Page 70 of The Dating Game

“I’m not. I swear it was him.” I can’t help but add, “Guess I was right and you did need to givedating a try again.”

“Hey, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Sydney is quick to interject, but I can still hear the happiness underneath her protestation. “It was only one date. My focus is still on Caroline.”

“Okay, okay,” I relent, because I know better than to push her on this. Pushing her will only scare her away from Corbin. The fact that she went on a date at all is a huge deal.Huge. “So are you going out again?”

“Maybe,” she says. She totally is. But again, I don’t push or pry. I can feel some of her initial enthusiasm fading, and I don’t want to speed along that process. Sydney went on a date with Corbin. Even if it doesn’t go anywhere that’s a win in my book because she put herself out there. I’m not going to be the one to make her second guess herself, though, that much I know. Which means I have to tread carefully.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” she repeats. “That’s all you have to say? I thought for sure you’d be jumping up and down and planning the wedding.”

“Nope.” I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “I believe you’re the one who’s been trying to plan my wedding. Or rather, my mission trip elopement.”

“Wow.”

“What?”

“I think you’re right about me spending too much time with Belinda,” she replies, sounding stunned. “The first thought that flitted through my head when you said that was, ‘MissionTripElopement’—that would be a great title for a romance novel.”

I burst out laughing and a second later so does she. When our laughter subsides she’s the first to speak.

“How are things going with Will anyway?” she asks tentatively. “Is he still, you know, offering unsolicited advice and wearing short shorts and whatnot?”

“No, actually,” I say, happy to report this inexplicable change. “He hasn’t done any of that this trip or any of the other things I found off putting.”

“See, I bet he was just nervous those first few dates,” she declares with satisfaction. She clicks her tongue then rushes out, “You’re not going to break up with him now that I went on a date, are you?”

Realization strikes me like a bowling ball crashing into all ten pins. I’d been so focused on Sydney’s news that I didn’t think about the implication of it. She’s dating someone. The very guy I was hoping she’d go out with if I won the bet. Now I have no reason to care about winning the bet, which means I could stop dating Will if I wanted to and it wouldn’t matter.

“Brooke.” There’s an edge to Sydney’s voice. “Don’t do anything stupid. It’s only Monday. You still have six more days on that trip.” She sighs. “I can’t believe you haven’t fallen for him yet. You really are only attracted to jerks, huh?”

“Hey!” I exclaim with unfounded indignation. Loathe as I am to admit it, Ihavedated a lot of jerks. Dating Will has definitely illuminated that truth for me.

But no way am I going to admit that to Sydney.

“Hey yourself,” she retorts. “Wake up and smell the hot guy right in front of you!”

“He does smell good,” I admit, and then a dreamy sigh escapes my mouth without my permission or even any forethought. It literally came out of nowhere.

“Huh!” Sydney gasps. “I heard that! Yousighed. You totally love him! I knew it! Iknewit! Gosh, I should be a professional matchmaker. People get paid to do that, don’t they?”

“Sydney,” I hiss, looking wildly around like perhaps Will just materialized out of nowhere and consequently heardSydney shouting about me being in love with him. Thankfully he hasn’t learned how to teleport since I last saw him and is nowhere in sight.

Phew.

You really can’t be too careful with this sort of thing.

“I do notLhim,” I inform her, speaking in a very hard to crack code. “So control yourself. But I admit that I may feel the way about him that Mikey felt about Life cereal in those commercials from the nineties.”

There’s a pause then Sydney says, “You like him! Hey, Brooke!”

I can’t help but smile. This is why we’re such good friends.

She always gets my references.

“I do, okay. You got me.”

“So you’re going to keep dating him even without the bet?” Sydney’s eagerness travels across the state border and leaves me with a giddy feeling of my own.

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