Page 14 of Love at First Flight

“What? Ava’s here too?” Dex couldn’t think of anything worse than to be confronted with his ex-girlfriend as well as Selah. It’s as if the universe wanted a sequel to the worst moment of his life by bringing back all the previous players.

“Too? Who are we talking about?”

Dex did a quick scan and didn’t see any sign of Ava. At least, there was one bit of good news. He turned to Jon and mouthedSelah.

His friend laughed. “Who?”

He leaned closer and whispered, “Selah.”

“Dex, I don’t know who you’re talking about, man.”

For some reason, his brain found this surprising. “What? You don’t know Selah? How could you not have seen her?”

Dex noticed her as though she walked into the crowded brewery with her own personal spotlight. Her dark curly hair glistened, one side swept up in a sparkly clip. Those mesmerizing full lips were glossy and pink. She wore some kind of dressy emerald-green top and curve-hugging black jeans. Selah, once again, appeared completely different from the previous times he’d seen her, but this time he recognized her straight away. Was she a shapeshifter? A kaleidoscope? Dex wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was almost as though his lack of perception earlier in the day had heightened his senses to such a degree she could have walked into the establishment in a red wig, sunglasses, and trench coat, and he would have known it was her.

He was so focused on Selah, it took him a while to notice the smirking man following behind her, eyes laser-focused on her ass, before seating her at a nearby table. Oh God, was she out on a date? With that guy? Dex’s asshole alarms went off, and she didn’t look thrilled either. Her closed-lip smile, while nice, didn’t appear genuine. Even though she was with someone else, and there was no reason for them to interact, Dex wanted to avoid her. It didn’t seem fair they crossed paths whenever he was at his lowest and, with an empty glass in his hand, this situation was not ideal either.

“I don’t want her to see me.”

Jon motioned with his fingers toward his face. “Psst. Come here. I want to tell you something.”

“Yeah?” Dex leaned closer to the man. Jon was, after all, his very best friend in the world. He wasn’t sure if he knew that. He should really tell him tonight. Jon had always looked out for him and was perfectly right in his advice about Ava.

“If you’re talking about the cute girl in the green shirt, you should probably stop staring at her. Just a hint.” Jon’s dark eyes glittered with humor.

“I’m not staring. I would never stare. Everyone knows that’s rude.”

“Yeah, but see, your head is turned one way, but your eyes keep darting in that direction.”

“They do?” This couldn’t be right. He was sure his very best friend in the whole world was wrong in this particular instance. “Look, you were right about Ava, but I think you’re very wrong here. Let’s both distract ourselves from staring at Selah and get another drink.”

Just as Dex managed to turn toward the bar, determined not to think about Selah anymore, her date stood in the space on the other side of him, ordering two drinks from the bartender. While staring at Selah was definitely off the table, there was no reason he couldn’t give her asshole date a good look. The man had close-cropped hair and wore a black T-shirt reading,Bend over and I’ll show you. This man had a date with someone as pretty as Selah and this was the best thing in his closet he could come up with? It didn’t seem right at all. It was the first time Dex wished that park rangers also had jurisdiction on fashion crimes.

While the man waited for his drinks from the busy bartender, he slid out his phone. There was a text,Hey! Where you at, Big Daddy Sasquatch? to which the man responded,Job going late. I’ll be home later and give you all the beast you can handle, baby.He then switched to some dating app, quickly swiped right on a few profiles, and sent a message to someone that included an attached dick pic. He then slipped the phone into his back pocket to grab the drinks from the bartender and return to his table with Selah.

This confirmed it. The man was a shitbag of the highest degree and potentially had Selah in his clutches. As annoyed as Dex was about his current situation, deep down, he knew she didn’t deserve any of his aggravation. She had been an innocent bystander in the whole failed proposal thing, and maybe she’d felt awkward about their accidental meeting earlier in the day. He had noticed her cheeks flushing but attributed it more to being out on the trail on a hot day. She’d looked pretty. Not that he was in the habit of noticing the attractiveness of park visitors.

Either way, someone pretty like Selah, someone who was able to make him laugh on the worst day of his life, didn’t deserve an asshole date.

Except it wasn’t any of his business and he wasn’t going to stare, and he wasn’t going to notice her anymore, green tops, red wigs, or whatever. It didn’t matter because he wasn’t going to do anything. His best friend in the whole world, Jon, gave him the best advice, and Dex was definitely going to listen this time.

Chapter Seven

It took Selahtwo minutes to realize being a person of her word and paying her debts to a bet wasn’t worth it. This punishment was cruel and unusual for someone who sometimes confused Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe. Her mom would have to depend on her other two daughters to bring her a bit of happiness. That’s all there was to it.

While Kevin, the man who eventually showed up in the Bottlecap Brewery parking lot wasn’t unattractive, he looked ten years older than his picture and dressed ten years younger. He’d instantly given her a hug, started chatting her ear off, removing any opportunity for her to cut in and say, “Never mind.” Instead, she’d have to go through with it while hoping to make a short night of it so she could get a hot fudge sundae from the McDonald’s drive-thru on the way home, which was sure to be the highlight of her evening.

She hadn’t had high hopes to begin with, but it would have been nice if her date had been someone like Dex. Of course, it wasn’t fair to compare Kevin with Dex. In fact, it wasn’t even fair to compare Dex with Dex, considering how he’d been completely different at the park today. It made her doubt her first impression. Maybe he was a jerk after all. But it would have been nice if her date could have been similar to “Phone Dex.”

Kevin, though, wasn’t close. Having to pleasantly smile at whatever he was talking about was becoming tiresome as he bragged about having his own mechanic’s shop and how he gave special discounts to ladies if she ever needed “her transmission flushed.” Selah would have admired his non-stop ability to take ordinary things and make them sound as aggressively suggestive as possible, if she wasn’t too busy throwing up in her mouth.

“You know,” he said with a creepy glint in his eye, his arm around her shoulder tightening possessively, no matter how much she tried to pull away. “It’s a little crowded and hard to hear in here. How ’bout we go out into the parking lot to talk? My Element has seats that fold all the way down... like a bed. Anything goes because afterwards I can just hose it out.” He said the last part as a whisper into her ear, his breath hot and humid on her skin, making her bones want to crawl out of her body.

The suggestion was tempting, but not in the way Kevin was thinking. She had no interest in seeing his car transform into a cheap motel room, but the closer she got to the parking lot, the easier she had access to her own vehicle. She could make her escape and get that hot fudge sundae.

Selah made another attempt to extract herself from Kevin’s grasp, thinking half an hour was long enough for the bet to be counted as paid in full. Except the guy had a grip like a boa constrictor—the more she pulled, the tighter he held, until she all but jerked herself away from him. She made a show of looking at her phone. “Oh goodness. Look at the time. Well, it’s been... well, not exactly nice, but—”

“Come on, baby, that doesn’t work on me. Besides, you haven’t touched your drink.” His chair scooted closer, his hand, below the table, going to her knee and latching on. “I was just thinking we could—”

---