Sparks - Wendy Higgins Page 0,28

excitedly.

“You have a date?” Holly asked.

I nodded. Oh, God, I was shaking now.

“I would go,” said Cheryl. “But I have to get up at 3:30.”

“Same,” said Holly, sounding genuinely sad. “My alarm is set for 4.” Both Beth and I were off tomorrow, and all the other roomies were out of town tonight. It looked like it was just the two of us.

“Harlow!” Beth yelled from the hall. “Come on!” I cringed at the other girls.

“Be safe,” Holly said. “And I want to hear every single detail tomorrow!”

I let out a weird squealy sound and hurried back out to the closet to get dressed. This was no big deal, I told myself. Just meeting a guy. A drink and a chat. Nothing crazy. It was a Sunday night, after all, so we wouldn’t stay out late. I could do this!

Date number one, here I come.

I let Beth talk me into taking a taxi instead of me driving.

“No way,” she said as she pulled up the app and scheduled our ride. “If you drive, you’ll only have one drink, and you’ll be super awkward all night.”

“No, I won’t!” That was a lie, and we both knew it.

“Trust me,” she said. “You’ll be way more relaxed if you don’t have to drive.”

I was a huge, bouncy ball of nerves as we left the apartment and headed down the stairs.

“I’m serious, though, Beth. I don’t want to stay long.”

“Unless you’re having so much fun you beg to stay longer,” she grinned. “Or sexy Rick wants to take you home.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not going home with him.”

“You never know,” she sang, smiling like a devilish beauty.

For every ounce of Beth’s recklessness, I had a contrasting ounce of cautiousness. But I wasn’t going to argue. Minutes later we were climbing into the back of a small car that smelled of cigars. Immediately, a sickening wave of warning washed over me so strongly I almost asked the cab to turn around. I breathed through it, applying lipstick with a trembling hand. I was being ridiculous. There was no reason for my intuition to be spiking so strongly. I was in control of myself.

When we pulled up at Frank’s Pub my gut was twisted like an over-proofed pretzel. We stepped past the piles of snow and I stopped, trying to breathe through another wave of worry. Beth giggled at my face.

“You are freaking out so hard.”

I shook my hands, wishing I’d applied more deodorant, and glad it was so cold out. “Listen, thanks for getting the cab. Next time we go out it’s on me. Or I’ll be DD.”

“Enough talking.” She linked her arm through mine. “Now or never.”

‘Never’ sounded good.

Was it normal to be this nervous to meet a guy? I felt like I was going to vomit as we pushed open the pub doors and were hit with warm air. Four scary looking dudes sat at the bar, turning to face us at once. A quick glance around made me realize these were the only freaking people in the whole bar, which meant…

I looked them over and my stomach sank. There at the end were those hazel eyes, drooping with probable weed consumption, but that wasn’t what bothered me. He’d gotten a few more tattoos since the pictures he’d posted. He now had tats up his neck and two tiny symbols on the side of his face.

Look. I loved me some tattoos. Full sleeves, even. But when they crept up onto the neck and face, a certain stereotype kicked in, screaming felon! And/or gang member! I silently berated myself for the unfair assumption. These could be new-age business professionals or award-winning chefs for all I knew. Beth squeezed my arm and let go. When she moved forward I forced myself to follow.

“Hey, fellas,” she said in a voice that managed to be both sweet and sultry. She stuck her hand out to the first guy, who nodded and looked her over from head to toe before taking her hand and introducing himself. I shook his hand next and we went down the line. When we got to Rick, he shook my hand and gave me the sexy, slow smile from his profile picture. It relaxed me a little.

“Nice to meet you,” I told him.

“Likewise. What are you ladies drinking?”

I glanced to Beth, who gave me an I told you so smile.

“Lemon drops?” I asked. “Or just vodka cranberry.”

“Same,” Beth said.

She left us to saunter down and chat with the other three, two