Page 27 of Mr. Picture Perfect
When I’m awkward, he’ll save me by rewording the question on my behalf. When I trip on my words, he’ll understand what I intended and graciously answer the question I meant to ask.
I guess on second thought, maybe he’s the perfect person to have my first interview with.
There’s a gentle knock on my door. I turn to find my mom poking her head in. “Sweetie, it’s so late. Thought you’d be asleep by now.”
I cover my interview questions with another nearby notebook for some reason. “I’m … I’m doing a newspaper thing before bed.”
“Oh. This late?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Can I get you a glass of milk?”
“I’m fine, Mom, thanks.”
“You sure? How’d the thing at the Strongs’ go?”
I can still feel Cole as he came up to my side while I was in the middle of watching the boys play, then stood there close—too close. I can feel myself standing by him at the kitchen island, too, when he appeared out of nowhere and became a third appendage I did not know I wanted. I can feel the weight of his arm as he threw it over my shoulders when Nadine started talking to me, tugging me against his side. Did it count as a hug? It was almost a hug, right?
Then when he caught me out front before I headed out.
Staring me down in the dark with his impassioned eyes.
Turning me into his interviewer before I could properly resist.
Against all explanation. Against better judgment.
Do I even remember anything else from tonight? Did the long car ride with Burton there and back happen? What did I even eat at the Strongs’? Did they serve food at all?
I can’t stop my mind, so I talk. “Mrs. Strong wants to run some events that highlight local Spruce bachelors. Pageant, auction …”
“She wants to do what now?”
“I’ve been unofficially assigned one of the …” Well, that’s not true. No one assigned me. I assigned myself. At Cole’s insistence. “I am going to be writing about one of the bachelors. An interview. I have to come up with questions.”
“Well, that sounds dandy! Who’s the bachelor? Do we know him? Is it your sweet, single dentist?”
“It’s Cole. He’s …” I feel my heart flutter saying his name. Why did my heart flutter? That doesn’t make sense. “He’s my age. Cole and I went to school together.”
“Cole …” My mom goes quiet for a moment, her eyes seeming to teleport to another dimension. “You don’t … You don’t mean … Lauren Harding’s son, do you? Cole Harding?”
Hearing the rather sudden change in her tone concerns me. “Cole Harding, yes. Why?”
Her eyes go astray. She appears deep in her mind suddenly. “Oh. I … I didn’t think …” She shakes her head. “I didn’t think you two were still friends.”
“Friends? What do you mean?”
“Never mind.” Suddenly my mom is happy again, purging all unpleasant thoughts from her brain. “That sounds wonderful, my dear, and I think you’re going to do a terrific job.”
“Cole and I used to be friends?”
Now it’s my mom who’s become the bug caught in a net and trying feebly to break free. “Don’t mind what I said. Yes, when you were kids. It was … why are you looking at me like that? It was a long time ago, sweetie, just forget I said anything.”
“But I’m interviewing him in the morning.”
My mom goes strange again. “You are?”
“Yes. I already told you I am. I’m writing up questions. I have to interview him at his house.” I fidget with my pen in hand. “I’d rather someone else do it, because I … I feel like I’m no good at this whole …talkingandquestioningstuff. People always look at me strangely and wonder why I stutter so much.”
