“I don’t have serious problems.” Jo’s bottom lip quivered. “I’ll call next time. I promise. But…”
He wondered how many times she’d promised to call then hadn’t. Probably a lot.
But based on Allison’s look of surprise, maybe he was wrong about that.
“You know what?” Maya said. “I’ll make this easy today. Jo, I’ll look after Dexter for two hours. Two hours only. Tell me where you’ll be, and I’ll meet you there. That way Allison can have her date in peace.”
“Really? Oh, thank you!” Jo moved to hug Maya again, then seemed to think better of it. “But if you knew she had a date, why are you here?”
“It was supposed to be a double date, but Les canceled, so I came to tell—Anyway, doesn’t matter. I have no plans. I can look after a baby.”
Jo pulled a thick wad of paper out of her purse.
“Does he come with a manual?” Maya shook her finger. “No. I don’t need a fucking manual to look after a baby.”
“No swearing. Number fifty-three.”
“He’s asleep.”
“He could wake up at any moment.”
“Whatever. I have five brothers and sisters, all younger. I know how to look after babies. Do you want me to babysit or not?”
Two minutes later, Jo was out the door, and Dexter was still in the apartment.
“Knew she wouldn’t turn that down,” Maya said. “You’re such a pushover when it comes to your family, Allison.”
“She’s definitely not a pushover when it comes to me.” Sidney hauled himself off the couch.
“Yeah, exactly. You let Jo take advantage of you, and you would never do that with Sidney.”
“It’s hard because she’s my sister,” Allison said. “My only sister.”
Maya opened the picnic basket and started pulling stuff out. “Maybe we all have that one person we can’t say no to. I can’t believe I let Justin walk all over me like that.”
“But you didn’t know he was dealing drugs, right?” Sidney said.
“You told Sidney the story, but left out the part where Justin was cheating on me? That’s what I mean when I said I let him walk all over me. I considered forgiving him. And now I’m scarred for life.” Maya looked down at a container of dip. “See? I was supposed to go on a lunch date with Les. Look at all this stuff. But I couldn’t go through with one lousy date because I’m so traumatized.”
Allison frowned. “A picnic in the park for a first date?”
“It was Kristy’s idea, not mine. And since I’m not using this stuff, I figured I’d bring it to you two and confirm that you’re actually together. You made quite a face when you called him your date, Allison.”
“Yeah,” Sidney agreed. “I was trying very hard not to laugh.”
Allison shot him a dark look then turned to Maya. “You don’t have to do this. I can take care of my nephew for two hours.”
“No. If you’re looking after him, you’ll be distracted from biting Sidney’s head off. I think Dexter would help you win the bet, even though you wouldn’t be able to have sex. But a romantic picnic—that would cause you more problems.”
“If that’s what you want us to do, why are you taking everything out of the picnic basket?”
Maya looked down at the food strewn across the counter. “Just for something to do. But I guess you could be lazy and have a picnic indoors. Yes, do that instead.”
It sounded just like his fourth date with Allison. Sidney had bought a bunch of food from the fancy grocery store in Yorkville. The plan was to take her up to his parents’ house when they were gone for the weekend and eat outside. The backyard was a decent size, with a nice big tree, and they could spread out a blanket—it had seemed cute to his twenty-two-year-old self.
But the day came, and it poured buckets. So the picnic wasn’t happening. He still took her to his parents’ house—it was much nicer than the place he rented with three other guys near campus—and spread out the blanket on the floor in the reading room. That was what his parents called the large room on the second floor at the back of the house. The entire west-facing wall was glass, which gave them a nice view of the backyard where they were supposed to be.
He remembered that day well—and not just the part where they had sex for the first time.
The whole indoor picnic thing that Maya was suggesting…he didn’t believe it was a coincidence. Didn’t believe she’d backed out of a date that just happened to be a picnic, then brought the food over to Allison’s. It was a little too convenient.
Well, Maya’s odd form of sabotage—it seemed like she wanted to remind them of romance and broken hearts rather than let them think about sex all the time—was working on him. Because after he recalled his fourth date with Allison, after he recalled the best moments of their relationship, he couldn’t help but compare them to the worst parts. He couldn’t help but remember the end. And even though it was a long time ago now, he found his hand tightening on the arm of the couch as he thought about what he’d had, and what he’d lost.
Sidney turned to Allison. “You remember that date? The time we had an indoor picnic?” He hoped Maya would admit that there had been no canceled picnic with Les. That her plan all along had been to bring the picnic basket to Allison’s.
But she didn’t admit to anything.
“I better be going,” Maya said cheerfully, walking over to the stroller. “Dexter and I are going to have a grand time walking around the city and—I don’t know. I’ll figure it out. You two have fun trying not to stab each other!”
When she was gone, Allison stared at the food, shaking her head. “That was all a lie. Her date is tonight. And Maya would never agree to a picnic. We’ll eat the food, but we are not setting out a blue-and-white checkered picnic blanket on the floor of my living room.”
“You even remember the pattern on the picnic blanket?”
“I know. It’s stupid.”
Even more stupid: he liked that she remembered. That her memory had decided the day mattered enough to hold on to that detail.
“You sure you don’t want to eat on the floor?” he asked, suddenly feeling the need to be contrary. “Come on. You eat at a table all the time. But how often do you eat on the floor?” He lowered himself to the ground and crossed his legs. Shit, this wasn’t all that comfortable. He never sat like this anymore.
“Do you want to make it to Sunday evening or not?” she snapped. “Don’t play along with their games.”
He stood up and walked over to Allison. Her hands gripped the edge of the breakfast bar.
“See?” he said. “There are other things that are just as painful as being forced to spend forty-eight hours with me. Like watching your friend tear into your sister for how she treats you. That was pretty awkward. Though it was rather amusing from my point of view.”
He’d added that last part because it seemed expected of him. But he’d been more uncomfortable with Jo’s behavior than he let on; he wished he could have done something.
“I’m sure it was,” she said.
“Did I behave how you wanted me to?”
“When do you ever do what I want?”
“Very true. That would be boring.”
She cracked a smile and picked up a container of pasta salad. “I guess you behaved the way I thought you should. I just…Well, it was sort of weird that you never introduced yourself. But maybe it was better this way.”
“If she asked, I was going to say my name was Flynn.”
“Why Flynn?”
He shrugged. “I scanned your bookshelf for ideas. That’s the name that caught my eye.”
“I was going to introduce you as Jennifer.”
“You’re hilarious.”
“It’s this joke Jo and I have that—Never mind. You ready for lunch? It’s a bit early, but I’m not in the mood to pick up where we left off.”
“No? That’s too bad.” It would help purge the thoughts of romantic indoor picnics from his mind.
&nb
sp; “It really is. But last time we had an indoor picnic, you got lucky afterward. So don’t give up hope. Of course, this isn’t going to be a picnic. Since we’ll eat at the table, it’ll just be a normal meal.”
“You’re sure you don’t want to try the floor? Come on—it’s feeling rejected.”
“I don’t think the floor has the same feelings that you do.”
“I don’t feel rejected. Just impatient to get lunch over with.”
She laughed. He was glad he could still make her laugh.
Chapter 8
It might be irrational, but Allison was disappointed Sidney hadn’t said anything when Jo dropped in. He hadn’t acted like her boyfriend, hadn’t acted like someone who had anything to do with her life. He’d acted the way she wanted, but it disappointed her nonetheless. Once upon a time, he would have come to stand beside her, wrapped his arm around her waist, introduced himself, and tried to make her sister laugh. And if that hadn’t made Jo think twice about asking Allison for yet another favor, he would have stood up for her.
But they didn’t have that kind of relationship now, and the man was a real pain in the ass who did little but piss her off. Even when he was doing what she wanted, he pissed her off.
At lunch, he made dirty jokes about nearly every item of food. Not just sausages. How did the man function in daily life if that’s how his mind worked?
Okay, he made her smile once or twice. But that was all. He’d made her smile many more times on their long-ago indoor picnic at his parents’ house. Though she’d probably just been smiling the whole damn meal, one continuous smile, because she liked the guy and they were on a date. She’d given herself permission to take the whole day off from schoolwork—so it was probably that, too.
She’d told her friends all about that date, and Maya seemed to remember. Or just considered picnics in general to be romantic—it wouldn’t be unreasonable for her friend to have forgotten about Allison’s fourth date with a guy she dated a very long time ago. In fact, it would be more normal for Maya to have forgotten.
Whatever the case, the sneaky plan to sabotage their weekend—by making it more romantic—had some effect. After Maya left, Allison had stared at the contents of the basket as Sidney cheerfully talked about eating on the floor, and she was filled with longing to be the girl she’d been back then. About to—Well, not quite fall in love. But about to start what had been generally a good relationship until the last couple months.
Yeah, she was dripping with enthusiasm. The past few years had been a bust for her relationship-wise, so now she was pining for stupid things like that.
After lunch, they walked to Sidney’s condo. It was a long walk, but what else were they going to do? If they had sex every hour, Allison would get sore.
“You okay?” he asked as they waited for a light.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Do you feel guilty about not babysitting Dexter?”
“No.” She hadn’t been thinking about it much. “Though it would have given us something to do other than strangle each other, like Maya said. I can’t believe she offered to look after him. She’ll probably do something small that won’t measure up to Jo’s standards. I’m glad I won’t be around to see the fallout from that.”
“No?”
“Hmm.” She glanced at the red light. “If the alternative is you telling me I should sit on the floor yet again, maybe I would.”
“You shoot down all my ideas.”
“I know. It’s my specialty.”
She made the mistake of looking at Sidney. And this time, she saw the guy who’d taken her on that indoor picnic date, the guy she’d been a little crazy over, even if she never came to love him.
But that was ancient history. She should focus on today. Seeing his condo, meeting his parents, somehow filling the rest of the hours. Nothing more.
* * * *
Allison looked around. Sidney’s condo was one floor from the top and had a view of the lake. Not too fancy, not too big, but it looked remarkably clean and comfortable.
“Wow,” she said. “This is nice.”
“What were you expecting?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but my expectations were pretty low.”
“I’m not surprised. Mouse-infested basement apartment or something like that?”
She punched his shoulder. “No, I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Just almost that far.”
She shrugged and slipped off her shoes. “Perhaps.”
But maybe this was what she should have expected. After all, he did seem to have his life more or less together, and he probably made decent money.
Sidney walked to the L-shaped couch and sat down. He patted the cushion beside him. “Come sit.”
She went over to the couch and lay back, her head on the arm of the couch and her feet on his lap. They were quiet for a few minutes. It was two thirty—they still had quite a bit of time to kill. Maybe they could watch a movie. Maybe a really long movie. They could watch the first Lord of the Rings movie today and the next two tomorrow. Yes, that sounded like a tolerable way to spend a weekend with Sidney.
But first, she wanted to know more about tonight’s dinner. The one where, for the first time in her life, she would pretend to be someone’s girlfriend.
A totally normal thing to do, of course.
“Which restaurant are we going to with your parents?” she asked.
“Geyser.”
Wow. Allison never thought she’d eat at Geyser. The swanky restaurant in Yorkville was probably ten times as expensive as any restaurant she went to with her own family.
“As long as you’re not paying…”
“I’m not.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “But the portions are so tiny we’ll probably have to eat again afterward.”
“That’s sad.”
“It is. Fine dining should not mean the food is so small you need a microscope to see it. And so expensive you need to work for two hours at a well-paying job to pay for a bite of beef. But my parents shot down my suggestions, so that’s where we’re going.”
“At least I won’t have to worry about calories if everything’s tiny.” Though she’d already promised herself she wouldn’t think about calories this weekend.
“I wouldn’t count on it,” he said. “Everything’s probably doused in goose fat from geese that are fed exclusively foie gras.”
“Isn’t that cannibalism?”
“I suppose it is. Okay, geese that are fed bacon.”
“Bacon,” she scoffed. “That’s peasant food. What about pancetta? Prosciutto-wrapped scallops?”
“Still too ordinary. The geese might turn up their beaks.”
She laughed. “Filet mignon with truffle oil? Lots and lots of truffle oil.”
“That’s better. But perhaps the geese would prefer a charcuterie board.”
“Or lobster dipped in a barrel of organic butter.”
“Or—” Sidney started to smile, but then he shook his head and looked away.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“I don’t think it was nothing.”
“Fine. I was just thinking that geese might be vegetarian. And goose fat is goose fat, so the goose’s diet probably doesn’t matter anyway.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s what caused you to look away.” She suspected he’d been disturbed that they were enjoying themselves without having sex. Frankly, she found it a little disturbing too.
And it wasn’t the first time it had happened today. Even arguing with him was fun sometimes. Aside from the dinner with his parents, where she’d have to fake being his girlfriend in a place she totally didn’t belong, spending the weekend with Sidney didn’t seem like the hardship it had yesterday.
What the hell was happening with them?
“Why did you refuse to meet my parents?” he asked. “I wanted you to meet them during reading week, and you said no.”
Well, spending the weekend together wouldn’
t be a hardship if they could avoid the past. But that was impossible, apparently.
Allison sat up and put her feet on the floor, trying to collect her thoughts after the abrupt change in conversation. “I knew we wouldn’t stay together much longer, so I didn’t see the point.”
“So in February, you already knew it wasn’t going to last.” He still wasn’t looking at her. “Why didn’t you just break up with me then?”
“I don’t know. But I never hid the fact that you weren’t part of my plans for the future. If you saw it differently, it’s because you were seeing what you wanted to see instead of what was actually there.” She paused. “When you said, ‘I love you,’ and I didn’t say it back, what did you think?”
“That you weren’t in touch with your feelings, but it would happen soon enough.”
“When I refused to meet your parents, what did you assume?”
“That you were scared of meet-the-parents situations.”
“I don’t remember you saying any of this to me.”
“It seemed awkward to bring it up.” He shifted farther away from her. His hand, which had been resting on the back of the couch, curled into a fist. Every inch of his body looked tense.
“Sidney, what happened after we broke up?”
“I was a bit unhappy. That’s all.” He said it nonchalantly, but she knew that was an act.
“A bit unhappy? Am I the reason for your year of doing nothing but playing poker?”
“I wouldn’t say you were the reason.”
“But I was one of them.”
“I suppose you were,” he said. “What do you want to do now? Watch a movie?” He started to get up, but she placed a hand on his wrist.
“Wait. I’m not done.” Allison tucked her feet underneath her. They were definitely not finished here. Now that they’d started talking about this, she wanted to know everything.
“Oh joy. More interrogation.”
“I wouldn’t call it interrogation. Just—”
“Whatever.” He waved a hand. “Hurry up.”
“So am I the reason you don’t date? Because you don’t want to go through a bad breakup again?”
He looked at her for a moment then stood up. “We’re watching a movie. What do you want to see? The Usual Suspects? Children of Men? No Country for Old Men? Maybe—”
Not a Second Chance Page 7
