“The latest guy Kristy’s been trying to set me up with.” Maya sighed. “I wish she’d give up. No half-decent guy will go on more than three dates with me, so what’s the point?”
“I am not giving up,” Kristy said. “You’re a great person, and the perfect guy will come along soon. I’m sure of it.”
“The so-called perfect guy is probably an ax murder.”
“You need to work on your positive thinking.” Kristy picked up her purse. “I’ll talk to Grant, then call the restaurant and change our reservation.” She headed to the balcony.
Maya hadn’t been this pessimistic ten years ago—Sidney remembered that much. But ten years was a long time. And as he knew all too well, it only took one person to totally alter your perspective on relationships. In his case Allison.
And somehow, he’d agreed to spend the weekend with her.
“You’re really calling Sidney my date?” Allison said to Maya.
Maya rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Better to say ‘date’ than ‘the guy you’re being paid to spend the weekend with.’ I’m too lazy to say that every time.”
“I don’t blame you,” Sidney said. Though “date” did make him wince a little. Well, there was one thing he and Allison could agree on. “So how will you and Kristy know if we’re actually together all weekend?”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that,” Maya said. “Considering I don’t really want to put a video camera—”
“If there’s a video camera involved, I’m backing out of this.” He did not need anyone seeing the things he hoped to do to Allison.
“Guess I’ll just have to take your word for it.”
“Don’t trust Allison,” Sidney said. “She tends to lie.”
Allison glared at him. “It’s not like you always tell the truth.”
“Tell me when I lied. I’m really interested in hearing this.”
“I’m interested in hearing when Allison lied.” Maya rested her elbow on the counter and raised her wineglass to her lips. “Do tell.”
Allison’s cheeks turned slightly pink. “No. And Sidney, you better shut the hell up. As best you can, which probably isn’t very well.”
He decided to stay silent until they headed to the restaurant, just to surprise her.
Kristy came back and sat beside Maya. “Grant’s coming, and I called the restaurant. Everything’s settled.” She smiled. “So what are you doing these days, Sidney?”
He kept his mouth closed, though it seemed a little rude.
“Allison told him to shut up,” Maya explained.
“Huh?” Kristy looked confused. “It’s going to be awkward if he doesn’t talk at all.”
“Maybe. But this is already quite amusing, don’t you think?”
“Well, I can tell you what he does,” Allison said. “He lives in his parents’ basement and plays poker, and he’s in debt because he’s not very good.”
Okay. This really wasn’t going to work. “I’m an electrician.”
“Yeah? That’s cool,” Kristy said. “Grant’s an engineer. You can talk about…technical stuff I don’t understand.”
“Because you can’t even change a lightbulb,” Maya said.
Kristy covered her face with her hands. “Could we please stop talking about that?”
“Actually, Allison’s false description of my life reminded me of something,” Sidney said. “I’m having dinner with my parents tomorrow. So, lucky you.” He placed his hand on Allison’s shoulder. “You get to meet my parents.”
“You didn’t meet them before?” Kristy asked.
“No,” Allison said. “And why don’t you just cancel? You can see them next weekend instead.”
“We planned this weeks ago. I don’t see my parents very often—it’s hard for them to fit me into their busy schedules.” And he wanted them to meet Allison. He’d never brought a woman home, and his parents thought it was just another one of the ways he’d failed at life. To them, he’d not only sucked at school, but he didn’t have a prestigious career, couldn’t get a woman…
He was looking forward to proving them wrong. True, he and Allison weren’t actually together, but that was a minor detail.
“You can pretend to be my girlfriend,” he said. “Since I can’t exactly introduce you as ‘the woman I’m being paid to spend the weekend with,’ can I?”
Allison looked at Kristy. “There’s no way I have to do this, right?”
“Why not?” Kristy said. “It’s part of the forty-eight hours. If you don’t want to pretend to be his girlfriend, you two can argue about it.”
“Or you can admit defeat right now and buy Kristy dinner tonight,” Maya said.
“No.” Allison slapped her hands on the counter. She was cute when she got riled up. Which, come to think of it, was pretty much all the time when Sidney was with her. “I’m going to meet his parents if I have to, and we’re going to win.”
“So you agree to be my fake girlfriend?” he said.
She glowered at him. “We’ll talk about that later.”
Chapter 4
On the walk to the Mexican restaurant, Kristy and Maya hurried ahead, leaving Sidney behind with Allison. She’d tied up her hair and put on tight jeans and a black shirt made out of some kind of light, flowing material. It had a large hole in the back, which he’d found mesmerizing until she’d covered it up with a jacket when they got outside.
“So why do you want me to pretend to be your girlfriend?” She kept her eyes straight ahead and didn’t look at him.
“It’s weird to introduce your parents to a woman who’s just a date,” he said. “If your parents are meeting someone, it’s usually someone you’ve been seeing for quite a while.”
“I don’t think that’s the only reason.”
He was about to deny it but then decided he should tell her the truth, given he was going to subject her to a family dinner. “My parents have never met anyone I’ve dated, and I’m thirty-two now. They think there must be something wrong with me.”
She snickered. “There’s plenty wrong with you.”
“I know you think that.”
“You mentioned earlier that I was the last woman you dated for more than a month or two. So I guess it’s no surprise your parents have never met anyone you’ve dated. Relationships really don’t work for you?”
“They do not.”
“Why?”
“They just…don’t. I like my freedom.”
Allison turned in his direction now, but she didn’t meet his eyes. “I remember you being more serious about me than I was about you, and you were the one who wanted to talk about our future. Not me. So I’m a little surprised.”
Sidney tensed. He would not tell her that she had caused this change.
“Now I have this rule,” he said. “I never sleep with a woman more than five times.”
“So we can’t have sex more than five times this weekend?” A smile played on her lips, and that made him smile too, even though he wished it didn’t.
“I’ll make an exception for this weekend.”
“Good. Because I think the only way we can spend forty-eight hours together is if we spend most of it having sex.”
“I agree.”
“Wow,” she said. “We agree on something. It’s a miracle. Call the press.”
He put his hands in his pockets and looked away from her tempting smile.
Once they’d spent a few minutes walking in silence, he said, “So you’ll pretend to be my girlfriend?”
She let out an exaggerated sigh. “I suppose.”
That was easier than he’d expected.
“Your parents are a little nuts, aren’t they?” she said. “From what I remember, they had ridiculously high expectations that made me wonder if you’d been adopted by Asians.”
He laughed awkwardly. “White people can have parents like that too.”
“I know. But it seems more common among Asian parents, or maybe that’s just because I grew up in M
arkham and a lot of the kids I went to school with were Asian. Your mom’s a doctor and your dad’s a lawyer, right?”
“A very successful lawyer, yes.”
Why had he said that? It just made him feel inferior. And he would get enough of that tomorrow night. There were good reasons he rarely saw his parents: they hated being reminded of their disappointment of a son, and he hated spending time with people who excelled at talking down to him.
“What’s your sister up to?” Allison asked.
“MD-PhD.” Yeah, he was the stupid one in the family. Nothing new.
“My God, that sounds like torture.”
“And you have a PhD,” he said. “Imagine how it sounds to me.”
“Yeah, I can imagine.”
“I’m not sure you can really imagine how horrible it sounds.”
“I have a good imagination.”
“Yeah?” His lips curved. “Then why don’t you use it to tell me—”
“Shut up.” But it was a good-natured “shut up.” She looked over at him and said, “I like the idea of you proving your parents wrong. That’s why I’m willing to do it.” She paused. “Your sister ever bring anyone home?”
“A couple guys. She’s engaged now.”
Allison nodded. “She’s quite a bit younger than you, isn’t she? I think she was in high school when we were dating.”
“That’s right.”
“I hope you don’t think I’m trying to make you feel bad.”
“Yeah, sure you’re not.”
“Well, maybe a little.” She winked at him. “But it doesn’t sound like you want to be engaged anyway. And it’s better to be single than engaged to, I don’t know, a corrupt, drug-dealing cop.”
“Maya?”
“Yeah.” She seemed surprised he’d figured that out. “See? It could always be worse. You could be telling your parents that your fiancée’s on the run from the law. Trying to reassure them that you had nothing to do with that horrific human trafficking ring that’s been the top news story for a week.”
“That happen too?”
“Nah, I made that up.”
What the hell was happening here? They were actually having a real conversation, rather than just pissing each other off, and it was distracting him from his silly feelings of inadequacy. If this kept up he might—
No. He was over Allison. There was no danger of her stomping on his heart all over again. He was sure of that.
But when he looked over and saw the laughter in her eyes, the black hair framing her beautiful face, the smile on her red lips…he worried he couldn’t be entirely sure.
* * * *
The nondescript Mexican restaurant was full of hip young people. Apparently this was the place to be. From the outside, Sidney wouldn’t have thought a reservation would be necessary, but once they went inside, he could see it definitely was.
Toronto wasn’t known for having quality Mexican food. He wondered if this place was the exception and that was the reason for its popularity, or if it had become a cool hangout for reasons that had nothing to do with its food.
They were shown to their table by a young, dark-haired waitress. Sidney might have been tempted to flirt with her in different circumstances, but he wouldn’t with Allison here. Not just because it wouldn’t be appropriate when he had a “date,” but because Allison really was the better looking of the two.
He took a seat at one end of the table, against the wall, and assumed Allison would sit next to him. Or across from him. But instead, she sat as far away from him as she possibly could.
Well, he probably shouldn’t be surprised.
He placed his hand on the back of the chair beside him. “Come here, Allison.”
“You’re kidding.”
He shook his head and smiled at her.
“Go sit beside him,” Kristy said. “I’ll sit across from you, and Grant can sit across from Sidney. Spending the weekend together doesn’t mean staying as far away as you can from each other while still technically being in the same room.”
“It’s only a six-person table,” Allison protested. “We’re not that far apart.”
“Then it shouldn’t be a big deal to be a little closer,” Maya said.
Allison stood up and pointed at Sidney. “And why do you want to sit beside me anyway? You know our best chance of succeeding is if we don’t talk to each other.”
True. But for some reason, he wanted her next him. After all…“We were doing just fine five minutes ago.”
“As I said, it was a miracle.”
“No, when you said ‘miracle,’ you were referring to us agreeing on—”
“Okay,” Allison said. “I’ll sit beside you since everyone insists.” She moved to the chair next to him.
“Excellent.” Kristy sat across from her and opened the menu. “Ooh, let’s order a pitcher of margaritas.”
“We might need two,” Allison grumbled. “Maybe three.”
“I won’t look after you if you drink an entire pitcher of margaritas,” Sidney said.
“When have you ever had to look after me because I drank too much? Whereas I remember looking after you on several occasions. For example, after that kegger you and your housemates—”
“It was ten years ago!”
And it had been an epic party. Sidney remembered the first hour or two vividly. After that, things got more than a little hazy. Though he remembered just how shitty he felt the next morning, Allison pulling him off the floor and bringing him toast. He swore he’d never drink again, and he’d actually kept to that for a full three weeks.
“Whatever,” Allison said. “I did look after you. And I’ve never been as sick as you were that morning.”
“Are you sure about that? Because I can recall a New Year’s party—”
“I wasn’t even drunk that night!”
“Very funny. You were wasted.” She’d practically collapsed while crossing the street, and she’d put on her jacket inside out. And he’d taken care of her that night, whether she remembered or not.
“I wasn’t,” she insisted. “But as you said, it was ten years ago.”
“You two are ridiculous.” Maya shook her head. “I think your best chance of succeeding is if you stop arguing over stupid shit like this. Try to forget what happened when you dated back in university. Pretend you just met.”
“Impossible,” Allison said.
“Why?” He was feeling contrary. In truth, he sort of agreed—it would be difficult. Maybe not impossible, but difficult.
She hesitated. “I look at you and all I can see is a man whose life is a mess.”
Tension filled his body. Allison was just like his parents. And yet not that long ago, when they were talking outside…
“I thought you said I look completely different.” He gripped his glass of water so hard he was nearly afraid it would break.
“You do.” She shrugged.
“And you like the idea of proving my parents wrong, but you actually agree with them?”
“Not what I said.”
“Essentially what you said.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t think you’d take my suggestion,” Maya said. “But please continue. This is most entertaining.” She put her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hand.
“Hi.”
Sidney turned at the soft-spoken male voice. There was a man sitting across from him now, a large man with brown hair and a mustache.
“You must be Grant.” Sidney held out his hand, and Grant shook it firmly. “I’m Sidney. Nice to meet you.” He was glad Grant had come in at that moment and interrupted his argument with Allison. Though given their rate of arguments was something like a dozen an hour, it probably didn’t matter.
“So you and Allison are dating?” Grant asked.
“Not exactly,” Sidney said.
“Not at all,” Allison corrected. “Though we dated back in university.”
Grant tu
rned toward Kristy and wrapped his arm around her waist. She smiled and said, “I’ll give them five hundred dollars if they spend the whole weekend together.”
“It will probably come as no surprise,” Grant said, “that I’m even more confused now.”
Kristy gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’ll tell you later.”
“Tell him what later?” Allison said.
Yes, what was Kristy up to? But Sidney didn’t expect to get an answer out of her, so he said nothing. Instead, he curled his arm around Allison’s waist, prepared for her to launch an attack. She stiffened under his touch, but she didn’t push him away.
“Let’s order those drinks.” He flagged down the waitress who didn’t quite measure up to the woman sitting next to him. Unfortunate, because she was probably way less trouble.
* * * *
By the time the guacamole arrived, Allison had drunk a good amount. She wasn’t wasted—or anywhere close to it—but she could certainly feel it. A pleasant buzz, enhanced by the feel of Sidney’s arm wrapped around her. She hated to admit it, but his touch did feel nice. Warm. Almost comforting.
It probably helped that they weren’t talking at all. Sidney was talking to Grant, and she was talking to Kristy and Maya.
“Now,” Maya said, “back to the question of how we’ll know if you’re telling the truth about spending the weekend together. I guess Kristy or I will need to see you and Sidney again in the next two days. That’s the best we can do. And count on you not to lie about the rest of the weekend.”
“Let’s have brunch on Sunday,” Kristy said. “You can give us an update on Saturday and meeting his parents, and we can make sure you’re actually spending Sunday together.”
“Great.” Allison picked up a chip and dipped it in the guacamole. She’d probably gain ten pounds today. Her jeans felt a little tight—or did this pair always feel a little tight? She turned to Sidney. “You’re making pancakes for all of us on Sunday.”
He jerked his head. “I’m making pancakes?”
“We can go out instead,” Kristy said.
“No.” Allison shook her head. “You two come over, and he’ll make pancakes and bacon. He makes good pancakes.”
“So she actually says something nice about me,” he muttered.
Not a Second Chance Page 4
