Page 102 of Caper Crush
“Not bad.”
“He just walked over here?”
“No,” Tessa says. “I spotted him when I walked in. I held eye contact for just a bit too long. But then I ignored him when I went to get a drink. I thought I should take advantage of actually being out at a bar.”
“You should.”
“Here’s to personal interaction.” She clinks my glass. “I haven’t been to a bar in so long.”
“I love it when it works.”
“Why are you spying on William?” Tessa asks. “You don’t seriously believe he’s going to cheat on you with this other woman, do you?”
“No,” I say. “He wouldn’t cheat. But Kiyoko likes him. Uncle Tony said that he was interested in Kiyoko initially and was hurt when she rejected him. If she makes a good case for dating her, he might break up with me.”
“I doubt it. Take some credit for being hard to give up. How do you know she’s interested?”
I explain the whole karaoke night.
“He should have made it clear that you were dating.”
“That’s partially why I’m worried. I said not to tell anyone, but I wonder if he’s just using that as a convenient excuse.” I play with the plastic placard listing special drinks. “I thought I was pretty clear that it was specific to my family.”
“Still, if she is interested, I’m sure she picked up the vibe between you two.” Tessa leans back against the wall. “It was getting pretty smoky out at Fire Island.”
“I did sing ‘Fire for You’ to him.” I grin. “And he insisted we leave after that. But that’s just it. If I were her, and I thought I was about to lose my chance, I’d tell him I like him.”
Tessa smiles. “Miranda, you’d tell him you like him even without that push.”
I laugh. “You’re right. I would. I’d always rather tell the person than have any regrets. But even more so if I think another girl is interested. Unless it’s absolutely clear that he’s not interested back. In which case, I will hold back—sometimes.”
“Wasn’t it clear that he was interested when you were out singing karaoke?”
“It wasn’t. He’s not super demonstrative in public—unlike Rex,” I say. “And I felt like that night he was being careful not to give any impression that we were anything more than friends. Until the end when we left.” A shout erupts from the bar. Some team just scored.
“Still, what is spying going to solve?”
“I’m a total idiot, aren’t I?” I bite my lip. “I wanted to see if I could pick up any vibe of interest from William and prepare myself emotionally if he was going to dump me. But I was too far away to see anything. But hey, I get to have drinks with you, so it worked out in the end.”
“It’s impossible to prepare emotionally for that,” Tessa says. “You didn’t see them touching, right?”
“No touching,” I say. “As far as I could tell anyway—in between dodging pedestrians and cars. I should have ditched the bike.”
“Did you tell Peter that you were dating William?”
“Of course.”
“How did he take it?”
“Hard to tell on the phone,” I say.
Ron walks back over with another guy. This other guy is tall, fit, cute—but not as attractive as William.
“Hey, we were just talking, and I thought I needed to give you a little more incentive to call me,” Ron says. “This is my friend Devon.”
Devon nods hello. He looks like he’s been dragged here to keep me occupied while Ron chats up Tessa. He doesn’t make eye contact and is checking out the two women seated a few tables away.
Ron pulls an empty barstool from the table next to us, and Devon leaves to find another chair. Or maybe another woman. He skips over the table with a man and a woman and asks two women if he can borrow their extra chair. He’s very chatty with them. He lugs the chair over to our table and places it next to me.
