Page 43 of The Fallacy of True Love
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. The way I remember it, you invited a super nice, incredibly good-looking guy to our table.”
“Because you guilted me into doing it,” I shot back as I sat beside Nikki and nabbed my drink. “Also, he’s not that nice.”
She raised a brow at me. “But he is good looking, right?”
Since I hated liars, I took a slurp of my shake in response. I sighed at how good it tasted.
“Ha! Progress,” Nikki exclaimed. “Also, he offered to walk you home. Seems nice to me.”
“Would you think that if you found out he harassed me?”
Her mouth hung open. “What?” she half-shouted as her back went straight. “Seriously?”
“Relax. I said if.“
“Shit. Don’t scare me like that.” She pushed at my arm.
“Sorry.”
Nikki wrapped her arms around me in a side hug. I patted her twice, then pulled away.
“So…nothing happened?”
I took a drink to delay answering. Finally, I said, “We argued, made out against some wall, then we heard someone and he realized it was a mistake. End of story.”
She stared at me. “End of story? You didn’t give me any details! What did you argue about? How did you go from that to sucking face? Did he suck anything else? Also, which wall was it?”
“We argued about our assumptions about each other. I told him to shut up; he dared me to make him. None of the fun parts.” I ticked each answer off on my fingers. “I can’t remember.”
Liar. It was the one with the mural of pink flowers and the sign advertising Ed’s plumbing services. I had no idea who Ed was, but we’d come close to giving his poster more action than he’d probably imagined.
“What do you mean he realized it was a mistake?”
“I mean, that’s exactly what he said. He remembered I wasn’t his type and tried to apologize.” Admitting it hurt my pride all over again, but I wasn’t going to shy away from reality. Better to know the truth and get hurt rather than live a lie.
Nikki gawked at me. “He said you weren’t his type?”
“No. But it’s obvious enough.”
“We really thought?—”
My brows lifted. “We?”
“Eric and I.” At my look, she shrugged. “Of course we talked about you. The tension between you two was crazy.”
“Well, he’s gone now, so we can just forget about it.” The topic killed my appetite, but I reached for a pandesal anyway. “What else did you two get up to last night?”
“Eric got hungry again, so we ordered wings and talked. He walked me home a bit before one.” Before I could say anything, she added, “No, there was no random making out against a wall.”
“Bummer.”
We chatted for a couple more minutes and walked together to the café, where we said goodbye. When I got back to the house, Inang was on her way out for her usual Monday breakfast with friends.
I held the door open for her. “Morning, Inang.”
“Good morning,” she said. “I found a note for you under your door. I thought it was just a receipt at first.”
I frowned.
