“You know, I used to think owning a restaurant was glamorous before I met you.”
Andie laughed. “Ah, but you forget, I don’t own it. My dad does.”
“Yeah, but we both know you’re the one who runs that place.”
She sighed, pulling the last of her attention away from the computer, and he chuckled softly.
“I won’t keep you then. I just wanted to talk to you about something.”
“What’s going on?” she asked, leaning over to the coffee table and grabbing her cup of tea.
“Do you remember my friend Chase? You met him a while back. The night of Justin’s engagement party.”
“Um, yeah, I think so,” Andie said, rolling her eyes. Of course she remembered him. Colin had introduced her to Chase when they ran into him at the bar upstairs a little later in the evening that night. He had shaken her hand and said how nice it was to meet her, as if it were actually their first time meeting, as if they hadn’t been at each other’s throats in the wine cellar only an hour earlier. But there was some consistency with him at least; the overt sarcasm and the offhanded attitude from the wine cellar were still intact.
Andie had never admitted to Colin what she thought of Chase. At the time, their relationship was so new, and she didn’t want to turn him off by bad-mouthing one of his friends. And then, as she and Colin grew closer, Chase became a distant memory. According to Colin, even though Chase kept an apartment in New York, he moved around a lot, having some flighty, fly-by-night job as a freelance photographer. So even though his name came up now and again in conversation, she hadn’t yet had the pleasure of becoming reacquainted with him.
“Well, he’s back in New York again,” Colin said. “He wasn’t gonna be able to make it to Justin’s wedding—some kind of conflict with his job, I guess. But turns out, he can go now.”
“Great,” Andie said casually, her eyes scanning the document in front of her.
“But of course, since it’s this weekend, he would get raked over the coals trying to get a plane ticket to Tampa now. So I was thinking…” He trailed off.
Andie froze. “You were thinking…?” she goaded, although she was pretty sure she already knew exactly what he was going to say.
“That since you’re driving down, he could get a ride with you.”
She didn’t say anything.
After a few seconds of silence, Colin spoke again. “You know I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of you driving—”
“I don’t fly, Colin,” she said, cutting him off.
“Yes, I know that, but I don’t like that you’re driving alone. And if I didn’t have so many groomsman obligations down there this week, you know I’d drive down with you. But now Chase can go with you, so it works out for everyone.”
“I don’t need anyone to drive with me. I don’t want anyone to.”
It was his turn to be silent, and Andie chewed the inside of her lip, realizing she sounded like a petulant child. To Colin, her reaction probably seemed completely irrational and bratty; he had no idea that she didn’t like Chase. In his mind, he was just asking her to do a favor for a friend, a favor he thought would help her out in the process. And while she could explain to him how she felt about Chase, as the words played out in her mind, they seemed so petty and immature now.
What could she say? He was sarcastic with me? He made fun of me for locking myself in the wine cellar? He asked me if I was a real blonde?
There was no good reason for her to say no. She was cornered, and she knew it.
“Sorry,” Andie said sheepishly. “You’re right. It’s probably better for me to have someone with me.” She nearly choked on the lie. “We can drive down together if he wants.”
“Great!” Colin said, the smile back in his voice. “This makes me feel so much better, Andie. You guys will have fun. Plus, he’ll throw in for gas, and now you’ll have some company.”
“Great,” she said with feigned enthusiasm, immediately changing the subject so he wouldn’t hear the displeasure in her voice. “What time is your flight tomorrow morning?”
“Ten.”
“Alright, so we should probably leave here around seven. Are you on your way over?”
“I have to finish up a few things, get everything in order for when I’m gone