Page 16

“So, tell me more about him!”

Ronan, who was crossing the room to get a cup of coffee, stops dead in his tracks and turns to face Josie and me. “More about who?”

Ignoring his question, I look at my best friend. “There’s nothing else I can say, Jos.” I laugh. “You know how dating apps work; they don’t give you a lot of room to get to know someone. That’s what the dates are for.”

From his spot in the other chair, Bryce scowls at the mere mention of his girlfriend ever being on a dating app, which makes me bite back a smile.

Josie lasted all of one week on a dating app before swearing to never download one again; the lack of authenticity and taking the time to get to know someone was a huge turnoff for her.

She wasn’t in the market for a quick path, so she kept traveling the one she already was on, and it led her back to Bryce.

“But the two of you have been talking for days !” She drops her head back against the couch in annoyance, turning it to look at me. “Come on, there has to be something he’s told you that’s of note.”

But he hasn’t, not really. All of our conversations have been pretty shallow, not digging too deep into either of our personal lives.

I know he works at the nearby university, but I don’t know what he does there.

I know he’s a horrible texter and wouldn’t know how to use a comma correctly if his life depended on it—which is something I won’t be telling the writer sitting beside me.

“Oh!” Josie flinches at my outburst, but I don’t care because I do have a fun fact about him. “He has a cat. It’s named…Cat.”

The fact sort of dies on my tongue as I remember just how lame it is.

Josie’s anticipatory smile drops. “Oh…That’s…not the most creative name I’ve ever heard, but it’s hardly the cat’s fault. I’m sure they’re still adorable and it gets the point across.”

Am I so pathetically alone that my best friend is trying to rationalize this lame tidbit of information I somehow managed to remember?

The truth is that this guy is nothing special.

He’s a pretty basic, copy-paste white guy who doesn’t seem to be interested in anything other than fishing—he even posed with a fish in his profile—and football.

Our conversations are boring, and he barely asks about me, but it’s what Joy would label as progress.

My therapist has a point; I need to start moving on from the Bianca situation, and this is the first lame step.

“You’re allergic to cats.”

My gaze snaps up to Ronan, who is still frozen in place but also now frowning at me. I told him that in passing once, but he remembers it. Remembers it enough to bring it up in a moment like this. It shouldn’t have an impact on me, not really, but I suddenly feel like some kind of way about it.

“I…” I trail off, not even knowing what I want to say.

“Oh, my god, you are!” Josie gasps, looking at me with wide eyes. “How is that going to work?”

I can’t talk to Ronan—can’t acknowledge that some of the information I shared with him is still there despite years of not speaking—but I can talk to Josie.

More importantly, I can joke with Josie and make things seem better.

Even if she doesn’t fully believe me, Ronan will.

He won’t be able to see through the facade I put up. Or I hope not.

“We’re not getting married,” I joke. “I probably won’t even end up at his house.”

“But if he has a lot of cat hair on him—”

“Thank you for your concern, Ronan.” I glare at him. “I know how to handle my own allergy. I’ll be prepared.”

He snorts, but finally finishes his path to the coffeepot to make himself a cup. “That’s the start of a really healthy relationship, Mia. You have to medicate yourself just to be able to breathe around him? The Save the Dates practically write themselves.”

“Don’t all the romance novels talk about how romantic it is when someone takes your breath away?”

“Oh, please. There’s a difference between that and a medical condition that prevents you from breathing.”

“I’m touched by your concern, but it’s none of your concern,” I say to Ronan. “Dan and I are going out tonight, and we’re going to have a wonderful time.”

After grabbing his coffee, he collapses on the only free chair next to Bryce, raising his mug toward me in a salute. “I’ll be sure to remind everyone those were your last words.”

Bryce doesn’t even try to hide his laughter, but does manage to catch the pair of goggles I throw at him. Which is honestly impressive for him.

I turn my focus back to Josie. “Why do we even have those up here?”

“Who knows.” She shrugs. “Now, show me pictures again!”

Bryce groans as I grab my phone from where it’s sitting on the couch to open up the app. I’m willing to take almost any distraction to keep Ronan from commenting on my love life.

The door swings open before I can even raise my arm to knock, revealing Bryce. “Hey, how was your date?”

Too exhausted to even utter a comeback, I raise my eyebrows, and give a little shrug. Thankfully, he takes my non-answer as an answer and steps aside to let me in.

Bryce and Josie’s home envelopes me in its warm and cozy arms. I kick my shoes off to leave them with the rest crowded by the door, letting my purse fall with a gentle thud, and follow Bryce deeper into the house.

In the living room, Carter and Ronan are watching a meet on low volume while Josie and Kat sit off to the side, talking about something.

I can tell Josie’s only somewhat paying attention, though, with the way her gaze keeps flickering over to the TV.

The room smells like homemade brownies, which I know has to be Bryce’s doing because I haven’t brought anything over in weeks and baking is not Josie’s strong suit.

When I spot the plate of said brownies on the table between Josie and Kat, I make a beeline toward it.

I can feel the way each of my friends follows me with their eyes; concern seeped into their gazes.

It’s not often I allow myself to shut down like this in front of the group.

This privilege is usually only reserved for Josie.

And my best friend is watching me with a steady gaze as I take a bite of brownie. I fight to let out a moan when the rich chocolate taste hits my tongue. I really wish I’d grabbed food before going on the date. “If you want to change, I laid some comfy clothes out on my bed for you.”

The best thing about friends with similar body types to yours are moments like this.

While Josie is a bit shorter than me and a tad smaller in certain areas, she loves her comfy clothes to be a size bigger for ultimate relaxation.

And she knows me well enough to know if I made it over after the date, I wouldn’t want to stay in the same outfit.

“Go change.” She nods toward the stairs. “And then when you come back, you better tell me what happened tonight.”

She left no room for any argument, so I shuffle upstairs and down the hall to the main bedroom.

Just like with everything in the house, I instantly see my best friend’s influence in the warm, cozy space.

Despite living in South Carolina for over a year, she still hasn’t been able to shake her Midwest roots.

A thick, fuzzy blanket is draped across the edge of the bed and the bedside lamp is casting a warm glow.

I snag the sweatpants and T-shirt off the edge of the bed and duck into the bathroom to change. My smile only grows when I see makeup remover, a reusable cotton pad, hairbrush, and scrunchie on the counter. Bryce might be the love of her life, but she’s my person just as much as I am hers.

About ten minutes later, I head back downstairs while pulling my hair up.

In the living room, the boys are discussing the merits of some new training topic, with Ronan in the middle of a heated argument as to why it’s a horrible idea.

As I round the corner to head back to the girls, he trails off mid-sentence, his gaze clocking my every move.

It’s been years since he’s seen me this dressed down. The way his eyes rove over my body sends a little thrill up my spine. But I can’t focus on that. Instead, I tell them, “It has inconsistent results, and a lot of swimmers have openly spoken out against it. I’m with Ronan on this one.”

I don’t miss the way surprise overtakes his features, but he quickly recovers with a triumphant smile. “Thank you, Mia! ”

Josie appears out of nowhere, handing me a generous glass of wine. “Enough talk about work. I want to hear about what happened on Mia’s date.”

Groaning, I collapse into the only free chair, which gives me the perfect view to watch Ronan tense up. I’m suddenly aware that the two of us are the only single people in this room.

When he sees me looking at him, he clears his throat. “You really went on a date with someone who's pet could kill you?"

"Yes," I huff out. Did he think I made the whole thing up? No one could make up someone like Dan. "It's therapy mandated. She thinks I need to put myself out there more."

“Which is why you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

Who would have thought Bryce would be the one coming to my rescue? I don’t mind talking about this one, though. It wasn’t awful in the sense he’s thinking, just an immature frat boy who missed the realization that it’s time to be an adult.

“All he could talk about was his chicken.”

All my friends blink at me in the same confused way I’d felt the first time Dan brought it up.

Carter’s the first one to crack. “Like a pet chicken or…chicken, chicken?”

“Not a pet.” I sigh. “Chicken he was cooking.”

“I thought you went out to dinner?” Josie joined in, worry knitting her brows together. “I can’t stop you from meeting these people at their houses, Mia, but I wish you’d tell one of us ahead of time if that’s what’s happening.”

Josie and I share our locations with each other because, well, we’re women in America who aren’t stupid. Still, I know what she means about wanting a general idea of where I am. You can’t really watch for anything strange if you don’t think there’s anything strange to watch out for.

I swallow a large drink of my wine. “We did go out. We went to that new bar downtown. It was really cool, good drinks. I didn’t hang around long enough to try any of the food, but it all sounded good. We should all go one weekend.”

“That sounds great, but let’s get back to the chicken. Because I can’t let that go.”

“Ah, and that was Dan’s main problem as well,” I tell Ronan. “He had dinner cooking in a slow cooker back at home. He was concerned his chicken would either burn or he’d burn his whole house down. He called or texted his roommate fifteen times to check on said chicken.”

The way Bryce’s brows knit together, then his head tilts like he’s trying to solve a hard puzzle, almost makes me laugh. “I have so many questions.”

I wave my hand, signaling him to ask away.

“First, the whole point of a slow cooker recipe is that you can walk away from it while it cooks, and it’ll be fine.”

“Dan thinks that’s a conspiracy theory.”

The last of Bryce’s resolve shatters, and a snort of laughter comes out. “ What ?”

I grin over the lip of my wineglass. “Next question.”

“Fifteen text messages or phone calls in the, what, hour you were there?” Carter asks. “And you didn’t even eat?”

“Forty minutes,” I correct. “Dan was twenty minutes late because he was worried about his slow cooker. Then he took about twenty minutes telling me about his slow cooker. We’d just ordered when I fled.”

“Is this real life?” Kat asks. “I feel like you’re messing with us. Did he even want to go on this date?”

I nod. “He did. I asked him after the third phone call. He’d been looking forward to our date all week. He even asked me out again after I told him I couldn’t do it.”

“You said no, right?” I glare at Josie, who holds her hands up in surrender. “I’m just checking! We have got to find a better way to vet these people.”

“Um, can I ask a question?”

I look toward Ronan, who I’d momentarily forgotten was here. “Sure, go for it.”

“The guy was on a date with you, right?” I nod. “You were getting dinner together?” Another nod. “Why the hell was he cooking dinner in his slow cooker then? Was he meal-prepping for the week or for another date?”

“Very observant. You see, Dan wanted to get laid tonight. That was his ultimate goal. No shame in that. The slow cooker chicken was either for us after we hooked up or for his hookup buddy he had on standby if things with us didn’t go his way.”

Ronan’s face screws up in pure disgust. “Please tell me he didn’t tell you all that.”

“He did. Proudly,” I confirm. “He even asked me what position I prefer for my first time with a new partner.”

Bryce chokes on the drink he’d just taken of his beer. Josie takes it from his hand while Carter claps him on the back. When he finally regains control, he looks at me with tears in his eyes. “What the fuck , Mia?”

“Dating apps are scary as hell, Bryce. Everyone seems normal until you get them out in the real world.”

“Then I think you should stop. Therapy mandated or not,” he argues.

I don’t have to look at Josie to know she’s nodding in agreement. I’m sure the two of them have their own plan for who I should end up with, especially since we’ve slowly started to talk again, but that’s not happening. “Eh, I’ll give it a few more shots. If nothing else, it’s entertaining.”

“That’s not what this is supposed to be,” Kat argues. “Don’t you want to find someone you want to be with?”

“Well, it’s definitely not going to be Dan,” Ronan adds, saving me from answering a question I didn’t want to get into tonight. “Let’s leave him to his precious slow cooker and order some pizza so Mia doesn’t starve.”

Bryce is already pulling out his phone to order when I give Ronan a smile and mouthed, “ Thank you .” I get a nod and a small smile as he raises his beer bottle. “Okay, what does everyone want?”