I fumbled to get the car started, staunchly keeping my eyes averted from Dylan, but I knew he was still right there. I jumped when he tapped the window, but finally looked at him. I was upset, but I wouldn’t be rude.
“Lock your doors,” he said loudly enough to hear through the closed window, and pointed at the door.
I shrugged. They would lock automatically when I started to drive.
“Lock them,” he insisted.
I pushed the button. It was unnecessary, but it was worth it to see his smile one last time. Though, that made it even harder to drive away from him.
Damn, he was chivalrous to the very end. Why did he have to watch me back out and drive away? Nerves overrode my impending meltdown. I checked my mirrors too many times, keeping my hands on the wheel at the ten and two—that’s where they’re supposed to go, right? I pulled out of the lot at a speed that rivaled a drunk turtle. A fitting end to a disastrous night.
I tookthe first few minutes of the drive to pull myself together, then called Jenna, knowing she’d probably been pacing her house and watching the clock since she’d left Nolan’s without me.
“Are you okay?” she answered, her panicked voice filling the car.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” I wasn’t okay, but I wasn’t sold to sex traffickers or raped and left in a ditch, which I knew was where her head was at.
“Thank God,” she said, relieved, then I heard Nicky’s excited voice in the background. “Put it on speaker. I need to hear everything!”
I laughed despite myself, the contrast between my two best friends coming through the phone loud and clear.
“How was dinner with your sexy firefighter?” Nicky asked with way too much enthusiasm.
“It was a total train wreck.” I sighed. “I couldn’t say a coherent word to save my life.”
“No! You were so good at Nolan’s.”
“I know. Poor Dylan had no clue what hit him when we got to the restaurant.” I felt the words come out slow and smooth. Why couldn’t I do that before?
“Was he mean to you? I’ll kill him,” Nicky threatened.
“No, he was actually amazing.”
“So maybe you weren’t as bad as you think?” Jenna asked.
“No, my speech was as bad as it gets. I couldn’t even pull my chair into the table. I didn’t realize it was out, then by the time I did, I was so flustered and thrown off by him watching me, I couldn’t figure out how to lift my weight, move the chair forward, and move my body forward, all at the same time. It’s like I’d never used a chair before. I might as well have tried doing a backflip over the table.”
“Aww, sweetie. Did it get any better after that?”
“Nope. I couldn’t pronounce a single word on the menu. If a menu is full of fancy gibberish, they should at least give more pictures.”
Their laughter cheered me up a bit.
“What did you end up with?”
“Pork-something. Pork-etty?”
“Porchetta?”
“Yeah, that’s it. What the hell is it?”
“Pork roast.”
“Oh. They should’ve called it that. Where are you guys?”
“Jenna’s place. I had to keep her from stalking your date.”
“I wouldn’t do that!”