Page 26 of Cocky Nerd
John
NOW
I makemy way towards the front of the restaurant to take the call. “Monty. Hang on, it’s loud in here, let me getoutside.”
He is already yelling, and I don’t need to make out the exact words to know what he’ssaying.
“Just calm down.” I talk over him. “You told me to reach out toher.”
“Yeah, as a friend, to check onher.”
“And that is what I did.” I shake my head at the valet parking attendant and signal that I’m just talking on the phone out here. “I checked in on her, and now we’re on a friendly dinnerdate.”
“I just hope you’ve actually thought about what you’re doing,Johnny.”
“I can honestly say that I’ve thought about it for a very, very longtime…”
He is quiet for a moment, and I hold the phone away from my ear, expecting more yelling. I hear him exhale. “About mysister?”
“I really care about her, Monty. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her, you knowthat.”
“Yeah. Not onpurpose.”
“What’s that supposed tomean?”
“The fact that you don’t even know what I mean worries me more thananything.”
“I wouldn’t have gone to see her if you hadn’t said it was okay, but I like Olivia Montgomery, and I want to spend more time with her. Simple asthat.”
“I feel sick to mystomach.”
“Really?”
“Kind of. But I guess you’re better than some pretentious asshole artsyguy.”
“Thank you, that means a lot…Listen, I should get back to the table. Are wegood?”
Another pause. “Yeah. We’re good. Fornow.”
He hangs up. I realize that my free hand was balled up into a tight fist. My armpits feel damp. Despite that, the conversation went much better than it could have. Hopefully from now on, when I think of Olivia, I won’t hear my best friend’s voice calling me a ‘filthy pervert’ and describing the physics of his hand hitting myface.
When I return to the table, she leans in to ask how that went. I wink at her and smile. “We’re good to go,” I say. The way she blushes when she smirks tells me everything I need toknow.
When we’rein the backseat of the car, being driven back to my house, I respond to emails on my phone but I can see in my peripheral vision that Olivia keeps turning her head to stare at me withdisbelief.
I send one last email, pocket my phone, and give my beautiful date my full attention. “Hi.What?”
“How did you dothat?”
“Dowhat?”
“Behave like the perfect boyfriend when we were at therestaurant?”
“Oh. I’ve observed what women respond to in other men. It’s justacting.”
She winces, almost imperceptibly, but I catchit.
“Sorry,” I say. “Should I have sugarcoatedthat?”
