Page 19 of You're so Basic

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not,” he says, his voice hard. “They’re better off without him. I only wish things weren’t so hard for Ruthie. I help out when she’ll let me, but she usually doesn’t let me.”

“Do your parents help out?”

“No,” he adds. “They split up a while back, and they’re just as dysfunctional alone as they were together. They can barely help themselves. I used to have to do their taxes when I was a teenager.”

“My dad’s like that,” I say wistfully. “A big kid who just happens to be in his late fifties. My mom’s the asshole.”

“It happens. I don’t much like either of my parents. I don’t see them anymore. Haven’t for years.”

“What about this woman you might or might not want to impress? What doesshedo?”

“Why do you ask?” He turns his head as he says this, and suddenly our faces are very close together. I can feel his breath warm my skin, and it’s as if every nerve ending lights up. There’s a tension between my legs that makes me want to squirm—or perform a feat that is currently beyond me and climb onto his lap.

This iscrazy. A week ago, I was convinced he had the personality of an encyclopedia—and not even a good one, like the Encyclopedia Britannica.

I swallow and take a beat to gather myself. To try to become immune to the feeling of his arm against mine. “I need to know who we’re trying to impress.”

“She broke up with me because she thought I was boring, and she’s right.Youthink I’m boring too.”

The accusation has bite, because he’s not wrong. Ididthink he was boring. But I don’t anymore.

“No,” I say, honestly. “That was only when you were doing your silent agreeable act. You’re much more interesting than you want anyone else to know.”

He’s quiet for a moment, then says, “I like Pumpkin Spice candles. I bought one a few years back, and the guys still give me shit about it. I have ten brown shirts. No, eleven.”

“So you like some boring things, that doesn’t makeyouboring. Anyway, I doubt she finds you boring. Maybe she was just testing you. Trying to convince you to get your freak on.”

“I don’t want to talk about Daphne right now.”

My body feels fizzy again, carbonated and charged. Because I’d like to knowwhyhe doesn’t want to talk about her. Is it because he’s feeling this crazy urge to touch me too? Or is it because this Daphne woman still has such a hold on him, he doesn’t even know where to begin? I know what I want the answer to be…

I breathe in deep and then let it out slowly. “So what are we going to talk about? Your favorite drink? I enjoy figuring out everyone’s favorite drink. I’d like to think each person has a signature cocktail, one that can be tweaked depending on mood.”

“That’s another thing you should know about me, I prefer beer,” he says in a wry voice. “I’ll bet you get disappointed when people order beer at your bar.”

Yes.

“Nah. You just think you prefer it because no one’s made you your cocktail yet. We’re going to figure it out.”

“We are?” he asks. He sounds amused…and interested, maybe.

“You’ve thrown down the gauntlet now,” I say. “I love it when someone doubts me.”

“I don’t doubt you. Only a fool would doubt you.” There’s no hesitation behind the words, nothing that marks them as a lie or partial truth. He believes it, and again, I find myself drawn in by him, by this man who seemed so forgettable to me only a few days ago.

It’s maybe the first time in my life that I’m grateful to have been wrong about something.

That’s when the phone blinks off, leaving us again in pitch black darkness. We’re both quiet for a second, and then he leans over and takes my hand, weaving his fingers through mine, as if he knows I need that anchor in the darkness. His hand is large and warm and capable—and I find myself trying to remember the last time a man held my hand like this. Because he wanted to comfort me. Because he cared. I can’t remember, and for an instant, my heart pounds for a different reason. I’m confused and scared and turned on, and I don’t know what to do with all of the emotions beating at my chest.

Then I warn him, “Danny, I’m going to shout.”

I do, and nothing happens. Then I start crying for real before his arms wrap around me and pull me close.

ChapterSix

Danny

---