Page 60 of Until Tomorrow
“Hello! This is your loving wife calling to find out what I’m making for dinner,” Eva said rapidly when I answered the phone. Was that country music on in the background?
“Since when do you cook?” I asked.
“Well…” She clicked her tongue dramatically. “I was going to order takeout and put it in fancy bowls and say I made it. And because you love me, you were going to entertain my insanity.”
“While you’re at it, can you take my portion of whatever you pick and put it in aTupperwarecontainer since I won’t be home for a few more hours?” I felt bad even saying the words as she fell silent. That silence stretched on uncomfortably.
“Do we even own Tupperware?” she whispered, making me chuckle.
“I honestly have no idea,” I said.
“That’s fine,” she told me. “I’ll make sure something is set aside for you. Long day?”
“Last minute lunch date. I planned to tell you over dinner, but it ran longer than expected, and now I need to make up some of the work I should’ve done.”
“Oh, that’s exciting. And it ran longer than expected, which means it went well. Unless it didn’t. It wasn’t another Chad, was it? You didn’t murder someone, did you? Do I need to bail you out of jail?”
“No.” I laughed at her joke. “No. I mean, yes, it went well. His name is Emerson. I sort of pulled the trigger on a lunch date today after talking to him for a short bit. We went to lunch, but I didn’t eat lunch. Neither did he. Ernie ate the free bread.”
“Ernie?” she repeated. “Did you go on a date with a gay couple?”
“Ernie is his Great Dane.”
“Okay, that’s freaking adorable.”
“It was different, but I liked it. We drank coffee, took Ernie for a walk, held hands, sat and talked, and I stayed way over my time for my lunch break, which is why I’m stuck at the office,” I told her. I sort of rushed over the middle part, half-hoping she didn’t hear me and half-hoping she did. It wasn’t that I cared if she knew—I didn’t have to tell her if I didn’t want to. That was our agreement on the details. I just didn’t know how to explain how I was feeling afterward. About the date. Not the hand-holding. The hand-holding and the hug had been just fine.
But the more I ran through the date in my head, something felt off.
“Hold your sexy ass up, Mister.” Yeah, she’d heard me. “Don’t think I missed the hand-holding part. That’s a first. I have to assume you didn’t hold Chad’s hand. You probably would’ve broken it.”
“A hundred percent, yes, I would’ve.”
“How are you feeling?”
“It was nice. It was comfortable… I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting it to feel comfortable.”
“So, are you going on a second date with him?”
“I don’t know. Maybe? I don’t know, Eva. It didn’t feel…” I sighed.Right? Wrong? Okay? Natural?What was I trying to say? What did I even feel?
“Well,” Eva began slowly, “maybe he isn’t the right one for you—the one you figure everything out with—but that doesn’t mean he can’t be the right now one. Does that make sense?”
“I guess,” I said.
“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a few dates with him, sweetheart. You did put casual dating on your profile, and you said it yourself that you enjoyed your lunch date with Ernie.”
“Subtle.” I chuckled.
“Maybe we could get a Great Dane,” she suggested. “Really go all in on helping you connect with Emerson. Oh, you two could go on double doggie dates!”
“We are not getting a dog to help me date. Besides, you don’t want a Great Dane. They’re the size of a small horse.”
“Are you saying I could live up to my childhood dream of owning a pony?” Eva gasped playfully, and I snorted. God, I loved my wife. “In all seriousness, Logan, whatever you want to do, I’ll support you. In my novice opinion, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a few more dates with Emerson and Ernie while you talk to other people on the app. If anything, it’ll help you figure out a little more of what doesn’t feel right and what does. You can’t know any of that without the experience.”
“That’s very true. Do you think it’s dishonest, though? It feels dishonest.”
“Most people don’t date the way we did.”
