Page 22 of Broken Dreams
“Yes, date as in...well, date.”
“That’s what we’re doing, and after, we’ll have my version of a date.”
Oh, fuck this guy. No way in hell is he going anywhere with her. I push out of the booth and stand, walking over to their table. “Addison? There you are!”
“Grady?” She looks to me, with a mix of confusion and gratefulness.
“Hey, I tried to call you a few times. I thought we had a date tonight, but I guess I was wrong.”
“We did? Tonight?”
I nod, turning my back to her date. “Yes, I came here, hoping I’d find you. I was worried I had the wrong date and time.”
She looks to her date and then me. “I, well, I didn’t think it was tonight. I’m sorry.” Then she turns her gaze back to him. “Dan, I really didn’t mean for this to happen, but you know, this probably is for the best.”
“We had plans. I had plans for tonight.”
He sounds like a petulant child.
She moves out of the booth. “I’m sorry. I’ll call you if...well, I probably won’t. Good luck in the future and finding your next conquest.”
I grab her sweater off the hook and place my hand on the small of her back, guiding her away from the dickhead of the year.
We exit the diner, walking towards the cars, and she exhales loudly before beginning to laugh. “Oh, I’m so done with this.”
“He sounded like a winner.”
She clasps her hand over her mouth as she fights back her laughter. “I can’t even. Did you hear him talk about himself in the bedroom?”
“I did.”
“Whosaysthat?”
Clearly, Dan, but it was still just insanity. To come out, before you even get drinks, and state how you’re going to have sex—good sex, according to him—is not normal.
At least not any kind of normal I would want to be around.
“I’m sorry, Addison.”
“Please, call me Addy. And what about you? Where is your date?”
I nod my head slowly. “Ahh, she no-showed.”
She starts to laugh again. “We are a pair, aren’t we?”
“We are.”
She leans against my car with a sigh. “I...I need a drink after that.”
“Come on, let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“To get a drink,” I say, starting to walk toward Peakness, which is three blocks down. “We both need one.”
Addison catches up to me, neither of us saying anything, just enjoying the cool breeze. I glance over at her, she smiles, and then we keep going, still not speaking.
It’s nice not to have to fill the silence.
