Three Last First Dates

by Kate O'Keeffe

  He looked how I felt.

  There was a rap on my window, and I almost jumped out of the driver’s seat. It was Eddie, peering in at me, concern etched on his face. He opened the door, and I stepped out, up into his embrace. To my embarrassment, fresh tears stung my eyes. I tried to blink them away. I didn’t want Eddie to know how upset I truly was.

  “Oh, babe,” he said, taking me by the shoulders and fixing me with his stare. “You did the right thing.”

  I nodded. “I know. I feel bad for him, though.”

  “He’s a guy. He’ll get over it faster than you know.”

  He would? I looked at Eddie sharply. Is that what happened with him and me? He got over me fast?

  “I hope so.”

  Eddie wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and we walked the short distance to his apartment building. “He’s probably already flicking through his contacts, looking for your replacement.”

  “Yeah, probably.” I knew Eddie was only trying to make me feel better about dumping Nash, but I didn’t like hearing it. Did Nash have a replacement in mind already? I thought of him, at his home with Dexter and Gretel and her cute puppies. I imagined Lucky, licking and nuzzling him, as she’d done to me. I swallowed down an uncomfortable feeling in my throat.

  “How about we order in and watch a movie together?” Eddie suggested as we waited for the elevator.

  “That sounds great.”

  Once on the fifth floor, Eddie slotted his key in his apartment door. Swinging it open, I walked over the threshold and peered around. He had a stunning view of the city and out toward the harbor, and his place looked just like the New York lofts you saw in the movies.

  “Wow, Eddie, this place is great.” I dropped my purse on the table and walked around, taking in the high ceiling, the industrial lighting, the plain white walls, the dark hardwood floors. It looked like he’d taken an image of a New York loft to an interior decorator and said, “Give me this.” There was even an oversized black-and-white picture of the Manhattan skyline hanging over the sofa to complete the look.

  “Thanks, babe. I’m glad you approve. I had a place like this in New York, so when I moved back, I decided to replicate it here.” He pulled me in to him and kissed me on the lips. It felt nice, reassuring, familiar—which, of course, it was. “Drink?” he offered, letting go of me and heading toward the open plan kitchen. “Let me guess, you’re still on a diet so you’d like a vodka, lime, and soda.”

  I smiled, remembering how I had researched the lowest calorie alcohol when I had made the decision to lose weight. Vodka, lime, and soda water was right down there in the calorie stakes, and it was always my drink of choice back then. “Sure, that would be nice.” I took a seat on one of the plush sofas. “When did you move back?”

  “Oh, about two years ago,” he replied, his head in the refrigerator.

  Two years? That was a long time for him to have been back in Auckland and not try to see me. I shrugged it off. He was involved with someone else. The last thing he would have been thinking about was starting something up with me again.

  But then he did say no one ever compared with me.

  “Look, I don’t have any limes, so is vodka and soda water okay?”

  It sounded completely disgusting and tasteless, but I nodded and smiled, wanting the evening to go as perfectly as our day on the beach had. If that meant drinking a frankly weird drink, then bring it on.

  We sat on the sofa—me with my vodka and soda water with no ice (he didn’t have any of that, either), and Eddie with a glass of red wine, his chosen tipple, even back in college. We clinked glasses.

  “Here’s to us.”

  I took a sip. Yup, just as bad as it sounded. I smiled at Eddie and he returned it tenfold.

  “I’m so happy you’re mine.”

  I smiled at the memory. He always used to say, “you’re mine” back when we were together. It was one of his things. It had made me feel wanted, needed, part of an inseparable couple.

  Until we weren’t.

  “Me too,” I said, leaning in for another kiss. “Tell me again how you knew I was The One?” I knew I was being childish, but I didn’t care. Hearing this story from Eddie validated my choice to hold out for him all these years—and to be with him and not Nash.

  He smiled indulgently at me. “When I saw you at that café, laughing with your friends, looking more beautiful than ever, I just knew.”

  I beamed at him. Eddie just knew, the way people said you did when you found The One.

  “Now can we order in and watch that movie?”

  I nodded and snuggled back into him, enjoying our closeness. I had made my choice and it was Eddie. Nice, reassuring, familiar, Eddie.

  * * *

  The following morning, back from my morning run, showered and dressed, ready for work, I was busy in the kitchen preparing my breakfast and a cup of coffee. I was practicing singing “Thinking Out Loud,” ready for my upcoming performance, when Ryan shuffled in.

  “Morning!” I trilled. It was a beautiful, sunny day, things were going well at work, and I had Eddie back. Everything had fallen into place, just the way I had hoped it would when I had decided to go on my those Last First Dates, all those weeks ago.

  “You’re in a good mood.” He pulled out a barstool and slumped down onto it, resting his hands heavily on the counter with a sigh.

  He, clearly, was not.

  “I am.” I grinned at him. “Coffee?”

  “Yeah, thanks. I could do with mainlining it today.”

  “Rough night?” I inquired as I poured him a cup.

  “Nothing out of the ordinary, I guess. I can’t seem to summon the energy to get up in the morning, even though I sleep like the dead.”

  “That, my dear brother, is called depression. You need to kick that in the butt, starting by coming out on my morning run with me. Six a.m. tomorrow.”

  He groaned his response. “We’re not all in love with Nash, you know.”

  A sudden coldness hit me in the core at the mention of Nash’s name. “No, I . . .” I knew I had to start telling people about me and Eddie, and Ryan was as good a place to start as any. “I’ve, ah, been seeing Eddie, actually.” I passed Ryan a mug of coffee, leaned back against the counter, and waited tentatively for his response.

  “Who’s Eddie?” Ryan asked, looking confused, picking up his mug.

  “You know. Eddie Sutcliffe?”

  “Your ex-boyfriend, Eddie?”

  I nodded, unable to suppress the grin spreading across my face.

  Ryan scrunched up his face. “The Eddie who tore your heart out and trampled on it? That Eddie?”

  I shifted my weight from foot to foot. To be fair, he had done that. And it had taken me a long time to recover. But that was in the past. The important thing was he was back, and he wanted to be with me.

  I let out a sigh. I knew I would have to explain the sudden redirection of my affections from Nash to Eddie, and I had a speech prepared and ready to go. “Eddie was young back then, Ryan, and he didn’t know what he wanted. Now, he knows he wants me. When he came back into my life, I realized I still loved him and it wouldn’t be fair to remain with Nash, knowing how I felt.”

  Ryan scratched his head, mussing up his already ruffled sandy blond hair. “When the heck did that happen? You were out with Nash and the rest of us only a few nights ago.”

  I shrugged. “Saturday.”

  He shook his head. “You work fast.”

  “Well, when you know, you know.”

  Ryan took a sip of his coffee. “Yeah, I thought I knew with Amelia,” he replied glumly.

  I refused to let my miserable brother get me down, today of all days. And anyway, hadn’t he been flirting with half the women at the Cozy Cottage Café on Friday night?

  “Okay. I get it. You’re still hung up on Amelia. I’ve been there, believe me.”

  “Eddie?” he asked.

  “Oh, yes, Eddie. He said he had been subconsciously comparing every woman
he dated with me, and that’s exactly what I had been doing, too.”

  “What are you saying? I should hang out for Amelia to change her mind and come back to me?”

  I nodded. “Maybe.”

  “How long did it take with Eddie? Ten years? That’s too long for me to wait. I’m already in my thirties.” His shoulders slumped once more.

  “It was only seven years, but that’s not the point.”

  “Only seven years?” he replied, his eyes wide. “You’re a special kind of crazy, you know that, sis?”

  “Look, my point is, you’ve got to follow your heart. I did and look where I am now. I’ve got Eddie back.” I smiled, thinking about our weekend together, how he had told me he could never imagine loving another woman as he loved me. “Ryan, if your heart tells you Amelia’s The One, you can’t give up hope.”

  He picked his coffee mug up and took a sip. I did the same, waiting for his response.

  “I guess,” was all he offered. With another heavy sigh, he pushed himself up from the stool and shuffled toward the hall. He turned and smiled at me. “I’m glad you got what you wanted.”

  I returned his smile, my heart contracting at the thought of wonderful Eddie. “Me too.”

  * * *

  Later that morning, I sat at our regular table in the window of the Cozy Cottage, mentally preparing myself to tell my friends about Eddie. Even though they had universally given Nash the thumbs-up, I hoped they wouldn’t particularly care who I was with, as long as I had chosen someone as my Last First Date. Eddie was as good as any of them—better, even. He’d had my heart for all these years, after all. Who better than my first love to be my last? And he was a “good catch,” as they used to say: a high-flying corporate lawyer in a top firm, on the partner track, with a great apartment, and still as cute as he always was.

  Sophie, dressed in her Cozy Cottage Café apron over a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, delivered my cup of coffee and slice of orange and almond syrup cake with her habitual smile. “Are you on your own today?”

  “No, I’m meeting Cassie, and I had hoped Bailey and Paige could join me, but”—I looked over at the empty counter—“I haven’t seen them.”

  “Oh, they’re out back, plotting and planning something. You know how they are.”

  “I do.” I smiled, thinking how enthusiastic those two were about the Cozy Cottage. They had found their meaning, their “why,” their passion in life.

  Like Nash.

  A sucker punch hit me in the belly. No. I can’t think of him.

  I cleared my throat. “Okay. Do you think you could ask them both to come out for a moment when Cassie gets here? I need to tell them something.”

  “I’m here,” Cassie said, dropping her purse on the table and pulling out a chair. “And that sounds juicy.”

  I smiled at her in what I hoped was an enigmatic way.

  “Sure, I’ll go ask them. Do you want a coffee, Cassie?” Sophie asked.

  “Oh, yes. And a slice of my usual, too.”

  “Got it.”

  With Sophie gone, Cassie asked. “So? What’s happened? I bet it’s something to do with Nash.”

  I pressed my lips together, my stomach churning. “Let’s wait until the others are here, okay?”

  “I guess. But you could give me a hint, right?”

  I shook my head. I wanted to do this once and once only. Not counting Ryan, of course. Or Nash. Okay, so I wanted only to have to do this one more time.

  Not a moment too soon, Paige and Bailey arrived at the table. Neither of them were wearing their Cozy Cottage aprons, and they looked odd to me in their regular clothes. They pulled up chairs and sat down.

  “What’s the big news?” Bailey asked.

  “Can we guess? Because I’ve got a pretty good idea,” Paige said.

  “What do think it is?” Cassie asked. “My theory is Nash has—”

  “Stop!” I yelled, my hands appropriately held up in the “stop sign” position as my stomach churned, like it was making ice cream. The last thing I wanted was for my friends to start hypothesizing about what Nash had or had not done. We needed to all move on from him and focus on my future with the man of my dreams.

  All eyes trained on me, I took a deep breath, preparing to deliver the speech I had given Ryan only a few short hours before. I clenched my fists, trying to release some of my tension. It didn’t work.

  Why was this proving to be so difficult for me?

  “Okay. So, you know how I took the pact with you guys to find The One?”

  They all nodded, watching me closely.

  “Well, I’ve found him.” My face creased into a smile.

  “We know!” Cassie replied at the same time as Paige exclaimed, “We’re so happy for you!” and Bailey said, “Nash is so great.”

  I clenched my hands once more. “It’s not . . . him.”

  My three friends’ faces dropped.

  “Wait . . . what?” Paige said, her face scrunched up in obvious confusion.

  I swallowed. “It’s Eddie. I bumped into him on Friday. Here, actually.”

  “But you were on a date with Nash on Friday night,” Bailey said, shaking her head, confusion written on her face.

  “Oh!” Paige exclaimed, and all eyes swiveled in her direction. “That was the guy you were talking to, the one with your jacket.”

  I nodded, an image of a nervous Eddie, holding my jacket in his hands, popped into my mind. “That’s him.”

  “Hold on, let’s back up the bus here for a second, shall we?” Cassie said. “You’re saying you met a guy while you were on a date with Nash, and now you’ve decided he’s The One?”

  “It’s not like that. Eddie’s my ex.”

  Paige’s brows shot up into her hair. “Your ex?”

  I nodded. “Yes, we broke up seven years ago. Eddie was young and didn’t know what he wanted. Now, he knows he wants me. When he came back into my life, I realized I still loved him and it wouldn’t be fair to remain with Nash, knowing how I felt.”

  My speech delivered, almost word for word with the one I had given Ryan, I sat back in my seat, letting out a heavy sigh.

  And then the questions rolled in.

  “But what about Nash?”

  “How did it happen?”

  “Are you in love with him?”

  “How do you know he’s the right one for you?”

  “Have you told Nash?”

  I glanced out the window as a man in a dark navy suit walked past, making my belly flip-flop. He smiled and waved at me as he walked toward the café door.

  He was right on time.

  “I can answer all of your questions, but I have someone I want you all to meet first.”

  Cassie’s forehead crinkled. “You do?”

  I stood up, my chair scraping across the hardwood floor. I watched, my heart expanding, as Eddie took a few short steps across the café and was by my side, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me in for a quick kiss. I mouthed “hello” to him and turned to face my friends, a wide grin on my face. All three of them were regarding us with slackened jaws, clearly trying to comprehend the recent change in events.

  “Everyone, this is Eddie. Eddie, these are my best friends.”

  I introduced everyone, my friends being their usual polite selves, despite darting one another confused looks.

  We had an unwritten rule in our group: you didn’t bring a guy to the Cozy Cottage unless you were serious about him. It had always been our place, a girls’ space, where we could chat and solve the world’s problems over a slice or two of cake. Having Eddie meet us here sent a clear message: he’s The One for me.

  “Shall I pull up a seat?” Eddie asked.

  “Oh, here. Have mine,” Paige replied, standing up. “I need to go help Sophie anyway. It was, err, nice to meet you, Eddie.” With a quick glance at Cassie and Bailey, Paige retreated to the counter.

  Eddie sat down next to me, placing his hand in mine. It was warm and reassuring, just wh
at I needed right now. I shot him a grateful look.

  “So, ah, Eddie, is it?” Cassie asked.

  He smiled and nodded. “That’s right, Eddie Sutcliffe.”

  “Tell us a little about yourself.”

  “Marissa said you might do this. Okay, my full name is Edward Simon Sutcliffe, I work as a corporate lawyer at Preston, Meyers, and Brown, and I’m recently returned to Auckland after a few years in The Big Apple—that’s New York, in case you didn’t know.”

  “I think we both got that, right, Bailey?” Cassie said, shooting Bailey a look.

  She nodded. “We did.”

  “And, I imagine you want to know how this all happened with Marissa.”

  My friends nodded.

  He turned to look at me. “I guess I was asleep, and when I saw her, I woke up.” His face broke into a smile.

  I smiled back at him, wondering what my friends thought. Was it just me or was that a little cheesy?

  “So, now that you’re ‘awake,’ as you put it,” Cassie said, her fingers doing air quotes as she bit back a smile, “are you serious about Marissa?”

  “I get it. You’re worried I’m going to swoop in and break her heart again.”

  “I don’t think we knew you’d broken Marissa’s heart in the first place,” Bailey commented, her brows shooting up into her hairline. “Did we?” She looked from Cassie to me.

  Beneath the table, I crossed and uncrossed my legs. I had never told my friends about Eddie and what he’d done. It had happened so long ago, I figured it wasn’t relevant. I mean, who likes to talk about their heart being broken? Well, other than Ryan, who didn’t seem to be able to talk about much else these days.

  “We . . . we dated a long time ago,” I said.

  Eddie squeezed my hand, and I shot him another grateful look. “And I made the biggest mistake of my life, letting this one go.”

  “Well, you didn’t ‘let me go,’ exactly,” I replied, regretting it instantly.

  “No, I didn’t. I was a fool.” He looked from me to my friends. “But I’m here to stay now. I’m hers, and she’s mine.” He turned back to me. “If you’ll have me.”

  My heart beat hard in my chest. “Of course.”

  An awkward silence followed, in which Eddie and I smiled at my friends, awaiting their verdict. Finally, Bailey said, “Well, I think it’s wonderful you’ve found one another again.”