Page 33 of The One I Love
“Shane,” I say sternly. “You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“Since when are you an optimist?”
He shrugs. “When it comes to the possibility of us? I’m eternal.”
He lets go of my hands as we each sit back into the booth, which is a good thing since Mona is approaching with our breakfast. I forgot that I hadn’t ordered, yet appearing before me is a stack of Mona’s waffles, extra syrup, and an apple juice.
I look down at the plate then back up to Shane. “You ordered for me?”
“I told you I would.”
I’m speechless as I look at my breakfast order. I feel the tears starting to build over the simple gesture. It’s not exactly like my breakfast order is complex. Shane said he’d do it, and he did. He remembered.
Come to think of it, he always remembers.
Every time we come for breakfast, he always has my order in because he gets here twenty minutes early and I am usually twenty minutes late. He always sits on the side of the booth facing the restaurant because I don’t like people looking at me while I’m eating.
If he wanted to, he would.
Shane is the definition of that phrase. And while yes, there might be a million scary reasons to not try, I think the scariest thing of all would be if I wouldn’t even give it a shot.
“Shane?”
He looks up from his breakfast, and I can’t help but smile at the hopeful glint in his eye.
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go on a date.”
Chapter 10
Shane
Desperate times callfor desperate measures.
That’s the only reasoning I can think of that justifies what I’m about to do.
Shane: You got a minute?
Simon: Depends on what it’s for. I wore a new suit today and I don’t want to get shit on it if you need help moving something.
I let out a deep sigh, hating the words I’m about to type.
Shane: I need your help with something.
I don’t even think I’ve hit send on that message before the text bombing begins.
Simon: Me? You know this is just me and not the groupchat right?
Simon: Is Oliver still ignoring you? Amelia working? Did you call Wes too? Or are you really just asking me?
Simon: What’s this about? Is it just about buying houses or is it something juicy?
Simon: Fuck it. I don’t care. I’ll be over in ten.
When Amelia finds out that I enlisted Simon’s help for our date she’s either going to check me into a psych ward or laugh her ass off. Maybe both. That should also show how serious I am about this date, because me asking Simon for help is a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence.
