Page 25 of Love, Lilly

Across from me, Amy rolls her eyes and sighs at me.

“Yes, this is Lilly.” She draws out her words. Like it pains her to share any part of her life with him.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I have heard a lot of great things about you. Not from Amy here herself,” he tells me, nodding in her direction, “but from what I hear her tell other people.”

I squeeze out an uneasy smile, looking between the two of them, noticing the palpable chemistry in the air.

“Well, it is nice to meet you too,” I say, anything to break the tension in the room.

As Lucas is about to say something more, his beeper goes off. He frowns as he looks down at it and says to me, “Sorry, Lilly. I would have liked to stay and chat, but I have to go.” At this, he turns and rushes out of the room, taking all his ridiculous hotness with him.

After he leaves, I stare at Amy, who is not looking at me, and finally say, “Amy, that man is—”

“I know,” she says, her voice dripping with misery.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nope! Do you want to talk about—”

“Nope!”

“OK, so we won’t talk about it. We are good. Everything is good.”

“Yes,” I agree after some hesitation. “Everything is great.”

“Maybe I will call lemonade guy after all,” Amy declares out of nowhere.

“Good, yes, you should. And I am most definitely looking forward to my date with Grant tomorrow.”

We look at each other with forlorn expressions plastered on our faces, then proceed to finish the entire cake in silence.

*****

Friday finally arrives, now about as welcome as rain at a picnic, and the day wears on, bringing me closer to blind date central. I attempt to calm my nerves with meditation podcasts and deep breathing. I am not sure why I am so anxious about this date; it could be because the last time I dated, it ended in heartbreak and despair, or it could be because I know I am entering this situation for the wrong reasons. I, while under the influence of a dodgy home-mixed cocktail, decided to start dating again with the sole motivation of getting over someone, not focusing on what would happen once I was actually “out there.” Ugh, I need to get out of my head and just enjoy this time and what it could mean. And, worst-case scenario, I may get a free meal at a restaurant that I have been dying to go to for weeks.

At home, among a cloud of clothes and hairspray, with the girls sending me encouraging text messages and inappropriate memes, I get a text message from Oliver. My heart skips a little beat as I open it.

Oliver: Big date tonight, I hear?

Lilly: Amy has a big mouth :)

Oliver: So who’s the lucky guy?

Lilly: No one you know, no one I know. Just someone I met online.

A moment later, Oliver’s face appears on my screen as I answer his FaceTime call.

“You’re going on a blind date?” Oliver asks.

“Well, that is generally what happens when you connect online. It is essentially blind. Though, I have seen his picture, and he seems nice,” I reply, distracted as I attempt to coax my hair into some semblance of order. Amy said beach waves are on trend now, so maybe I should just leave my hair alone? Because that is all I can seem to get it to do tonight.

“But you don’t know him? What if he’s a serial killer?” Oliver asks, pulling me back into the conversation. Huh, I hadn’t even thought of that.

“He doesn’t look like a serial killer,” I say. “He looks pretty cute. I’m sure I will be fine.”

“That is probably what Ted Bundy’s victims thought too. Maybe you should cancel.”

I stop fiddling with my hair to focus in on what Oliver is saying, picking up that he looks worried for me, among another emotion, one I can’t place.

---