Page 53 of We Met Like This
“What?” I leaned a little closer. It was loud in the bar. Getting louder by the second, it seemed. Or maybe I was just getting more drunk by the second.
She spoke directly into my ear. “Oliver. Did he influence this decision?”
“No. I made it all by myself, thank you very much. The only thing that came out of lunch was Oliver asking me if I was sleeping with Rob.”
“You aren’t sleeping with Rob, so I hope you said no.”
“I said, ‘Not currently.’”
She groaned. “Less is more, Marjorie. Those are conversations you have when you know someone better.”
“Probably true. You should’ve seen the way he looked at me.” It had hurt, sitting there in the restaurant after loudly quitting my job in the alley, to have Oliver close himself off, become overly polite, asking generic questions and barely answering mine with no more than a word or two. But maybe it was better this way. Our second chance proving just as much as our first one that we weren’t right for each other.
Becky called out from across the table, “What do you think about Celine Dion?”
“Wildly ambitious,” Sloane said. “But go for it!”
“Yes!” Laurel agreed.
Back to me, Sloane said, “Did words accompany his look?”
“He said, ‘Oh.’”
“Oh? And then what?”
“And then our food came and we ate and he asked me if I’d ever been to Seattle.”
“Seattle? Why?”
“Because that’s what you do when you’re done trying to get to know someone. You ask them generic questions like if they’ve ever eaten crab legs or been to Seattle.”
“I didn’t think Oliver would be so judgmental,” she said.
“Because you know Oliver so well?”
“He’s been your online boyfriend for three years. That’s as long as I’ve known you! I’ve seen him with at least one bad haircut and a plethora of questionable clothing choices.”
I laughed. “Oh, and remember that time he posted only pictures of him blinking?”
“That was funny. Exactly! I thought he was chill and funny. But he’s actually judgmental and… judgy?”
A snort burst out of me. “You judge me for sleeping with Rob too,” I said. Just like my sister and parents would.
“I judge Rob for Rob and… okay, I judge you. But I’m your best friend and I know the whole story. I don’t deflect with questions about Seattle.” She let out a short breath. “You should’ve stalked Oliver online. Then you would’ve foundallhis red flags.”
“He didn’t have any social media attached to his dating profile and I just barely got his phone number. I still don’t know his last name! I reverse-image searched his pictures last week and nothing came up.”
“Youdidstalk him online. How dare you do that without me.” It was one of our traditions to research my app matches online. Mainly to make sure they weren’t on any of the lists that women put up after scary dating encounters. But also to feel them out, see the kinds of things they posted.
“I found nothing.”
“Maybe he doesn’t exist,” she said, her eyes wide.
I doubled over, laughing. “You’re drunk.”
“So are you,” she said.
“I am! How am I so drunk already?”
