or two.”

We were off to a fantastic start.

“Duly noted,” I murmured.

“No offense though,” he assured me.

“None taken.” No, I definitely took offense to that. I had no issues with how I dressed. “How are you?”

“Oh, you know.” Chad leaned back in his chair, fishing a piece of gum out of his pocket. Considering the black coffee he had, who in their right mind drank that and chewed gum simultaneously? “I’m good, I’m good. Things are good. Work is a bitch. Well, my manager’s the bitch.”

“I’m—”

“This fucking guy,” he kept talking as if I hadn’t said a word, “he acts like he owns the place, you know? Like he runs the company!”

“Isn’t that the job of a manager during their shift?” I asked with a slight frown. I hadn’t worked in a managerial-based company in quite a long time, but I still understood the concept. But did Chad?

“ Nah, I know what I’m doing! I’ve been there since I was sixteen. It’s a sweet gig. Next year, I should be making Assistant Manager when Jerry retires.”

“And where do you work?”

“It’s a jersey store. We sell some real high-end jerseys,” he explained, smacking his gum as he spoke. “The good stuff you know.”

Thank God being a lawyer had given me a fantastic poker face. Chad’s profile had said thirty-two. That meant he’d been working in the same retail store for sixteen years. While a job was a job and I tried hard not to judge, he’d been working the same position for sixteen years.

“Did you always want to sell jerseys?” I continued, doing my best to seem interested. Chad and I were in very different leagues.

“Nah, you know, I thought about college for a while,” Chad said. “But then I got this job, and it was perfect. Exactly what I needed. Need. You know how it is.”

“I did four years of college and three years of law school,” I told him with a slow nod.

“Oh, that’s cool,” he replied, mirroring my nod. “Do you like being a lawyer? Do you chase bad guys all day?”

“I’m not a police officer, and I’m not a defense attorney or a public defender.” I’d entertained that for all of a minute. The idea of working with criminals wasn’t for me. “I work mostly in corporate and business dealings.”

“That sounds so boring,” he commented. “I couldn’t do it. Deal with that kind of boring stuff all day. There’s no life in that!”

“Well, I enjoy what I do,” I assured him—why? I didn’t know. Talking to him felt like pulling teeth, but I was determined to see it through. Even if he wouldn’t stop chewing his gum loud enough for the baristas to hear. “So, tell me about yourself, Chad.”

Repositioning myself, I leaned back in my chair and got comfortable, determined to see this thing through.

As far as first dates went, it could’ve been worse. Chad wasn’t my kind of person. I found him overly talkative, too personal, and I had serious though ts of wanting him to choke on the gum he insisted on chewing at jet-plane decibels.

Two hours later, we walked out. Two hours had never felt so long in my life, and I’d attended law school. Chad liked to talk. A lot. He liked the sound of his own voice and no one else’s. I didn’t speak much the entire time we were there, but I made sure I listened, so I could say I gave it my all.

“This was nice,” Chad said as we stopped on the sidewalk. “I had a good time.”

“So did I,” I replied. I couldn’t tell him the truth. That just felt wrong.

“We should do this again,” he continued. “Well, I’m parked that way. Can I walk you to your car?”

“No.” I shook my head, keeping as casual a smile on my face as possible. The last thing I wanted was to spend another minute with Chad. “I’m parked over that way, but thank you.”

“Cool, cool.” When he came at me with his arms open for a hug, I took one long step back. No hugs for Chad. Not from me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m not a big touch person.”

Another white lie. I just wasn’t a Chad person.

“No big deal,” he replied happily. “We’ll loosen you up. We should do this again sometime.”

We absolutely would not. But I just nodded because I had no idea how to respond to that. I’d do that when I had time to sit down and formulate a damn good response on the app.

Chad went one way, and I headed in the other. As I did, I took out my phone. There was a small chance Eva would answer, depending on when she left for her date. The phone rang twice before she answered.

“ Did you know that Thai place we went to once? ” Eva demanded when she answered. “ With the cute little patio? ”

“The one with the dog you tried to take home?” I asked as I frowned. That was the only one that stuck out. We’d been to quite a few Thai restaurants over the years.

“ Yes! ” she exclaimed. “ That one! ”

“What about it?”

“ Did you know that it shut down due to cockroaches? ” she continued. “ Cockroaches, sweetheart! Do you think they had cockroaches when we were t here? ”

“That was…” I faltered. Shit. How long ago had we gone to that place? “Honey, that was like… eight years ago. Eight? I don’t know. Something like that.”

“ Still rude ,” Eva said, and I chuckled. “ All that is to say that the restaurant I was supposed to go to tonight is not where I’ll be. ”

“Where are you going instead?” One of our biggest rules was making sure we let each other know where we were going, with whom, and when. It was purely a safety precaution.

“ There’s a country bar across the street, ” she told me. “ A real hole-in-the-wall kind of place. Nothing crazy. I hope anyway. ”

“Okay.” I wasn’t a big fan of this plan, but I trusted her. “Do you even like country music?”

“ I mean, I’ve listened to some country music and liked it. ” A fact I filed away for later use. I liked learning little new things about my wife. “ But either way, I don’t know. We’ll see. He’s going to be fifteen minutes late for some reason or another. It was a lame excuse. How was your date? ”

“Oh.” I blew out a long breath. “Is this what we missed out on by not dating?”

“ That good? ” She laughed.

“Chad wasn’t bad,” I told her. “But Chad was… Chad. He’ll make someone happy… somewhere. Maybe. But I did it.”

“ Yes, you did, sweetheart. ” I could hear the smile in her voice. It brought out my own. “ How’s your anxiety about everything? Better? ”

“Yeah.” I stopped to lean against my car door as I talked. “I can’t say it won’t come back next time, but at least I know I can do it.”

“ I’m proud of you, Logan. ”

“I couldn’t have done it without you, Eva.” I meant every word of that. “Go have fun tonight. Or tell him he’s a douchebag for making the best woman in the world wait because he didn’t plan for traffic or some shit.”

“ I’m giving him twenty minutes before I leave, ” she said. “ That’s a five-minute courtesy. ”

“That’s five minutes more than he deserves from you. I love you.”

“ I love you too. Be safe getting home. ”

“You too.” I hung up the phone and glanced at the time. I didn’t want to go home. Not yet anyway, so I called Elliot.

“ Lord, have mercy on my soul! Is this Logan Alexander Ashwood? Calling me? This late at night? ” he exclaimed dramatically as he answered, making me chuckle.

“ It’s not that late,” I scoffed. Albeit, for me, it was late on a work night. Usually, I stuck to my schedule of not doing things after a certain hour, so I understood his dramatics. “Want to go get a drink?

“ Isn’t it like a school night or something for you? ”

“Fuck off. Do you want to hang out or not?”

“ I could get a beer on you ,” he replied.

He didn’t need to add that last part. I knew it’d be me paying.

That was our rule. Whoever asked paid. It made it easier than splitting shit left and right.

However, I did go out of my way to beat him to it every chance I got since we were in very different income brackets.

“ I can’t stay long. I’m hooking up with this guy later. ”

“I promise I won’t keep you from your date.”

“ Not a date. Just a hook-up. ”

“Right.” To be honest, I couldn’t remember the last time Elliot went on any kind of date. “Our usual by you?”

“ Sounds good. See you soon. ”