Page 26 of Love's a Glitch
“If there’s anything to be picky about, it’s wasting time with the wrong person,” Luke said. “The world is for exploring, and life’s too short to settle for boring.”
“But life’s also long enough that I’d like to find someone to share those adventures with. I’ve got my friends, and I love my job—most of the time, anyway.” My goal to branch out and be my own boss was a subject for another time. “I’d love to say I’m a strong, independent woman who never feels lonely. But the truth is, I do get lonely. I miss having someone to cuddle up with at the end of the day. To vent with and share victories with. To…” Luckily I cut myself off before I blurted outto have sex with,and softened to the more appropriate, “To share my bed with.”
“That last one, I get. But once the deed is done, I’m always anxious to get going, or to spread out alone in my bed. And if we’re lying in bed and a woman brings up the future, my bed or not, I’d be crashing my way out of the room like the Kool-Aid Man.”
Disappointment tossed dirt on that flickering flame inside of me, turning it to coals that needed to stop smoldering over the idea of me and Luke already. A tiny part of me had romanticized the idea of changing his mind. Or that if I could just get him to see how incredible we could be together, he’d reconsider his dating stance and whether or not he wanted to leave town.
For the first time all day, silence stretched to the uncomfortable point. It was probably only a handful of seconds, but it felt like a vast eternity of nothingness.
“This is exactly why I need to stop searching for guys who feel the same way you do about relationships and find one who wants the cuddling, the chit-chat, and all the other intimate parts. You might not consider that exciting, and those parts of a relationship don’t inspire that same adrenaline high as ziplining through the air or the sweaty minutes in the bedroom, but they’re a different kind of exciting. A thrill involving comfort, and the assurance that if you slip and fall, that person you’ve chosen to love is the safety net at the bottom that’ll catch you, brush you off, and give you the strength to soar again.”
Luke’s eyebrows arched. Great, I’d ruined our fun evening by waxing poetic about love. But he’d been upfront about his thoughts on relationships; surely, I was entitled to the same.
“See,” I said with a shrug. “I’m a romantic at heart. I can’t help it.”
Luke nodded and reached for his drink, and I took that as my cue to gather up my trash and bring the evening to a close. Only he snagged my wrist, stopping my movements. “Hey. I’m sorry if that came out like pushing. I’m genuinely curious. If there’s any way I can help you as you’re going out with these guys and figuring out whether they’re right or wrong, then I’m happy to ride out this adventure with you. One thing Icansay after the short time we’ve spent hanging out is that you deserve to find someone who appreciates you for who you are.”
My internal organs turned into a gooey mess.Gah,he was making it so hard to forgethewasn’t that guy. “Thank you,” I said. “Having a neutral party to discuss it with has been nice. My friends know me too well, which is good and bad. Because I tend to fall for douchebags, they go into protective mode without waiting to hear all the details, so sometimes they push for nicer guys without taking into account my thoughts or feelings on the matter. It’s nice to have another perspective in the mix.”
“That’s me. Perspective for days.”
I cracked a smile, my internal storm calming. “Milo’s a super nice guy, and he made it clear he was very interested in me from our first date, which I appreciated. It’s just how he went about it that threw me off.” Even though I’d already gathered up my trash, I stacked it into a neater pile.
Luke shoved aside his tray, propped an elbow on the table, and rested his chin against his fist. “Explain.”
“At the end of every date…” Jeez, it wasn’t enough for me to embarrass myself, now my cheeks heated on someone else’s behalf? “He wrote me poems.”
“Isn’t that every woman’s dream? Poems and songs and sonnets or whatever?”
I chose not to point out that a sonnet was technically a poem and considering a few men had told me my know-it-all ways were part of the reason they dumped me, I felt that showed a lot of growth. “In theory, yeah. It just threw me off a bit when one of his lines was:she wore a gorgeous dress in purple, that I thought about the entire time I was at the urinal.”
A guffaw burst from Luke, loud enough several people in the restaurant glanced our way. He pounded a fist to his chest, attempting to turn it into a cough. And failing miserably.
I cocked my head, as if to ask if he were done yet, and repeated the same thing I’d told Cat. “In his defense, purple is a hard word to rhyme.”
“Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting that, and it threw me off for a second.”
“Well, I can’t really get mad, since it threw me off too.”
“How long was he in the urinal? Do you think he was”—Luke leaned in closer and dropped his voice even lower—“you know?”
“Ew.” That thought had never crossed my mind, and I sort of wished for the power to rewind time and prevent it from ever having done so. “I didn’t time him, but who would do that in a public bathroom?”
“Earlier you asked me if I knew anything about women, and now you’re forcing me to ask if you know anything about men. Urinals are some of the grossest places in the world—I certainly wouldn’t use them in a poem if I was hoping to sweep a woman off her feet. But I’ve seen some shit.”
“Are you saying that you…?”
“Of course not. I do the gentlemanly thing and wait till I’m alone in my shower.”
Heat pooled low in my gut and my tongue glued itself to the roof of my mouth. This conversation had taken a weird turn.
“My bad,” Luke said. “I often blurt out stuff I probably shouldn’t. My little sister calls it TMI; I like to call it preparing her for the real world. And like I always tell her, there are a lot of depraved people out there. If your gut says something’s off, listen.”
“You have a little sister?” That fact stuck out in the rest, possibly because I didn’t want to analyze what else he’d said.
“Not so little now. Lucy’s nineteen and in her sophomore year of college. Of all my family, she’s the one I get along with best, so of course she’s in another state right now. My younger brother’s twenty-seven and is already married with two kids, and my parents like to tell me I should be setting the example, not the other way around.” He swiped a hand through the air. “But that’s off-topic.”
“After that eye-opening conversation, I’m not sure anything’s off-topic,” I said with a laugh, and he joined in.
