Page 31 of New Girl in Town
“Fuck that guy,” Grant muttered, watching until he disappeared out of sight.
“He was...strange,” I said, not wanting to think of how he’d made me want to disappear with so few words. How could a complete stranger put me in such a mood?
“Are you okay?” Grant asked, looking at me with concern. “I’m sorry about that asshole.”
I nodded, rubbing my hands over my arms, and gave him a small smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. He didn’t know what he was talking about.” I bumped his hip with mine when he didn’t move, eyes trained on my face in a way that said he didn’t believe me—that he’d seen my automatic response. I swallowed hard and said, “Let’s keep shopping, yeah?”
He bit his lip and looked at me for a moment longer before he sighed and nodded. “Yeah, okay,” he said, and his hand found mine, pulling me close as he led me down the aisle. “I thought you said there were throw pillows over this way you wanted to see…” It took only a minute or two before we went back to joking around, and my joy over shopping for items purely for my pleasure came back with a vengeance.
Now we stood in my apartment, the items all arranged right where they’d been dropped off by the delivery service, and Grant gave me an expectant look, demanding ice cream.
“What for?” I asked. “You didn’t even carry the couch up here. The guys I paid did.”
“Okay, fair, but who pulled all of this, around the length of at least five football fields—and I’m not talking about those weird European leagues, I’m talking about NFL regulation fields. Do you know how far that is?”
“Well, no, but do you?”
He blew out a sigh that sounded likepfftand laughed. “Quick math isn’t my strength, but I want my ice cream.”
I grinned and snatched up my purse. “Fine, fine, let’s go get you ice cream. You earned it.”
“That’s what I’m talking about, sweetheart. Come on, there’s a great place down the street. You’ll love it, I promise. We’re going to have a ball.” He caught my hand, and before I knew it he had hustled us out so quick I barely had time to shut the door behind us.
“I know we’re going to have fun. We always have fun,” I told him.
“Yeah?” he asked, turning to me with a smile.
“Oh, big yeah—the fun goes up by at least twenty percent when you’re around,” I told him with mock seriousness.
He pulled a face as we stepped out of the building and into the evening air, which was chilly due to the last snow but not unbearable. All the same, I took the opportunity to lean into him as I told myself it was purely for warmth and survival purposes. It was a lie so thin I didn’t even believe myself.
“Only twenty percent? I was hoping for a cool forty at least.”
“Well, it’s twenty on average, and you definitely have a way of almost doubling the fun.”
He wiped a hand over his brow. “Thank god. I thought I had dropped the ball there for a second.”
“Not at all—you’re passing with flying colors. The fun has now hit at least the forty percent mark, so you made your quota.”
“Does that mean you’ll go out with me?”
I bit my lip and looked off to the side. “I, ah, well….when?”
“Tomorrow night.”
My heart fell. That was the night I was set to go out with Ben. I narrowed my eyes and gave his arm a squeeze. “I have a date that night. I told you that.”
He smirked at me. “So you did.”
“Are you trying to make me cancel?”
“Maaaaaybe. Is it working?” he asked, shooting me a look that veered into puppy dog eyes.
I felt my defenses waver, but only just. I’d made a promise to give Ben a chance, to let myself really make a choice, and that meant not cancelling in favor of Grant. Even if it was what I wanted to do more than anything in the world. The old Aurora had always been led by her heart, and look where that had gotten me: divorced and putting the pieces back together.
“Sorry, Grant. I can’t cancel on Ben.”
“Ben is a terrible name, you know,” he said as if we discussed the weather and not whether I would cancel on a date for him. “I bet it’s short for Benjamin. People probably called him Benji when he was a kid. That’s a dog from a seventies show, Aurora. Think about it.”
