Page 101 of Anyone But Her

Alecia sits back in her chair, her eyes bouncing between Luke and Birdie. "I don't see it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Birdie snaps.

I nudge her and whisper, "Just ignore her."

"I just don't see you two together. I could see those two together." She points to Luke and me. "But not you and him."

Cal laughs. "If Luke ever dated my sister, I'd kill him. I don't care how good they look together. "

"See?" Alecia points to Cal but talks to Birdie. "Even he thinks Luke and Taylor are a better match. They just look right together."

"Okay, let's change the subject," Cal says. "Birdie is dating Luke. End of story."

"How long have you dated?" Alecia asks Luke.

"Let it go," Cal says to her. "We're done talking about it."

"I'm not. I want to know. How long?"

"This is our second date," Luke says.

"That's nothing. You guys aren't a couple. You've just been on a few dates. And you have zero chemistry so you might as well end it tonight."

"What the hell?" Birdie rises from her seat.

"Birdie, don't." Cal gets up. "Alecia, can I talk to you a minute? Privately?"

"Why? To scold me for pointing out the obvious? I can say what I want, Cal, even if people don't like it. I'm just stating the truth."

He slowly sits back down and forces out a smile. "So, what's everyone ordering?"

Birdie drops back down in her seat, glaring at Cal from across the table. Now she's really going to hate him. He let his date insult her and even though he attempted to stop it, Alecia wouldn't let him and so he backed down. But that's Cal. He doesn't like uncomfortable situations. He tries to avoid arguments. That's why I'm always surprised when he fights with Birdie. She's one of the few people he fights with. He doesn't even fight with me much now that we're older.

Alecia looks at me. "How about you? Are you dating someone?"

"No. Not right now."

Cal checks his phone and smiles. "You might be."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I just got a text from Noah. He said he was able to get off work early. He's heading over."

"Right now?" Luke asks.

"Yeah. He'll be here in a few minutes."

"Who's Noah?" Alecia asks.

"Taylor's date. You've met him. He's on the golf team. Really tall. Dark hair. Always wears too much cologne."

"Oh, yeah. I like his cologne. I don't think it's too much." She smiles at me. "Noah's hot. You'll like him."

I feel Luke's leg rub against mine under the table. He's not happy about this. On the drive here he told me to tell Cal to stop setting me up. But I tried and Cal wouldn't listen. I explained to Luke that by agreeing to this blind date, it would erase any suspicions Cal had about me liking Luke. I don't think Cal had any suspicions but he might if I kept insisting I couldn't at least meet this Noah guy.

A few minutes later, he shows up. He's tall, like Cal said, at least six foot five, and skinny. As he approaches the table I smell his cologne. I wouldn't say it's too much but he could definitely use less.

Cal stands up to greet him. "Hey, man, glad you could make it."

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