Page 27 of The Guy Who Fake Dated Me

Poor guy, he either needed a boring woman or someone who would drag him out of his shell kicking and screaming.

Not it.

My phone saved me.

Logan:How did the Wedding BINGO go last night?

I smiled as I told him that it was actually called BRIDE, and when he suggested singing B-R-I-D-E wasn’t as satisfying as B-I-N-G-O, I giggled.

William shot me a curious look.

I quickly told Logan about the Barbie shoes we’d used as markers in the game, then it was my turn to order.

When I looked up and saw the sheer volume of options, my mind went blank.

Confession time. I like my coffee simple. If I had to say more than five words to order it, then it was out of the running.

The guy behind the counter gave me a smile. “What can I get you?”

My eyes searched the list for what I wanted, but I couldn’t find it.

William cleared his throat, and even though I hardly knew the guy, I could tell he was encouraging me to hurry.

Which made me want to take longer. However, I could feel the crowd behind me getting restless—I knew the consequences of standing between people and their morning coffee—so I gave the barista a chagrined look and said, “Do you have a Café Au Lait?”

The guy didn’t miss a beat. “Coming right up.”

In a display of linguistics that I hadn’t before witnessed from William, he spouted off a dozen words to the second barista, and a few minutes later, we both had steaming cups of coffee.

My eyes drifted to the smattering of tables. My family still had a single spot open, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with more of my mom’s disappointed looks. So I headed to the only other table with any space. William followed.

Didn’t he have any friends among the cousins? I kind of knew how that felt, so when I stopped, I gave him a smile that said he was welcome to hang out. He gave me a simple nod and took the spot next to me.

“You design websites?” William asked as I took my first sip.

Didn’t the man know the three-sip rule? You could only ask about the weather or a sports team before then. Logan knew this. I gave William a grunt of acknowledgement.

“Isn’t that a predominantly male field?”

He didn’t say it with any malice, but the words raised my hackles. I partook of my beverage before answering. “It’s like everything else these days, both men and women are getting into programming.”

William considered that, then he asked, “What drew you to it?”

I studied his blue eyes through his round glasses for a moment and wondered where this was going. Was he being polite, filling time, or flirting?

I decided it didn’t matter, I already had a plus one for this event, so I gave him my standard answer. “I really enjoy making beautiful, functional, user-friendly front ends for websites. I’m obsessed with getting it perfect for my customers.”

“Do you like puzzles?” William asked.

I blinked. “Uh…”

My phone buzzed again.

“Sorry, I need to look at that,” I told William, who shrugged.

Logan:Just a few blocks away.

Just in time.

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