with a woman who had worn ripped jeans and a sweatshirt out on a first date. They would expect…
Pearls, probably. And a nice sweater.
He could not imagine Tina in pearls and a sweater. He could imagine it even less when she waved her hand in front of his face. “Hellooooo?”
“Sorry.” Justin took a sip of his beer—which he’d forgotten was beer—choked, and pounded his fist on his chest a few times. “God, this sucks. I’m sorry you’re out with me.”
She gave him a curious look and took a sip of her beer. She spun the bottle in her hands as she looked at him. “You’re not what I expected,” she told him.
“I know,” he said with feeling. “Trust me, I know.”
“My mother made such a big deal of you on the phone,” she said and rolled her eyes. “‘Senator Williams’s son, Tina.’” She adopted a mocking falsetto. “Honestly? I pictured khakis and a polo with the collar flipped up.”
“Yeah, well.” He found a shred of humor. “So were my parents.”
Tina almost spat out her mouthful of beer. “So, it’s like that, is it? Interesting.”
Justin shrugged and hunched his shoulders. “I guess. Why’d you come out with me if you thought I was gonna be a tool?”
“I hadn’t planned to.” She looked around. “Then you suggested an arcade for our first date and I thought, ‘Huh. I wonder what’s up with this dude?’ So here I am.” She wiggled her fingers. “Of course, I kind of expected that if you intended to disappoint your parents, you’d really go for it.” One eyebrow arched.
He opened his mouth, realized he had nothing to say, and closed it.
“Oh, come on.” Tina shifted in her chair. “I should have—” She leaned back as the waiter set plastic baskets of jalapeno poppers and fries on the table. “Thanks,” she told him. When he was gone, she picked up a jalapeno popper and contemplated it before she took a bite. “I should have known our parents would only set us up if they were having trouble with both of us,” she said around the mouthful of food, “but I don’t get why you’re a problem.”
“Do you see khakis?” he asked, not entirely sure what was going on. He had no idea what she meant by going for it.
“No, but…where’s your mohawk? Where are your tattoos?” She squinted at him. “Did you knock up a gold-digging girlfriend or something?”
Justin snorted.
“So, not that.” Tina tapped her chin and made a show of looking skyward as she thought. “Ohhhh, you got high and crashed their car—nice, shiny Porsche SUV, right?”
“Lexus, actually.” He raised an eyebrow. “But no. I haven’t done either of those two things.”
“You haven’t gotten high? Jesus Christ. Okay, are they disappointed because you’re so boring?”
“Hey!” He had been having fun but he was now genuinely annoyed. “I’m not boring, okay? I do stuff. It’s simply that they don’t care about my stuff. I stream games. I’m damned good at it, too. And—” He saw the look on her face. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m a huge nerd, okay? So, why don’t you leave and think of something to tell our parents. Don’t worry, mine will be all too willing to believe I screwed it up.”
“Dude.” Tina set her beer down and looked at him. “I won’t walk away because you’re a nerd, okay?” She cleared her throat. “Look, I was…uh, making a joke. It didn’t work. My bad.” She held her pinky finger out. “No more bad jokes, pinky swear.”
Justin ignored her finger and took a sip of his beer. He merely wanted to be home. “Look, I’m not a drug-snorting, failing-out-of-school, bankrupt disappointment. I’m simply boring, okay? I never liked playing football and I didn’t bring home girlfriends with the hair and the nails and the purses and whatever. Honestly? My parents would probably be happier if I’d knocked up some chick.” He swirled his beer in the bottle.
His parents wouldn’t be happy, of course. They’d be furious. He’d get a huge lecture on how he was letting his father down and endangering the family’s livelihood. How a senator couldn’t afford to have that kind of thing going on in their family.
But at least they’d understand it. This—the streaming online, the video games—they didn’t get that at all.
“I know how it is,” Tina said after a moment. “I think…well, that my parents wish I was a little more boring. No drugs. No tattoos. No piercings.”
“You don’t have any piercings,” he said distractedly.