“Just sayin’.” He winked at me as the bell rang to switch, and as he began moving to the next table, he leaned down to tell me, “I won’t tell Avery I saw you here. Might hurt his feelings.”
Nick was gone before I could respond, and my next date was sitting down. I really didn’t have the time, or emotional energy yet to focus on anything that might be left unresolved with Avery.
Focus on the fun, Tori, focus on the fun!
I played my way through several more dates, and unsurprisingly, when the event ended, I didn’t receive any of the little ‘want to know you more’ cards that were being handed out. As I looked around for Melanie, I thought of several ways this whole thing could have been better organized, and more efficient, in terms of which people were rotated through a certain potential pool of partners. We should have been pre-screened— to keep out people like me, who weren’t serious— , and placed into smaller groups, based on relationship potential. Moreover, the dates needed to be much longer than three minutes. I did like the idea of only offering contact info to the people who were mutually interested, but everyone was still virtual strangers, so it probably would have been better to incorporate some type of social media platform, where they could get to know each better. The room for improvement was huge.
“Sooo, did you have a good time?” Mel grabbed my hand as she approached, grinning, with a hand full of a contact cards.
“I absolutely did,” I told her with a smile. “And it looks like you did too.”
She shrugged, stuffing the cards in her purse. “There’s honestly only one I’m interested in. The rest are duds. Where are your cards?”
“What cards? Girl, every man in here thinks I’m crazy, I didn’t get any.” I giggled as I spotted Nick making his way in our direction, but his eyes were glued to Mel. My eyes widened in surprise as he pulled her to the side, whispering something in her ear that made her blush. He made Mel blush. I looked away, becoming very interested in a flower arrangement close by so I wouldn’t be creeping on their private moment.
“See you later Tori.” When I turned back, Nick was waving goodbye, and Melanie was standing there with a silly grin on her face.
“I’m guessing that was your ‘one’ you were interested in?” I teased, gently poking her in the side. “You know his name’s not Thor, right?”
Batting my hand away from her ribs, she grabbed it to begin leading me toward the exit. “Of course I know that,” she told me as we stepped outside. “He told me as soon as he sat down. Isn’t he sexy though?”
“I guess. He’s friends with Avery, and a little old for you, don’t you think?”
She shook her head, giving me a little wink. “Just ten years, no big. Nothing I can’t handle, especially for what I have in mind.”
“I should have known,” I laughed as we got to the car. “Your fast ass.”
“Hey, I’m grown!”
We climbed into the car, and before Mel put it into drive, I covered her hand with mine. “Thanks for bringing me out, sis. I needed this.”
“You know you’re welcome! So… what next? What do you wanna do?”
I lifted an eyebrow at her. “You know what I wanna do.”
“Sushi?”
“Duh.”
— Avery —
“Can you hold still? Always moving, damn.”
“Whatever Avery. This is tight, and it hurts.”
“Stop being a baby, Maya. Now, put your hand right here. You feel that? Run your fingers your fingers over it. You feel that ridge? That’s where you need to be. Stay right there, okay? Don’t move.”
“But what if I—”
“Don’t move.”
“But what—”
“Don’t move.”
“Avery!”
Shit.
“You moved.” I carefully guided Maya’s hand out of the engine of the car I was working on, then grabbed a roll of shop towels. I handed her one, then took one for myself, using it to wipe the layer of sweat away from my forehead.
“Are you disappointed in me?” she asked, fanning herself with the clipboard I was using to keep track of the work I’d already done in the hot garage.