Page 75 of Twist of Date

“Brah. You still at that party?”

“I’m home,” I tell him.

“You sound…I don’t know…strange.”

“Dude. I fucked up.” I sigh.

“How so?”

“With Layla and the whole matchmaking thing.” I bang my head on the plush cushion a few times.

Travis lets out a whistle. “I’m coming over. Do you need ice cream or some shit like that? Do you have popcorn? I need it to enjoy the show while you give me the tea.”

“Fuck, Trav, how is my pain enjoyable to you?” I groan.

“Dude, you know I got a thing for reality TV. I knew you doing the matchmaker thing would bring me a bounty of entertainment,” he says and I hear the beep of his car unlocking. He only lives a few blocks away.

“Just bring beer,” I tell him since the beer I was nursing earlier isn’t even in my system anymore.

“Roger that,” he replies before ending the call.

Twenty minutes later, there is a knock at my door, so I force myself off my couch and let the man in. The fridge door isn’t even shut to keep the new brews cold when he starts in.

“All right, tell me everything,” he says, handing me a beer.

So I tell him how Layla and I have been seeing each other and the agreement we made. Then I tell him about what happened today, minus a play-by-play of me finger-fucking Layla.

The fucker made popcorn and shoves a handful in his mouth while I wait for his response.

“I just told you all that and all you can do is shovel food in your mouth and blink at me?” I snap before gulping down the last of my beer. I stand to grab another when he clears his throat.

“Sorry, I was processing. Get me one,” he says. When I return with our second round, he washes down more popcorn before laying his thoughts on me.

“I guess I’m not surprised by you falling for Layla. You’ve had a thing for her that probably never went away all those years. But I guess I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have just held off on the matchmaking once you decided to pursue Layla.”

“I didn’t realize I was pursuing Layla until I had already committed,” I tell him.

“Meh, cop-out. You could have paused the service anytime,” he says. I eye him and he shrugs. “What? I checked out the service. You know people pay like, twenty grand for the top-tier service. You need to pause it, you pause it.”

I know he isn’t wrong. Leaning back into the couch, I cover my face with my hands and groan.

“Hey, the Cubs game is on. Can we turn it on?” He searches around him for the remote.

“Is that why you called? You wanted to watch the game?” I chuckle.

“Your TV is bigger than mine. Plus, my asshole boss made me take the weekend off. I’m bored.”

“Right,” I mumble as I pick up the remote on the end table next to me and toss it at him.

We spend the next hour watching the Cubs beat the Reds and I contemplate my game plan to handle the fallout today.

First, tackle brunch with the grandmas. Bang down Layla’s door if necessary to get her to agree to make it official between us. And then finally, having a solid talk with Mina, apologizing to her again for what happened.

* * *

Turns out I tackle brunch with the grandmas on my own. While I’m not surprised Layla doesn’t show up, it chips at my armor just a bit that she doesn’t seem to agree we are in this together.

“It’s a quarter past ten. Shall I assume Layla isn’t going to join us?” my grandma asks. We are seated at a table on the deck. It’s been set for four, yet one spot remains empty.

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