Page 19 of Love Resurrected
Remi.
“Where’re you going?”
“Home. I’ve fulfilled my duty. I was put up for auction, purchased, did my dance, now I’m through.”
“Have a drink with me,” she says.
“I don’t want to.”
She looks at me.
I look at her.
“Do it anyway,” she says.
Dammit.
I join her at the bar.
She wastes no time after we get our drinks. “Tenley bid on you, right?”
“How’d you know?”
“No one else has that kind of money to waste on something like this, and definitely not on you after your little tirade into the mic before the whole thing started.”
“Yeah, well.” I wave my hand dismissively in the space between us.
“You need to go on the date with her.”
“No way. Absolutely not.”
“Think about it, B. It’s perfect. You don’t really have anything to lose. She has to say yes since it’s part of the auction, right. It’s low-key, no expectations, the perfect way to get your feet back in the water, so to speak.”
“I don’t even like the woman,” I say, sucking down half my beer. “And she doesn’t care for me either.”
“Even better,” Remi says. “Then it’s just practice. No matter what you do to fuck it up, it won’t matter. She already doesn’t like you. This is a win-win, Brad. And it just helps you prep for a real date.”
I think about it. She has a point. Because it’s Tenley, there’s no pressure. I want nothing from it. She’s not going to want anything from it. And as a bonus, if I ask Tenley on a date, it counters her whole point of me being half-assed about living my life. And it gets Remi off my ass for a while.
“Fine. What do I have to do?” I ask Remi.
“Ask her to dinner.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t act so excited about it.”
“I’mnotthat excited about it.”
“Did it ever occur to you that you might have a good time?”
“No.”
“Brad, look, you know I love you. You know that Kat was like the other half of my soul. Why would I want someone else for you she wouldn’t have wholeheartedly approved of?”
I don’t have an answer to that. In my defense, I don’t think an answer to that even exists. I look down at my one beer, versus her multiple empty shot glasses, and change the subject.
“How do you hold your alcohol so well?”
