Page 57 of Ever After

“I’m not giving myself up until she gives herself up to me.” Jay winks at me.

He just had to go there.

Twenty minutes later, we pulled up into a bar. Supposedly, the guy was supposed to give Lia this bar’s address but accidentally gave her Golden Corrals address. I bet Lia’s coworker has something to do with where he’s taking her. How do you go from taking a girl to Golden Corral to a bar? A bar that has no name. I don’t understand the no-name part, but according to the hostess, the owner couldn’t ever find a name for it, so they left it blank. All my life I’ve lived here, and I’ve never heard of this bar. I’m not sure how they even got a business with no name. How do you search for it? We don’t know if the food is good here or not, but anything is better than Golden Corral.

All three of us get seated and order drinks. The vibe here isn’t too bad. It’s a lot of older people. A live band is playing music. There are a few pool tables to the right of us. There’s a patio behind the pool tables that people keep going in and out of.

“Where is this guy of yours?” Jays asks.

“Hopefully he doesn’t make it,” Lia says with a laugh. She lays her head down on the table.

I pull up the menu and start looking over the food. A guy walks in and looks around while I face the hostess stand. Eyeing the hostess stand, I ask, “Lia, is that him?”

Lia turns around and looks. They make eye contact, and he heads over.

“Hi, are you Lia?” he asks, reaching his hand out to me.

“No, I’m Lilah. This is Lia.” I point to Lia. He keeps his hand out and turns to Lia. She smiles and grabs his hand to shake it.

“Hi,” she says.

He pulls out a pen and paper and places them on the table. “Can you fill this out for me?”

Jay drops his menu down, eyeing the paper. Both Lia and I stare at each other, questioning what the hell he’s doing. She grabs the paper and looks at it. By the look on her face, I can tell it’s bad.

“Why?” she asks.

“It’s better to know if you meet my standards now rather than later, so we don’t waste each other’s time.”

I hold my hand over my mouth while laughing. Lia hears me and narrows her eyes. I look over at Jay as he watches this all play out in front of him.

Lia places the paper down on the table and pats it like it’s his prize procession. “There is no need for this. Let’s enjoy a nice dinner and see where this goes.”

He is about to protest, but Jay interrupts and reaches his hand over the table to him. “Hi, I’m Jay.” The man takes Jay’s hand and shakes it.

“I’m Rudy.”

Finally, we have a name for him. He doesn’t look so bad. He looks like an average guy. Blue eyes, sandy brown hair…there’s nothing wrong with his looks. He has a checkered shirt on and straight-legged jeans with black sneakers. It could be worse. His horror dates probably start with his questions. He sounds like he is trying to one and done everyone until he finds who he likes before even getting to know them.

The waiter comes over and asks if we are ready to order. Rudy orders us a round of shots and drinks. He’s trying to get this party started—or over—sooner rather than later. No one protests the free shots. The waitress grabs our menus and heads to the bar.

A few awkward minutes pass by and no one is talking. I can tell Lia is uncomfortable. Jay and I both turn our chairs around to face the band. I rest my head on his shoulder and he places yet another kiss on the top of my head. This man is making it hard not to fall for him. It’s bad enough we get along like paper and glue. The timing of all this makes everything so hard. I don’t want to say I wish I met him sooner because I don’t regret getting married to Aiden. I wish I would have met him after Aiden and I divorced, but then, if Aiden never cheated on me, I don’t know if I would have left him. His cheating gave me the realization that I was already over him. If that wouldn’t have happened, I wouldn’t have met Jay. It might have been fate that all this happened as it did.

The waiter comes and places our shots on the table. “Do you guys want to open a tab?”

Jay reaches out to give him his card and says, “This is for me and her.”

It sounds a little harsh. We don’t offer to pay for Rudy and Lia, but it’s supposed to be a date for those two. Lia made us crash it. I look up at Rudy and he doesn’t budge. I stop and stare at Lia. She’s looking over at him, waiting for him to give out his card. Holy shit, is he not going to pay for his date? Lia reaches into her purse and gives her card to the waitress.

“This is only for me.”

This is getting awkward. Jay’s head is shaking from the corner of my eye. The next thing I know, Rudy pulls out his card and gives it to the waitress.

“This is for my tab only.”

My eyes go wide in disbelief. He’s really not going to pay for his date. Oh god, I feel bad for Lia. Maybe it was because she wouldn’t fill out the stupid questionnaire he brought.

“Your food should be out soon,” the waitress says.

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