Page 23 of David's Proposal

I press send.

Please don’t say you’re coming to the gym.

Me: I made a new friend. Sandy. And she invited me to her place. I won’t be there for long, but it will take a while before I get home.

Hopefully, it sounds truthful enough, and she won’t insist on coming to my house.

My heart beats in my throat.

Please, please…

The next message arrives.

Terry: I bought you some groceries and wanted to drop them off. I’ll leave them by the door.

Oh, my… That is so sweet of her. And now I feel so bad about being so ungrateful.

But how in the world will she deliver the bag of groceries while I’m still here, waiting for my ride?

Livid, I look around the house, not knowing what to do. Cancel everything? Tell my mom I was lying?

No, I can’t do that.

I can’t cancel that car. And she’d make the connection between me looking like I’m going out and someone picking me up.

Tell her that I lied about going to that fictional new friend’s home?

She’d look at me like I had two heads. I have no reason to lie to her, and she’d want to know more about it.

Rightfully so.

Ugh, Mom.

I don’t even know what I want to wear tonight. And now I'm dealing with this?

I type again.

Me: How far away are you?

Thankfully, her answer arrives quickly.

Terry: Ten, fifteen minutes?

I check the time, horrified. They would probably arrive at the same time.

If the car shows up.

And it will.

Now I’m positively sure it will because this is how life likes to mess things up.

Can you imagine?

Getting more traffic in front of my house than the entire neighborhood on a weekend?

I fret a little more before desperation kicks in and realize I need to do something quickly.

I can’t stay here frozen while my mother’s on her way.

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