Page 51 of Doctor Enemy

“Not them either,” I say, with a snort. “I need to know somewhere good to take a girl. A nice place to get dinner.”

“Is this about Lori then?” Jackson asks.

I counter, “Does that matter?”

Jackson hums. “She likes seafood.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because she’s friends with Cara, and Cara is friends with Amanda. And because Cara would die if she couldn’t regurgitate every piece of information that she learns about someone when she comes over to our house for dinner,” says Jackson.

“Take her somewhere with seafood.”

It’s better advice than I could have come up with myself, so I take it. Every time I get a break that day, I pull out my phone and start trying to find somewhere that serves decent seafood. Seattle boasts plenty of options in that department.

My choices have been narrowed down to Coastal Blue and Lagoona by the time I’m off work. I make quick work of handling everything in my office and then grabbing my spare clothes from the desk drawer that I keep them in.

Nice fitting dark wash jeans, and a button-down shirt. Pale blue, with silver snaps all the way up, and matching cuff links—there’s a single chip of black onyx in the center of each one. I think that it adds a little something to the look.

The bathroom mirror and a splash of water serves as my ‘hair time’, and when I slide into the car, I pop open the dash and fish out a bottle of aftershave, applying just enough of it to make the scent of sandalwood really pop. I’m putting more effort into this than I ever did with my quick pick-ups at the bar.

My gaze slides up, into the rear-view mirror.

“Don’t fuck this up, Kurt,” I mutter to myself and then give my own reflection the most charming look that I can manage.

Now all I’ve got to do is pick Lori up and make sure that I don't shove my foot too far down my own throat tonight.

Chapter eighteen

Lori

I’vebarelyfinishedgettingready when I get a text from Kurt, letting me know that he's almost here.

Nerves slam into me.

What if I look silly? It’s not as if I have a whole lot of dating experience under my belt. After my college boyfriend cheated on me… Well, I didn’t really have much interest in doing it again.

And despite trying to hold onto my reluctance to be interested in Kurt, I actuallyreallywant to look nice for him.

I do what I’ve always done in the past and turn toward my best friend, even though I know of her own reluctance on the topic. Her reluctance is why I didn't tell her about my date earlier. I didn't want to get talked out of it. But now I'm fully committed.

Knowing that Olivia went home after she dropped me off a few hours ago, I give her a FaceTime call. She answers it, lounging in her living room with a green face mask on. “Sup.” And then, “Oh, wow, you look nice! Where are you going?”

“Do you think it looks okay?” I ask. I hold the phone so that it’s facing the mirror, giving Olivia a full view of the outfit that I’ve got on. The dress is a little more snug fitting than when I first picked it up, but I don’t think that it’sthattight.

“You look great,” says Olivia. “Where are you going?”

“On a date,” I say, turning the phone back around.

“With who?”

“Kurt. What about my hair? Is the clip too much? I don’t know where we’re eating, but I figure that it’s going to be somewhere expensive. I wanted to look, you know, like I fit in,” I tell her. “But now I’m worried that it’s too much.”

Olivia’s whole expression sours on me. “Kurt?”

“Yeah. I know, I know, he’s older than I am but… What if that doesn’t matter?” I ask, fussing with my hair using the small square icon of myself in the upper right corner of the phone screen as a mirror.

Without missing a beat, Olivia says, “It does matter, though. Like, it matters a lot, Lori. How can you date a guy that old? Do you really think that you can get something out of it?”

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