She sidles out the door and I resume my work. But now I have to conjure up some BS because the old thought choo choo has chugged right off the tracks. This sucks. After about twenty minutes, I get up and decide to go for a run. Running always helps my brain reconnect. I tie my shoes and charge out the door. Forty minutes later when I get back, there’s a lovely bouquet of flowers on the counter.
“You got a delivery while you were gone,” Jenna announces with a smirk.
I rest my arms on the counter and stretch my calves as curiosity has me leaning toward the little white card that reads, Cate Forbes. “From who?”
“My guess is they’re from Drew, that’s who,” Jenna says, moving closer to face me.
“Right.” I laugh because I know my best friend. “You bought them and are pretending they’re from Drew, didn’t you?”
Jenna actually has the decency to look appalled. With fingers at the hollow of her throat, she says, “Seriously. You think I would do that?”
“Yes, I do.” I nod at the same time.
“Damn. You don’t think very highly of me, do you?”
“Yes, I do. I love you, in fact. But when you set your mind on something, deviant Jenna comes out in full force.”
She rolls her eyes and giggles. “Okay, so I did not send the flowers, but now I wish I had.”
This is confusing. “You really didn’t?”
“I’ll pinky swear if you want.” She holds out her finger.
So if she didn’t, then that Drew dude must have. I walk back to the flowers and with hesitant fingers reach for the little card that came with them.
“It won’t bite, you know.” Jenna’s sarcasm reaches me from across the room.
I grab the card and read it.
I would love a chance to take you to dinner.
Drew McKnight.
“What does it say?”
Perplexed, I mumble, “Oh my. He’s asked me to dinner. And these are beautiful. I’ve never gotten flowers before.” I lean in to inhale their fragrance.
“They are and when did he ask you out? And don’t frown. You know my mom says that’s a sure way to create early wrinkles.”
This whole flower thing has me completely shocked. No one has ever done anything so sweet like this for me before. “No set date, just that he’d like to take me.”
“Oh my god.”
“Don’t get your panties all wet over this.” I say that but in reality, I’m the one getting nervous.
“You swear you don’t remember him? He was with my brother the entire night. And the two of you had a cozy little chat going.”
Grabbing her arm, I squeak, “No I don’t remember! Help me, Jenna! I was hammered. I barely remember seeing Ben.” The night is fuzzy at best. “Wait a minute. If he’s Ben’s friend, how old is this dude?”
“Ben’s age.”
“What? That would make him what? Twenty-seven?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Jeez. That’s like gramps. No way can I go out with a man that old.”
“He’s in his second year of residency. He’s a doctor.” She says it like she’s dangling a golden carrot in front of my face.
“So? That’s supposed to make him datable? I don’t care if he’s the President of the United States’ son. He’s too old for me. He’s probably ready for a wife or something. I’m trying to finish school not start a family.”
“Damn, Cate, calm down. It’s not like he’s twenty years older than you. It’s seven. That’s it. Lots of girls our age date guys seven years older than they are.”
“Oh yeah? Like who.”
“That Scarlett chick from our English class freshman year. She did.”
“Yeah, and she’s slept with almost every guy at Purdue. She keeps the Boilermakers running strong. She singlehandedly kept the entire fourth year mechanical engineering guys in blow jobs that year.”
“Pure conjecture.”
“Pure? That’s not a word I would use in the same sentence that had anything to do with Scarlett.”
“Damn, are you hardheaded. Just go out with him. One date. If you don’t like him or you think he’s too old after that, then fine. You don’t ever have to see him again.”
When I put some thought into it, there must have been some kind of spark between us for me to have spent time with him at the party, even if I was a little wasted. That’s not the type of thing I normally do. My style is to stay clear of all guys.
“Okay… I’ll do it. Give him my cell number. But please don’t give me a hard time if it doesn’t work out, especially since he’s friends with Ben.”
“No worries on that, my friend.”
Later that night, I’m running through my to do list on the number of papers I have to write and how many will require a significant amount of research. Having a double major is not much of a picnic, but I couldn’t make a choice between accounting and journalism, so here I am, writing my ass off. But honestly, I love it.
When my phone rings, I answer it without looking at the caller ID. I figure it’s my mom. She usually calls at this hour because she knows it’s the best time to catch me.
“Hey, Mom.”
A crazy sexy voice answers, “Um yeah, this isn’t Mom. This is Drew…” When I don’t respond, he adds, “McKnight.”
Shit. Drew. Flower and date man. Gramps! “Oh, hey. W-what’s up?” I stutter. This weird nervousness settles over me because I can’t remember anything about him and suddenly I feel terrible about it. But if he’s half as good looking as he sounds or as Jenna says, I might be in trouble.
“Jenna gave me your number.” His voice is warm and breezy and makes me remember just how long my lady parts have been neglected.
“Yes! Thank you so much for the flowers. They’re gorgeous. That was very sweet of you,” I add.
“You’re welcome. I, um, didn’t know how else to get you to agree to a date.”
Now I feel bad. It makes me feel bitchy that he had to go to those lengths. “Oh, I didn’t …”
“No worries, Cate. I was only giving you a taste of my good, old-fashioned, southern charm.” I sense a smile behind his words and immediately feel better.
“Well, it worked. How could I possibly say no to flowers?” Did I just flirt with him? I need to pull it together. He’s putting a huge dent in my no dating wall and I need to remind myself that I don’t have time to date.
“Are you occupied on Saturday?”
Occupied? Who asks if someone is occupied? I have to stifle a laugh.
“Let me check.” Of course I’m not, but I don’t want him to think I’m the loser that I am. So I let several seconds pass before I answer. “No, I’m free.” The words slip out because Jenna’s right. I have been spending way too much time on the computer. One night of harmless fun won’t cause me to lose my scholarship.
“Great! I’d love to take you to dinner.”
“Nice.” I pause because I’m smiling. I bite my lip to stop it from growing. This isn’t good. “I can meet you,” I toss out.
“No, I’ll pick you up. Is seven okay?”
“Seven is perfect. I can text you my address.”
“Not necessary. Remember, I sent you flowers? Ben was kind enough to give it to me.”
Shit. What a dumbass. “Oh, right.”
“The truth, Cate, is I actually helped Ben move Jenna in.”
“Oh.” This surprises me. “I didn’t know.”
“Do you like Italian?”
“I like everything, but Italian is my favorite.”
“Excellent, Italian it is. And it’ll be fairly casual.”
“Sounds great.” I’m getting ready to end the call, but something stops me. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
Taking a deep breath, I take the plunge. “Why me? Obviously I’m only a junior in college and we don’t really know each other, other than the party.”
“When I pointed you out to Ben at the party, he gave me an earful and I was even more intrigued, so I sought you out. After our conversation, I knew I wanted to get to know you better.”
I chew the tip of my pen. “Our conversation?”