Page 120 of Choosing You

“You just need to warm up.” I record our scores, then go up and bowl a split. I go again and get a spare.

Garret’s impressed. “Damn, you reallyaregood at this.” He goes up and rolls another gutter ball and another one after that.

“You know, they have these things they put in the gutters for kids,” I say as I pick up my ball. “Do you want me to ask the guy if we could get those for our lane?”

Garret stands there with his arms crossed. He hates being bad at stuff just as much as I do. “Just bowl, smart ass.”

At the end of game one, I have 158 points and he has 63.

“Well, that was humiliating,” Garret says sitting next to me.

“At least you got some points. Are you having even a tiny bit of fun?”

He smiles. “I may be losing, but I like who I’m with.” He puts his arm behind me and nods toward the lane. “And I get a great view from back here.”

“A great view?” I ask, then realize what he means. Good thing I wore these jeans. They’re the only ones I have that give my butt some shape.

“Do you want a drink or something to eat?” He gets up and glances back at the snack stand. “On second thought, let’s just stick to drinks. Want a soda?”

“Sure. I have to use the restroom, so I’ll meet you back here.”

When I get out of the restroom I see Garret at the snack stand talking to two girls. They look like they’re still in high school, maybe tenth or eleventh grade. Both of them are smiling up at Garret like he’s the hottest guy they’ve ever seen. He probably is. He’s the hottest guyI’veever seen, at least in person.

I walk over to him. “Do you need help with those?”

Garret seems relieved to see me. “Yeah. Here’s your soda.” He gives me one of the drinks, then grabs my hand, signaling to the girls that he’s on a date. They don’t seem to care as they continue to smile at him.

He drags me back to the lane. “I know I said I wouldn’t hold your hand again, but that was an emergency. Those two wouldn’t leave me alone. The one girl asked me to go to her house so she could—well, never mind.”

“What? No way!” I look back at them still standing at the counter. “What did you tell them?”

“I told them I was here with my girlfriend.”

I notice that he’s still holding my hand. “So you lied to them?”

He looks at me and flashes that perfect smile. “I don’t know. Did I?”

I feel my cheeks blushing. Garret is the only guy who has ever made me blush. I don’t even know why I’m blushing. Ever since I met Garret my stupid body keeps betraying me, doing all kinds of things I don’t want it to do and I have no control over it. It’s really annoying.

“We’ve only been on this date for a few hours so I’d say it’s too soon to call me your girlfriend.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He releases my hand. “So should I go first this time?”

We finish up another game, with me getting 178 and Garret getting 86. I don’t think he even cares about the score. He just wants those shoes off. We return the shoes and head out to the car, which luckily is still there.

“So now what?” I ask once we’re in the car.

“Dinner. What do you feel like eating?” He starts the engine and turns the heat on.

“You didn’t already plan something? I gotta tell you, Garret, I thought you were the type of guy who would make all these big plans for a date, especially a first date. But you didn’t plan anything.”

“I usually do plan it out. But I tend to go a little over-the-top and I know you don’t like that type of thing, so I thought we’d just wing it.”

“What do you mean by over-the-top? What would you have planned for tonight?”

“I wanted to take you into the city. You’ve never been there, right?”

“What city? New York City?”

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