Page 31 of It's a Date (Again)

“But wait! Look how I replied. I thanked him and told him I had a great time too. I didn’t sayI love youback.”

“You put a heart emoji.”

“That’s not the same thing, is it?”

“Well, it’s a red heart,” Maya says.

“What does that matter?”

“Red means love. If it was a different color heart, it’d mean something else. Yellow heart emoji is friendship. Purple means hot physical attraction. Green is like love you’d use for a family member. But you used red. That’s true love,” Maya says with a nod.

“Can’t it just be an emoji?”

She pulls her chin in. “It’s never just an emoji.”

“But I didn’t say the wordlove.”

“Maybe you did when you two were banging?” She smirks.

“Maya!”

“I mean making love.”

“Just finish your notes on him,” I say with a laugh. She scribbles downmaybe bangedandlove emoji.

“All right, on to Nash. He and I have been talking for five weeks. He doesn’t text me every morning.”

“Minus one point,” Maya says.

“He texts me every afternoon, probably because of his work schedule.” I look to her. “He’s a chef, so he must work a lot of late nights.”

She moves her mouth side to side like she’s deciding her point-system rules. “Plus one point back. What else?”

“There’s no mention of kisses or sleepovers, but he’s very sweet, just seems a bit busy and not all that good with texting.”

“Not a lot to go on there. So I’ll put a question mark in the texting category andstill battingfor intimacy level.”

“That’s all of it,” I say, closing up the laptop. “Now what?” I place the Mac on the coffee table and grab a handful of Cheez-Its, popping them into my mouth one at a time.

“What about your planner?” she asks. “It’s in your bag. You’re very type A, and you write down everything, so there’s gotta be something in there.”

“I do?”

Maya nods. I toss the rest of the cheesy crackers in my mouth and fish out my planner. It’s thick and heavy. Every page is filled with colorful handwriting, documenting appointments, dates, to-do lists, and work meetings. I really do write everything down.

“Oh, look what was on my to-do list the week before my accident.” I point to the planner.

Maya leans over. “Find out who I love.” She laughs. “Should have added:and don’t lose my memory after I do.”

“Next time,” I say with a chuckle.

“All right, go back two months, when you would have started dating Shawn.”

I turn the page to the middle of August. “Looks like we had our first date at Gilt Bar.”

“Oh, nice choice. He has good taste. I’ll addwilling to spend a buck.”

“I wrote downoysters?with a question mark after it. What does that mean? Do I like oysters?”

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