Page 13 of Undone, Love Times Three

The quieter woman spots me, and her mouth drops open. Sylvie sees her then turns to me.

“Oh,” she glances at the animal and back to me. “I’m sorry, you thought it was a person.”

I shrug feeling a little stupid but also, kind of amused. There is nothing normal about this situation, but her reaction was kind of adorable.

“It’s a good job he didn’t need CPR,” she says, her lips twisting as she tries to hide a smile.

“I don’t think I’m trained to give a tortoise CPR,” I smirk back at her.

“I wouldn’t have let you. He’d only try to eat your lips.”

Her eyes widen and her cheeks flush as she replays what she just said. It’s not like she was talking about her eating my lips. Or me eating hers. Shit. Now I’m imagining… That. And my cheeks are burning.

The two women’s heads are ping ponging between us, while we stare at one another. I’m supposed to be leaving. I’m mad at her, right?

She wrings her hands together, then steps towards me, looking a little more determined than before. Honestly, it’s kind of sexy.

Sylvie seems to notice the captive audience and steps closer, she holds out her arm and I get the picture. She wants to go outside again, away from prying eyes. I give the tortoise one last look and shake my head with a grin. I’m not gonna forget this soon.

It’s sunny out, a gorgeous day. Sylvie is wearing a dress, it just about reaches her knees. I didn’t notice that before. From behind, with the sun in front of her, the skirt becomes almost transparent, and her legs are visible, all the way up to her…

She turns around and my eyes dart up to her face.

“Um, you said you had to go,” she gives me a sad smile. “I am sorry about what happened. I shouldn’t have lied, and I feel terrible about you being ghosted by your actual date.”

“More than ghosted,” I mutter.

“What?”

“She didn’t even bother to show up to the date, remember.”

“Yeah, sorry about that too.”

“You say sorry a lot, do you know that?”

“Well, I have a lot to be sorry for.”

“Did you even think about telling me the truth and seeing if I might have stayed anyway?”

Her look tells me she did. Thinking back on it, she kept getting interrupted. I was so worried about being late, I didn’t let her speak at first. Still, there were plenty of chances to tell me she wasn’t who I thought she was.

There is something about her. The date was fun. I wanted to see her again. Getting past the lie is hard though. I don’t like liars.

“Take care, Ryan. Maybe you can work things out with Alison.”

“I doubt that. I won’t try to contact her again.”

“My date ghosted me too,” she smiles, but it’s still sad.

My heart drops at that look in her eye. Damn, how could any guy stand her up.

She blows out a breath and gives me a genuine smile. “I better get back. As you’ve seen Renee and Maria aren’t that great at watching Lurch.”

“Yeah, keep him away from those ribbons or you will need to learn to give a tortoise CPR.”

She laughs, and it is a sweet sound.

“Take care, Ryan,” she nods and walks around me.

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