Page 17 of The Accidental Text

Actually, last night over Korean food that Halmoni made us, Hannah made me swear on my favorite One Direction sweatshirt that I would do it. She promised to chop it into little bits if I didn’t. She’s always looking for reasons to get rid of that sweatshirt.

Threats aside, she’s right. I can’t keep shuffling my feet and doing what I’m doing and expect life to change.

So now I’m standing in front of Dawson, in the empty front lobby of Cooper’s. I’d say it was fate or the universe, but I saw him walking by and asked him to come over and chat with me. I’m going to keep it simple and just ask him to lunch. No big deal. I’ve got this.

“So, Dawson,” I say, after taking a big breath because I reallydon’thave this. But I’m going to fake it until I make it. Which is something my mom used to say.

She also used to give us a kiss for good luck anytime we were doing something challenging or daring. If she were hereright now, she’d kiss me on the cheek, probably pat me on the butt, and tell me to go for it.

Dawson looks at me, his eyebrows raised in question.

“I was thinking—”

“Hey, Dawson,” Robin, our front desk girl, interrupts me as she takes a seat at the high-top desk we’re standing in front of. She’s a tiny thing, with straight blonde hair and crystal-blue eyes.

She’d asked me to watch the front desk while she used the restroom, which is why I was standing in the front lobby in the first place. It just worked out that Dawson happened to walk by.

I hired Robin. She’s got a lot of energy and is a great fit for the front desk—the first representation of our company when clients come through the front door. What I didn’t know is that she has the worst possible timing. Not that I would have asked her that in the interview.

Robin looks to me. “Thanks for watching the desk, Maggie. I appreciate it.”

“No problem,” I say. I turn to look at Dawson. He smiles and I swear his eye twinkles. It could be the overhead lighting reflecting in his pupil, but it seemed like there was an honest-to-God twinkle.

“You … were saying something?” he asks, his lips still curving upward.

“Yeah, I …” I stop myself and look at Robin and then back at Dawson. This just got weird. I can’t ask Dawson out in front of Robin. She’s my employee. And what if he rejects me? I don’t want an audience for that.

I’ll just ask him to come to my office, and then it will be gotime. I tug on thekpendant on my necklace. Maybe it will give me courage.

You can do this, Maggie.

I open my mouth, but then Robin starts. “Hey, Dawson,” she says, her eyes on him, giving him an award-winning smile. “Do you want to go to lunch today?”

Wait … what?

“Sure,” Dawson says, giving her a grin, those beautiful pearly whites fully exposed.

I look at Robin and then at Dawson. She just asked him out in front of me … to lunch. Exactly what I was going to do only seconds ago—only I talked myself out of it because it would have been awkward. But Robin just said the words. No big deal. And he said yes, without flinching or even a momentary pause. Just like that. It was so easy.

I stand there, totally mouth breathing, stunned by what just transpired. Dawson looks to me and then back at Robin, and then back to me again.

“Do you … want to come with us?” he asks, as if he could read my mind.

“I …” I start but then stop myself.

“Actually,” Robin interjects, “who would watch the front desk if we both went?”

If Robin is playing some game and doesn’t want me to come, she’s just offered the perfect excuse. It’s usually me that takes over front desk duties for her breaks.

“That’s true,” I say.

“We could find someone else?” Dawson throws it out there, nodding his head at Robin and then me.

We probably could, but lunch with DawsonandRobindoesn’t sound all that appealing to me. I think I’d feel like a third wheel.

“You know, I think I better take care of the front desk,” I say, and then give them a fake smile. “Rain check?”

“Of course,” Dawson says, directing that gorgeous grin at me.

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