Page 15 of Thick Girls Pole

Simon followed me to the door then reached behind me to open it. I was about to step outside when I realized I forgot my sweater.

I ran back to my room and grabbed it off the bed. Granny Vi called me over to her when I returned to the living room. Gesturing for me to lean down, she whispered in my ear.

“He’s looking like a winner.” She looked over toward the door and shifted her eyes down, giving Simon a pants check, then smirked as she met my gaze. “In more ways than one.”

I preceded Simon out the door, thanking every holy entity known to man she hadn’t said that loud enough for him to hear.

Simon

“It wasnice meeting your grandmother after hearing about her for so long.”

“I’m just happy she didn’t say anything inappropriate.” Her eyes widened. “She didn’t, did she? When I was in the kitchen?”

“No, she asked me about computers.”

“What could she possibly want to know about computers?”

“Her laptop is running slow and her casino games keep freezing.”

“So what did you tell her?”

“I said to clear her cache and cookies, which she said she knows how to do. If that doesn’t work, I told her I’ll take a look at it.”

“That was so nice of you.”

“Anything for a friend. Or her grandmother.”

I couldn’t put a name to the look that crossed her face at my words, but the waitress approached with our meals and it was replaced with a smile before I had a chance to really study it.

“This all looks amazing,” Keera said.

We’d ordered individual salads, but for the main course, decided to split a few small plates. We took a sampling and shared our thoughts on each one. My favorite is the porcini cavatappi and Keera’s is the grilled octopus. But to be honest, it’s all delicious.

“I knew you had a sister, but I don’t think you ever told me you guys are twins. Did you?”

I shrugged as I finished chewing a bite of crostini slathered with whipped honey goat cheese.

“Probably not. When we were younger, I’d mention it because we were in the same grade, but now it seems kind of weird to say ‘my twin’ unless it comes up somehow. And since we’re fraternal, I don’t have any funny stories about how we switched places and got away with it or people mistook us for each other.” I chuckled. “We don’t even look like we’re related, much less twins.”

“You really don’t resemble each other at all. How is that possible?”

“I look like my mom and she looks like my dad.”

Keera popped a calamari into her mouth and nodded as she chewed.

“Is she still in town?”

“No, she was just visiting for the weekend.”

“She lives in Manhattan, right?” Since my mouth was full, I just nodded. “Does she come home often?”

I really don’t want to spend dinner talking about Shannon, so I searched my brain for a new topic. I’ve never dated a friend before, so coming up with something isn’t easy. Normally, first date conversation is spent getting to know basic facts about the person. I already know those details about Keera.

When nothing came to mind, I decided to just go with the flow. After all, wearefriends. We shouldn’t act differently just because this is a date. Spending time with Keera has always been easy and I don’t want that to change. So I decided to treat this like the myriad conversations we’ve had through the years.

“She works with a few fashion photographers, so her schedule gets a little crazy at certain times of the year, but she manages to come home often enough.”

“So your sister works with fancy photographers, your mom makes vaccines, and your dad is a reporter for ESPN. That’s some pretty cool shit.”

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