Page 41 of Clichés & Curses

Not seeing the harm in venting to her, I said, ‘It was okay. He’s a nice guy but I just didn’t think he was for me.’

Tracy just nodded. ‘Hang in there, honey. The right one will come along eventually.’ She started picking up our empty plates.‘And who knows? Maybe the right guy will be the next person entering the diner.’

I let out a small laugh. ‘I wish I had your optimism, Tracy.’

She joined me with a laugh of her own. ‘Well, there’s no harm in seeing the brighter side of things, is there?’

I shook my head. ‘I guess not.’

She just smiled at me in return, as she picked up the plates. ‘Anyway, can I get you anything—’

The ringing of the bell at the door cut her off, signalling a new customer entering the diner.

Out of curiosity, I glanced over to see who it was.

I couldn’t really see his face, since he was looking the other way, though something about the jacket he was wearing seemed very familiar to me. I squinted my eyes to get a better look, but before I could, the person turned his head, and I could clearly see his face.

My eyes widened in surprise as my mind registered who it was.

It was Colton.

Chapter Ten

Colton was looking around the diner, his eyes searching for something—or maybe someone—when he finally settled in my direction.

I momentarily tensed up. My pulse was racing, nervous that he caught me here on a date with someone else. But I dismissed the thought as quickly as it appeared, confused as to why I should be worried when I’m not doing anything wrong.

As my brain tried to rationalize the situation, that’s when I heard Colton call out a name.

But instead of calling my name, he called out someone else’s.

‘Tracy!’ he exclaimed.

I slowly calmed myself down and let go of whatever tension that I had been feeling just then. But the moment didn’t last long enough, when I noticed Colton was walking towards Tracy—who was standing right next to my table.

‘Hello, Colton,’ Tracy greeted him with a kiss on his cheek. ‘Is it break time already?’

‘Yeah,’ he nodded. ‘The bar wasn’t as crowded, so they thought I could appreciate an earlier and a slightly longer break,’ Colton answered.

Noticing that Tracy was carrying the empty plates, his eyes turned to the table.

Then, they landed on me.

‘Clara?’ Colton asked, his eyes widening.

‘Clara?’ I heard Tracy say, with a hint of surprise in her tone.

‘Hey, Colton.’ I gave him an awkward wave.

‘Fancy seeing you here on a Saturday night,’ Colton teased.

For a moment I thought about telling Colton that I was on a date with someone. There wasn’t any harm in telling him, but something was holding me back, so I stopped myself before the words could come out.

‘I was out with a friend just now; they just left,’ I said instead. Technically, it wasn’t a lie. It just wasn’t the full truth, so I didn’t have to feel too bad about it.

I chanced a glance at Tracy, expecting to see a look of disappointment on her face about my partial honesty with Colton. But to my surprise, I saw a look of amusement instead—as if she was approving of my little white lie. Using that as encouragement, I continued explaining, ‘We went to watch a movie and thought we would check this place out since it was close by.’

‘Well, I’m glad you did,’ he said before he furrowed his eyebrows when he saw what I was holding in my hand. ‘What are you drinking? Is that water?’

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