by Tara Wyatt
“Yeah, okay,” said Theo, managing to stand upright. “But we’re walking there. I’m never running again.”
“Fine. I know a place on East 80th.”
Theo groaned, because he knew that meant even more walking in the long run. In order to get back to the West Side, he’d have to walk to the 72nd Street subway station to get the Q. But it was his own damn fault for thinking a run through Central Park on a beautiful morning might actually be nice. He should’ve known better. Max was excellent at chasing anything nice away.
They walked in silence as Theo chugged down his entire bottle of water, letting the Saturday morning crowd buzz around them. It was a gloriously sunny fall morning. The air was cool and crisp, and the leaves on the trees in the park were starting to change, the green giving way to orange and red and gold. Theo loved New York in the fall. Granted, he loved New York all the time—he couldn’t imagine ever wanting to live anywhere else—but the fall season that led up to the sparkling rush of the holidays was the best. Everything just felt so alive. So fresh with promise.
The small coffeeshop was adorned with a plain red awning, wedged in between a bodega and a Duane Reade. It didn’t look like much, but the coffee smelled divine. Yeah, Max had been right—a coffee was much more sensible than the seemingly unending torture of running. Once they had their drinks—a latte for Theo and a black coffee for Max—they snagged a small table near the back, away from the constant action near the cash register.
“Okay, so what’s going on with you?” asked Max, leaning back in his seat, once again leveling that CEO stare at him. “You were quiet last night at dinner and then when you texted me to go jogging this morning, I thought you were joking.”
“I don’t know if I should be offended by that,” said Theo, taking a sip of his latte.
Max snorted. “Interpret that however you want. But seriously. Something’s eating at you.”
Theo exhaled sharply, toying with the brown paper sleeve on his cup. “So, Lauren’s friend Willa had this idea that because Lauren and I are both single and we both know each other really well, we should set each other up.”
“Like on blind dates?”
Theo shrugged. “Basically, yeah. I’m supposed to set her up with someone, and she’s supposed to set me up with someone.”
Max tilted his head, his eyes narrowing. “Interesting. That’s really interesting.” He pulled his phone from his pocket. “Hang on, I’m getting an idea,” he said, his fingers flying across his phone screen as he typed at a furious pace.
“What?”
“A new dating app. What if there were something like Tinder or Bumble, but instead of you swiping left or right, you have a friend who swipes for you? They choose, swiping yes or no, and then you get your matches.”
Theo’s eyebrows rose. “Interesting idea.”
“It’s like a blind date, but not. This…Yeah, I’m really liking this,” he said, still typing away.
“I’m glad my problems are so inspirational to you.”
At that, Max’s head shot up and he set his phone down on the table. “And the problem is…” he asked, rolling his fingers in a get on with it gesture.
That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?
“I don’t…I’m an asshole, okay? I can’t date Lauren, but I don’t want to set her up with anyone either.” Guilt gnawed at him, and he tried to drown it with sugary caffeine.
It didn’t work.
Max leaned forward, elbows braced on the table. “Tell me again why you don’t want to date her? Because she’s beautiful, and sweet, and hilarious and you clearly care about her. I don’t get it.”
Theo shook his head slowly, staring at his paper coffee cup. “It’s not that I don’t…” He shook his head again. “I can’t.”
“Because…?”
“Because it’ll wreck everything. It’s inevitable. You and I both know how relationships always end up. I’m not going to throw away my best friend just because I’m attracted to her.”
“And you have feelings for her.”
Theo’s eyebrows shot up. “What? I didn’t ever tell…”
Max snapped his fingers. “Aha! You do have feelings for the lovely Lauren.”
“Don’t call her that.”
“Lauren and Theo sitting in a tree, K-I—”
Theo shot his hand out, swiping up Max’s phone. “Finish that rhyme and I delete these notes.” His thumb hovered over the screen, poised to strike.
“Okay, okay. Jeez. Touchy. So you don’t want to date Lauren because you’re just as jaded as the rest of us, but you don’t want to set her up with someone else because you do have feelings for her.”
“Like I said, I’m an asshole.”
“I don’t know about that.”
But Theo shook his head. He definitely felt like one. He couldn’t reasonably expect Lauren to stay single forever. Eventually, she’d meet someone and they’d start dating. They’d get closer, then maybe they’d move in together. Before long, they’d be ring shopping, and—
He dropped his head into his hands as his stomach twisted itself into knots. “I don’t know what to do.” He couldn’t tell Lauren how he felt—not only because he was worried about wrecking their friendship, but because he couldn’t be the guy for her. She deserved so much better than a commitment-phobe with an airliner’s worth of baggage when it came to relationships. But the thought of losing her to another guy…fuck. It sucked just as much.
“What do you want?” It was a point-blank question, and one Theo didn’t have the answer to right now.
“I don’t know. I mean, obviously I want Lauren to be happy.”
“Well, for God’s sake, don’t set her up with anyone good,” said Max, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Theo lifted his head. “Wait, what?”
“You’re a mess right now. You don’t know what you want, but you definitely don’t want to chance her falling for someone before you figure your shit out. So set her up with a dud. It’ll buy you some time to figure out what to do.” Max shrugged, taking a long sip of his coffee. “For what it’s worth, I think the fact you don’t want her dating anyone else is pretty telling, brother.”
Which was exactly what Theo was afraid of.
“Don’t you think setting her up with someone bad on purpose is kinda shitty? To Lauren?” asked Theo, pulling the paper sleeve off of his cup and ripping it into tiny pieces.
“I think not wanting her to date anyone while refusing to fully acknowledge your feelings for her is kinda shitty, too. Face it—you’re going to do something kinda shitty here. How can you come out of it unscathed? How can Lauren? Because I think, deep down, if you’re honest with yourself, you already know what you want. You’re just scared to go after it because all you ever see is failure.”
“You should start charging by the hour for this shit,” said Theo, Max’s words hitting home. Hitting the motherfucking bullseye.
Max just laughed. “So, the way I see it, you have two options. Set her up with a dud to buy yourself some more time, or tell her how you feel.”
The idea of telling Lauren how he felt was far too risky. Far too terrifying. So, plan A it was.
For the first time that morning, Theo grinned as inspiration struck. “I think I know just the guy.”
“His name sounds very sexy,” said Aspen from where she sat perched on Lauren’s bed. “Giovanni Damico.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Yes, definitely a name with a high vibration.”
Lauren fought back an eyeroll as she slicked on some lip gloss, giving herself a final once over in her bedroom mirror. Aspen was annoying sometimes and took the whole New Agey thing to a new level, but she meant well and wanted only good things for Lauren. She was crunchy as hell but had a heart of gold. So, even if she was annoying sometimes, she was a good friend.
When she wasn’t boinking some rando in their living room, that is.
“He’s a lawyer at Theo’s firm. H
e honestly didn’t tell me much about him, just connected us.”
“Where are you meeting him?”
Lauren glanced down at her phone, double checking the instructions. “We’re supposed to meet at a coffee bar and then dinner.”
“Well, good luck. I’m sure you’d much rather be dating Theo, though.”
Lauren froze, her phone slipped halfway into her purse. “What do you mean?”
Aspen smiled. “You should see your aura when he’s around. It’s the most beautiful reddish pink color.”
Lauren plopped down on the bed next to Aspen so she could pull on her gray suede knee high boots. She loved wearing them with the camel-toned sweater dress and floral scarf she’d chosen for the date. “And what does that color mean?” she asked, telling herself that she didn’t care. Plus it wasn’t like auras were actually real or anything.
“Well, the pink tones indicate friendship, but also love. Now, it can sometimes be a platonic love, but you’ve got this really vibrant red in there too.” Aspen leaned in, bringing a whiff of patchouli with her. “And that means you want that man inside you. Like, yesterday.”
Lauren’s cheeks flamed as her stomach flipped over on itself, her heart starting to throb. Just the idea of Theo inside her…Unf. Her entire body was like a riot of giddy arousal. Which, obviously, was bad. She shouldn’t even let herself go there. For the sake of their friendship, she needed to get it together.
“I gotta go. See you!” She pushed off the bed and gathered up her purse, giving herself one final glance in the mirror.
“Wait, before you go…do you want to borrow one of my crystals? I have a rose quartz one that’s really great at attracting love.”
Lauren paused. First of all, it wasn’t like she believed in crystals or any of that woo-woo shit. The most woo thing Lauren ever did was read her horoscope once in a while, and she took that with a grain of salt. Unless Mercury was in retrograde. Even she knew not to mess with that energy. Second…she was pretty sure she didn’t want to fall in love with Giovanni, seeing as how that would probably enormously complicate the whole feelings-for-her-best-friend thing she had going on.
Crap. Crappity crap crap crap.
“Oh, um, no thanks.” She shot Aspen a smile, who seemed completely unoffended by Lauren’s rejection of her offer.
“Good luck!”
She headed out of the apartment and towards the subway station. The coffee shop and restaurant Giovanni had suggested were both in SoHo, which meant she needed to walk to the 42nd Street Station and catch the A train to Canal Street. Jamming in her earbuds, she cued up her playlist and started walking the four blocks to the subway.
Lately when she listened to music, she felt this odd, uncomfortable tug of war going on inside her. She wanted to just listen and enjoy it but couldn’t seem to stop herself from analyzing everything about the song—the melody, the lyrics, the arrangement, the production values. She couldn’t seem to switch that technical part of her musical brain off these days. And it kinda sucked because sometimes she just wanted to tune out the world and listen to music, the way she used to.
And then, underneath all of that, was an even subtler tug. A judgmental one that asked questions like how come she has a record deal and I don’t? My songs are just as good. She tried not to go there, not to dwell in negativity, but it was hard sometimes. Really hard. There were days when she wasn’t so sure about her music career anymore. The audition to open for Lynne Townsend had gone well, but she hadn’t heard anything yet, and she was starting to think she wasn’t going to.
She wasn’t sure about much these days, really. Her career, her dreams, her feelings for her totally off-limits best friend—all enormous question marks. She’d hoped to be so much more settled by twenty-nine. She’d hoped for more out of life. Maybe that was unreasonable and unrealistic. Maybe she needed to lower her expectations.
Why did she have to want such hard things? A career in a ridiculously competitive industry and a man who was allergic to relationships? Sometimes she thought her life would be so much simpler if she didn’t want what often felt like the impossible. What would it be like to just work at the library, hang out with her friends, and date a cute guy? Just the idea of it felt freeing. But also like a complete and utter cop-out. She couldn’t change who she was or what she wanted any more than she could rearrange the freckles on her face.
But she nodded as she took the steps down into the subway station, deciding to be as open minded as possible tonight. Maybe she needed to look beyond her tunnel-vision-esque view of what she wanted her life to be.
By the time she got to the coffee bar, she was feeling more positive about her blind date. After all, it wasn’t like Theo would set her up with a total loser, right?
The coffee bar was a cute little white brick building between a French bistro and an elegant jewelry store, every single storefront reminding her that this was SoHo, where people had money. The sidewalks were busy, bustling with people, but she noticed a very tall man standing out front, his attention on his phone. As she got closer, she could see that he was wearing an impeccable suit that looked custom-tailored to his somewhat lanky frame. He had thick dark brown hair that he’d slicked back with a little too much product. Just then, he looked up and he pointed at her.
“You must be the infamous Lauren MacKinnon. Theo said you had red hair, but I was expecting, you know, like a fake redhead? And you’re a real one. At least, I think you’re a real one. Guess we’ll find out, huh?” He winked at her and then held his hand up for a high five. She stared at him, trying to compute what he’d just said. “C’mon Red, don’t leave me hanging.”
“Oh.” With an awkward movement, she reached out and touched her hand to his in the world’s quietest high five. Giving it any sound would’ve made it seem like she was condoning what he’d just said, and she most definitely, absolutely, was not.
Maybe he’s just nervous, she thought, trying not to retreat too far into her shell at Giovanni’s outward bravado.
“I actually live around here, but I always have my dates meet me here first.”
She smiled, hoping she looked a little more relaxed than she felt. “The coffee’s that good, huh?”
“Who cares about the coffee? I just don’t like giving out my address to strange women in case one of them turns out to be a…” He cupped his hand around his mouth and sang the next word. “…stalker!”
“Right. Wouldn’t want that.” Did she have the wrong guy? This guy seemed like a total douche. And there’s no way that Theo would deliberately set her up with a douche. But he’d known her full name and that she had red hair. Oh, right, and he’d mentioned Theo, too. Crap. “Uh, should we go inside and sit down?” she asked, but Giovanni didn’t seem to hear her. He was too busy practically drooling over the ass of a woman who’d just walked by.
“Daaaaaaaamn,” he said, shaking his head. “You into women at all, Lauren?”
“Excuse me?”
“Where do you fall on the…” He waved his hands in a small arc. “…rainbow spectrum?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You didn’t just ask me that.”
Giovanni laughed awkwardly and then turned and held the door open for her. The inside of the coffee bar was busy and they had to elbow their way to the front, where Giovanni ordered an Americano and Lauren ordered a chai latte. Once they had their drinks, they snagged a small table near the front.
Still determined to make the best of this and not jump to conclusions, she attempted conversation again. “So, Giovanni…”
He smiled at her, leaning back in his seat. “I’m all yours.”
“Did, um, did Theo say why he thought we’d be a good match?” He hadn’t told her anything at all, a fact that was starting to set off alarm bells in her brain.
“Well, for starters…” He swept his hand down over his body. “There’s this.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Any further questions?”
She practically snorted chai latte through her nos
e. This guy couldn’t be for real.
He flashed her a smile, clearly misinterpreting her snort. How was this guy a lawyer at Theo’s high-priced firm? He was a total clown.
“So, Lauren…you know, that’s kind of a boring name. Can I fix it for you? Let me fix it. You look more like a…Lola. Boom. Name upgraded.”
She blinked at him. “Uh…please don’t call me Lola.”
But he didn’t hear her, because his phone rang and he actually answered. “What up, big V? No, no, I’m not busy. Just hanging out with this smokin’ hot redhead. Lola. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.” And then, just when she thought he’d already scaled to the peak of Mount Douchemore, he pulled the phone away from his ear and tipped his chin at her. “Sorry, gotta take this. But then we can bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce,” he said, rapping the words in a staccato rhythm.
Lauren took a sip of her latte and then fished her phone out of her purse, sending a single text message.
Theodore William Prescott, I am going to KILL you.
7
Theo swung open his front door, bracing himself for whatever awaited him on the other side.
“What,” said Lauren, stepping inside and whirling to face him, “and I cannot emphasize this enough, the fuck?”
He closed the door, following her into his apartment. He’d seen her text message from earlier, but in all honesty, he’d been too chicken to reply. At first, he’d thought setting her up with Giovanni was harmless. Maybe a bit of a jerk move, sure, but ultimately harmless.
But then, knowing that Lauren was out with him and then seeing her text message, he’d felt like an asshole.
“I take it your date was a bust?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck, feigning innocence.
“I’m going to take off this boot and beat you with it. Theo! I can’t believe that’s who you chose for me. What the hell, dude?”
“Okay, I’m sorry. Listen. I can explain, okay?”
She stared at him, her arms crossed over her chest, but she nodded. “Okay.”
