Page 53 of Guys Can't Write Romance
“So, you weren’t leaning close to her every chance you got to explain the game?”
“The bar was loud. How else was I supposed to explain it?” Chad said, watching several people bike past on the nearby bike path. If he was being perfectly honest with himself, he had thought of more reasons to lean closer to her than he needed to. But he wasn’t about to admit that.
“You also remembered her book’s title,” Rhino said.
“So?”
“You can’t remember what you had for breakfast.”
“That’s different,” Chad protested, kicking at a small pebble. “I need to know her book for the contest.”
“Uh huh.”
“There’s no uh-huh about it.”
“Uh huh.”
Chad frowned. “What about you and Chloe? You guys seemed pretty friendly in between your burps.”
“Nice deflection, McKenzie.” Rhino grinned. “But yeah, Chloe’s a trip. There’s something cool about a girl who can burp louder than me and kick my butt at quarters.”
“She hustled you bad.”
“The chick’s got talent. But we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about how you couldn’t take your eyes off Daisy all afternoon.”
“I was teaching her baseball!” The protest sounded weak even to Chad’s own ears.
“And smiling every time she laughed?”
“Dude. Beer came out of her nose. It was funny.” Chad kicked another pebble, sending it skittering ahead of them.
“And cried during her Hallmark movie?”
“That was allergies. I’m allergic to clean apartments.” Chad avoided eye contact, choosing to focus on a basketball game winding down on the nearby courts.
They passed a vendor stand closing up for the evening, the scent of grilled fish tacos lingering in the air. A group of college-aged kids huddled on a bench a short distance away, sharing a bottle in a paper bag and laughing too loudly at inside jokes.
Rhino just smiled and shook his head. “Bro, you are so screwed.”
“How am I screwed?”
“Because you like a girl that’s the polar opposite of anyone you ever dated. And that scares the crap out of you.”
Chad kicked another loose stone, watching it bounce along the concrete before disappearing into a patch of beach grass. “And you had way too many beers.”
“Probably,” Rhino said with a loud burp. “But I’ve known you since freshman year, and I’ve never seen you look at anyone the way you looked at Daisy Fields today.”
The statement hung between them for a moment, weighted with a truth Chad wasn’t quite ready to examine. They walked in silence past a small pizza shop, its painted sign chipped and fading. The smell of garlic and cheese blended with the ocean breeze.
“Look,” Chad sighed, kicking another loose stone with more force than necessary. “Let’s suppose purely for the sake of argument that I like her, which I don’t, but since this is your delusion, let’s suppose I do. She has a boyfriend.”
Rhino snorted. “The guy who thinks mini-golf is too extreme?”
“He has his act together. Which I definitely do not.” Chad gestured vaguely at himself, at the beach, at their entire lifestyle.
“No argument there. But maybe that means less to her than you think. All I know is, you had fun with her today, and she had fun with you. Something’s there that you guys are too stubborn to admit.”
Two girls walked past, casting shy smiles at the boys as they went. At any other time, the boys would have done a quick about-face and struck up a conversation with them, but Chad’s mind was too preoccupied at the moment.
