“Hi, Rosalie. I’m sorry. This was probably a bad idea. But you mentioned that you love Oreos and I was at the store waiting on my mom and saw something that would be so perfect for our date. I’m not far from you, and I promise I only know that because your sister’s boyfriend pointed out which one was your apartment when we were driving by the other night.”
“You were hanging out with Gavin?”
Also, is he going to show up with his mom? I can’t handle another mother-of-the-blind-date situation.
“We went to Top Golf after we ran into each other at Subway.”
I suppress a laugh. That does sound like Gavin. He’s an impulsive and friendly guy. I’m not sure how they could accidentally drive by our apartment, however, which means they did it on purpose. It’s so high school crush, I could die.
“Kambryn and I are cleaning out my car, so we’ll meet you outside. How close are you?”
“Like five minutes away?”
“Okay. See you in a few.”
Aiming Kambryn’s high-energy cleaning vibes into my car seems like a fair trade-off for her boyfriend’s overshare. Afterexplaining the situation to her, I drag her down to the parking lot with an empty laundry basket. She catches while I hand her things from my back seat. I find candy wrappers tucked in between seats, wrinkled coloring pages from a trip to the library, junk mail I tossed back there, and random clothing items—both clean and dirty, both mine and the kids.
If my life has a junk drawer, it’s my back seat. Kambryn can’t even judge me. In her case, it’s her gym bag. It’s her one mess indulgence, even if she cleans it out every Saturday to start fresh.
“So, he didn’t say what he was bringing?”
“No. Something to do with Oreos.”
“Yay!”
“Not yay, Kambryn. Picture a chart. One line is nice gestures and attention from Mr. Emo— I mean Trey.” I slap my forehead. “The other line is my blood pressure. This is the curve.” I demonstrate it going up higher and higher.
I do not explain that in the back of my mind, Liam is always there. I’m not sure where he’d fit into this chart, but he’s on it. On our walk down here, I was thinking about where I’d put my last letter from him. It’s in the console at the very bottom tucked out of sight. I thought about him when I faced the messiness of my back seat and realized he saw it last night and didn’t say anything. I definitely think about him when Trey pulls up in the exact same model Yukon Liam drives, although Trey’s is cherry red. His mother is in the passenger seat.
Chapter 16 – Less In Love with the Presentation
Rosalie
Trey’s gift is a set of matching blue aprons for us to wear tonight. They both sayNothing beats a good sandwich. Underneath is a pile of Oreos. I love my apron. I love it so much that I will probably wear it every time I bake until I’m old and pass it onto my grandchildren.
My delight is double because Trey can see it in my face. If I hadn’t liked the gift, he’d have known that too. It’s the blessing and curse of being so easy to read.
I’m less in love with the presentation where Trey insists on putting it over my head and tying the strings around back. His breath is warm on my neck in those few seconds, and it confirms two things: one, that I chose a bad day to wear my hair up in a ponytail; and two, I’m not feeling any attraction to him.
Bummer, because even with his emoji-laden texts and slight stalker tendencies, I still hoped maybe we’d hit it off.
His mom stays in the car on her phone during all this, and besides one initial unimpressed glance at me, she pays no attention to us whatsoever.
I smooth my hand over the stiff new apron material I’m now draped in. “Thanks so much for this, Trey. I’ll make sure and wear it tonight.”
“Awesome. This is so awesome. I’m totally pumped about tonight. I’m gonna hit the gym in a bit so I’m ready to carb up. Catch you later!” He jogs back to his car, gets in, and punches the gas in a way that tells me he’s as enthusiastic about driving as he is about everything else.
When I look over at Kambryn, she’s smiling like I owe her an award. “Isn’t he great?”
“He’s… fun.”
“I know, right? And you’re fun. You’re like two big kids together. I love it.”
Except I’m about to turn thirty, and while Trey is exactly the type I surrounded myself with in college, that’s not my scene anymore. “This is because he’s friends with Gavin now, isn’t it?”
Kambryn shrugs. “Gavin is friends with a lot of people. Going out with you guys did come up. But if Trey can’t get past a first date, I’ll let it go. How’s your blood pressure on your curve thing doing?”
“It’s stabilizing. We’ll see how tonight goes. Do I need to bring him a gift in return?”