Page 63 of Olivia's Only Pretending
“I mean, I get it.” Gracie shrugged, tugging on her pink sweatshirt with a dance studio’s name embroidered across the front.
“When’s the date?” I asked.
“Tomorrow night,” Lucy said.
“I wish we could check him out like we got to check out Jeff.” I chewed on my lip, stopping so Watson could sniff some grass by the river. The rushing water was a soft murmur.
“Me too,” Lucy said. “Could you imagine—the three of us accidentally bumping into them at dinner?”
Gracie chuckled. “Fancy meeting you here, while we scoot into their booth.”
“No, no. We’d have to spy from afar, hiding behind big menus,” I joked. Watson’s leash was rough in my hands, yanking me ahead.
“I feel like we’d actually be good at it,” Lucy said, something flashing in her eyes. “We could pull it off. They’re not even going to a restaurant. They’re playing mini golf. We could easily hide around the course to hear what they’re saying.”
“Easily hide around the course?” I asked, brows furrowed. “Lucy Rhodes, you’re not suggesting we spy on Mom’s date for real!”
“Not for the whole date. Merely pop in for like half an hour and check the guy out. It’s not that crazy. I’m sure it happens more than we realize,” Lucy said.
“I’ve never heard of anyone spying on someone else’s date, except for on sitcoms,” I said.
“Liv, they get those ideas from somewhere.” Lucy crossed her arms.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea,” Gracie said, slowly offering up each word, her blonde hair bouncing as she walked.
“You both don’t think it’s a bad idea to spy on our mom’s date?” I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “Seriously? You want to do this?”
I could think of several reasons it was a bad idea. Namely, Mom’s reaction if she caught us.Also, her date’s reaction if he caught us.
“I think I do.” Lucy grinned. “I want to check out Jeff’s competition.”
“I mean, we can bail if something goes wrong.” Gracie’s eyes were lighting up in the way they did when she was scheming.
I closed my eyes and took a breath. “Fine. I’m in.” I couldn’t let the two of them go without me, that was for sure. “But both of you have to work on your whispers.”
“Work on our whispers, how?” Lucy asked as we all started walking again at Watson’s behest.
“You both ‘whisper’ super loud,” I said, making air quotations with my fingers around the wordwhisper.
Lucy shook her head as if this just wasn’t true.
“We do not.” Gracie rolled her eyes. “You’ll see.”
“Let’s wear all black,” Lucy said excitedly.
“What time is the date?” I asked.
“Six. Let’s get there like fifteen minutes beforehand, so we can spot them when they walk in and can follow them,” Lucy said.
“Yeah, we can lurk around the lobby—” Gracie began.
“Lurk? Follow them? This sounds so—” I tried covering my face with my hands as best as I could with a chunky leash in my hand.
“Olivia, it’s not creepy,” Lucy said.
“I didn’t even saycreepy.” I raised my eyebrows. “You used that word all by yourself.”
“I’m saying, it’s not creepy because we don’t have creepy motives. It’s sweet because we’re watching out for Mom,” Lucy said, stopping to take a sip of water from her yellow bottle.
