Page 62 of Love Unavoidable
“How long are you going to keep up this whole dating thing?”
“This whole dating thing? I’ve only been on two dates.”
“Two? Who was the other one? I only know about Marcus.”
“Well, right, because you walked in on that one. I had one the night before that.”
“Wow, okay, Brad didn’t mention another one.”
“Brad told you about my date with Marcus?”
“Um, kind of.”
“What does kind of mean?”
“It means he mentioned it, in passing. No big deal.”
“Ohmigod, it all makes sense now. You followed me there, didn’t you? Or at least you knew I would be there.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you said Brad told you about the date. And I knew something that Bree had said rubbed me the wrong way that night, I just couldn’t remember what it was. It was the whole, ‘I’ve always wanted to come here since it’s right down the street’ thing. And that you had called her because you were in the area already. So it wasn’t that you went there on a date with her. You were planning to go there and just happened to ask her to tag along. Were you even interested in her? Or were you using her to sabotage my date?”
“I never intended to sabotage your date. That wasn’t what I set out to do.”
“Sure, you say that now. How do I believe you?” she asks.
“I guess you’ll just have to trust me then.”
“Easier said than done.”
“Ditto.”
“Wait, why ditto? What have I done?” she cries. “I’ll tell you what, nothing. I haven’t done anything that would make trusting me an issue for anyone.”
“Except me. Most of the things you do make it an issue for me to trust you,” I say.
“How?”
“Are you kidding me right now?”
“No.”
“You flip-flop your emotions, you run hot and cold with me. It’s like trying to track a hummingbird, zoom you’re over here, zoom you’re over there.”
“Why don’t we agree to disagree?” she asks.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
We continue walking up the nearly deserted beach. I want to hold her hand. Or maybe say something to lighten the tension. Or even throw her down on the sand and fuck some sense into her.
“So, contentious . . .” she says.
“Yep.”
“How do you suppose we fix it?”
