No flowers! Lucy immediately responded. It’s way too soon for that.
Go now, John responded. And take coffee. Coffee is easy. Nonthreatening.
Ohhh, that’s a good idea, Lucy agreed. Do that!
I don’t even know how she LIKES her coffee, David typed. Isn’t that a little presumptuous?
Just get an extra of whatever you get for yourself, John texted. Even if she doesn’t end up drinking it, she’ll remember the gesture.
David stared at his phone, wondering if he really ought to be taking dating advice from a couple who had started dating in high school and gotten married before either one of them had finished their undergrad. They weren’t exactly a typical couple. Still, they were more qualified to give advice than he was. And they were all he had.
He closed out the text thread and pulled up Google Maps, finding the closest coffee shop to the Aquarium. It only added three minutes to his trip.
Standing, he slipped his phone into his pocket before moving back to the bathroom mirror for one final glance. “Hey Avery, you remember me?” he said to his reflection.
No. That was terrible.
“I was just in the neighborhood and thought you might want some coffee.”
He leaned forward. Was that spinach in his teeth?
His shoulders dropped. Stupid smoothie. After a quick floss, he squared himself to the mirror. “Hi, Avery. Great to see you. Want to show me the dolphins up close?”
His words—his stupid words—echoed around the bathroom.
What was he doing? Who did he actually think he was?
In one swift motion, he tossed his new glasses onto the bathroom counter, and stormed into his bedroom where he grabbed his old frames from his nightstand drawer. He shoved them onto his face, feeling at once more comfortable, and headed out the front door.
Baby steps, he thought to himself. New clothes today; maybe he’d wear the new frames tomorrow.
Chapter 3
“Hey, Avery?”
Avery turned to see her friend, Shelley, one of the ticket receptionists who worked out front, standing in her office doorway. “Hey. What’s up?” she asked.
“There’s a man out front asking for you?” Shelley shrugged. “He said something about a tour?”
“What, like he wants to book one? Is he from a school?”
“No, more like he thinks you’re supposed to give him one.”
Avery searched her memory. Had she agreed to give someone a tour of the aquarium? She glanced at her watch. She had an hour before she had to meet with her boss and update her on the new hands-on program they were launching for the local elementary schools, but she’d hoped to spend that hour going over her notes and finalizing her budget numbers. “You’re sure you don’t have any idea who he is?” she asked Shelley.
“I’ve never seen him before. Youngish. Blond. Dorky glasses?”
Avery searched her mind but came up with nothing. Who could it be? “Okay.” She stood up to follow Shelley from her office. “I’ll come see who it is.”
They walked side by side down the long corridor that led to the Aquarium offices. “I actually wondered if he was your boyfriend when he first showed up, but I don’t know. I’m not sure he’s exactly your type.”
Avery looked at Shelley, feeling slightly affronted. “What? I don’t have a type.”
Shelley rolled her eyes. “You totally have a type.”
Avery stopped. She’d known Shelley a long time. As long as she’d been working at the aquarium, and they’d gotten to be close friends. It wasn’t so much that she minded Shelley having an opinion about her dating life. She’d earned that right when she’d brought ice cream to work every day for a week after Tucker had broken up with Avery. She was just surprised that Shelley seemed so certain. Was Avery really so predictable? “I need more information,” she said to Shelley’s retreating form.
Shelley turned around. “It’s not a big deal. I totally didn’t mean for that to offend you.” She must have read the not so pleasant expression on Avery’s face. “Lots of people have a type. It just means you know what you like.”
“Yeah, but what is my type? How can I have a type if I don’t even recognize what it is?”
Shelley sighed and leaned against the wall. “Okay. The guy you brought to the Christmas party last year. The one with the hair and the Sperrys and the pink shirt?”
Avery thought back to the party. Charlie. Or, was it Chuck? She couldn’t remember. He’d been nice enough, but they’d only gone out a couple of times.
“Then there was Wyatt,” Shelley continued. “Up in Accounting? Same hair. Same shoes. Same preppy Charleston wardrobe. Well and then, Tucker, obviously. He totally fits the same mold.”
An image of Tucker flashed through Avery’s mind. Had the three men Shelley mentioned all been lined up on the sidewalk, they would have looked like fraternity brothers. Fraternity brothers who all did their shopping at Lacoste. Avery had never really made the connection before, but once Shelley pointed it out, she couldn’t deny it.
Her shoulders dropped. “I suddenly feel so . . . predictable.”
“It’s not a bad thing,” Shelley said. “I go for guys who wear boots and like hog hunting. You like yacht club boys with perfect teeth. Everybody has a preference.”
Avery hated stereotypes—growing up in the South she’d been exposed to her fair share—but she knew the type of man Shelley meant when she said yacht club boys. They were the kind of men who were privately educated, knee-deep in old family money, and possessed lifetime memberships at the yacht club. The kind of men that were always nice to their Southern mamas and liked their tea sweet with a splash of good bourbon.
What rankled was trying to figure out what it was about that kind of man that made Avery take notice. Why did she pick the yacht club boys? The answer crystalized in her brain in an instant, filling her with a potent kind of shame. She picked the yacht club boys because of the first yacht club boy who had picked her. Tucker. Everyone else? They were just shadows of the first man she’d ever fallen in love with.
Avery thought of the dinner they’d shared the night before, sitting on her back porch, listening to the waves, feeling the ocean breeze. They’d mostly just reminisced about their relationship—they’d been together eighteen months and most of them had been pretty good—but Avery had detected the same something in Tucker’s eyes that said he was maybe looking for something more. When he’d left, he’d squeezed her hand then leaned in to kiss her forehead. “I’ve missed you, Avery,” he’d said.
What was that even supposed to mean?
Avery rounded the corner and almost bumped into Shelley who had stopped at the end of the lobby. She pointed across the vast, open space. “See him? Over there by the benches?”
“Oh!” Avery said. “That’s my new neighbor.” She searched her mind for his name. “David.” She almost called him Dave and the thought made her smile. He’d been adamant that he was not a Dave, but Avery kind of liked it. “I did tell him I’d take him on a tour, but man, he couldn’t have picked a worse day to show up.” She bit her bottom lip, glancing one more time at her watch.
“There’s a Behind-the-Scenes tour of the Sea Turtle Center at eleven,” Shelley said. “That might keep him occupied a while.”
“That’s perfect,” Avery said. “I can spend the next half hour with him, then he can do the tour, and maybe I can buy him lunch after.”
“I’ll get him on the tour and bring you his pass,” Shelley said. She stopped, tilting her head and giving Avery a knowing look. “You know, he is kind of cute. What’s he do?”
“He’s a doctor at MUSC,” Avery said.
Shelley’s eyebrows went up. “Really?” She narrowed her gaze, studying him from across the room. “You think he likes hog hunting?”
Avery almost snorted. She didn’t know David at all, but ten minutes of conversation had been more than enough to convince her he was not the hog-hunting type. She’d put money on it. “Pretty sure
that’s a no, Shell.”
Avery crossed the busy lobby, noticing the moment David saw her coming. He instantly stiffened and cast a worried look over his shoulder like he was hunting for the nearest exit. He held a drink carrier in his hands, two coffee cups perched inside, but had there been a trash can nearby, Avery was pretty sure he would have dumped them. He turned and placed them on the bench behind him, then immediately picked them up, before setting them down again. He moved his body in front of the cups, blocking her view, just as she arrived.
“Hey,” she said. “You came.”
“I did,” David said. “It’s my day off, so . . . here I am.” A blush crept up his neck. “How are you?”
“I’m good.” Avery looked at the bench behind him. “Did you bring coffee?”
“Oh. Yeah.” He stepped to the side revealing the coffee he’d unsuccessfully tried to hide. “I just thought . . . you know, since it’s morning, and you’re working, and people drink coffee in the morning . . .”
Poor guy. Was he always this nervous? “That was really nice of you,” she said. “I’d love some.”
David’s shoulders relaxed the tiniest bit and he picked up the drink carrier, lifting one of the cups out and offering it to her. “I just got two of what I normally drink. I hope that’s okay.”
Avery took a sip, willing herself not to make a face. The drink didn’t taste like coffee, it tasted like straight up dessert. “Wow,” she said. “That’s . . . sweet.”
David’s eyes went wide. “Is it?” He took his own sip. “Sorry. I guess I’m used to it. I always add a swirl of salted caramel and fresh cream.”
“How do ever you maintain your figure,” Avery joked.
“Here, you don’t have to drink it.” David reached for her cup. “I should have thought about the sugar.”
She moved the cup out of his reach, then took another sip. The flavors were definitely growing on her. “Oh, I’m not giving this up. I didn’t say I didn’t like it. It just isn’t what I was expecting.”
David forced out a breath. “You’re sure you’re not just saying that to be nice?”
Avery took another long sip. He’d maybe ruined regular coffee for her forever. “I’m positive. This is delicious.”
Shelley showed up seconds later, a behind-the-scenes pass attached to a bright blue Charleston Aquarium lanyard in her hand. She handed the pass to Avery, then smiled at David before turning back to the ticket counter.
“I hope I didn’t come at a bad time,” David said.
“No, it’s great,” Avery lied. He’d obviously made quite the effort to get there. If she’d thought herself capable of turning him away before, she definitely wasn’t going to now. “Come on.” She motioned toward a side entrance for employees. “I can get you in over here.” They moved in and out of the crowds until they reached the door where Avery used her ID to buzz them in. “I’m actually really glad you came. You know, I’ve given the same invitation dozens of times. No one has ever taken me up on it before.”
David stopped, something flitting across his face before he schooled his features into something more neutral. “Oh. Right. Well, lucky me, I guess?”
In an instant, Avery realized what had happened.
The coffee. David’s nerves. He’d treated her “free tour of the aquarium” like it was some special invitation she’d only extended to him, like it was more of a date.
And she’d just told him she’d invited half the island to do the same thing. Talk about dashing a guy’s hopes.
Avery’s phone pinged with a text and she gave it a quick glance. She held up a finger to David. “Sorry, this is my boss. Give me just a sec.”
So sorry, Avery, the text read. I’ve got to pick up a sick kid from school, so I need to push our meeting to tomorrow morning. Can you confirm?
Avery typed out a quick response confirming the reschedule.
“I don’t mind going through on my own,” David said. “Truly. I don’t want to take you from your work.”
It was an easy out. Avery could always find something to do to stay busy, but it felt wrong to abandon David. She realized spending the day with him risked giving him the wrong impression—she definitely hadn’t considered it a date when she’d extended the invitation—but he just seemed so . . . earnest.
“Actually, my boss just cancelled a meeting, so I’m free for the rest of the morning.”
“You’re sure?”
Avery smiled. “Let’s start in the first gallery.”
Shelley had been right. David wasn’t Avery’s type at all. But that didn’t stop her from enjoying their time together. He was funny. And witty. And intimidatingly smart. He asked thoughtful questions. And looked right at her when she answered, as if what she was saying was the most interesting thing he’d heard anyone say all day. Whether she was talking about the animals at the aquarium, or just sharing random things about living in Charleston, she’d never been around anyone who was so completely attentive.
The longer they were together, the more David’s social awkwardness melted away.
After they finished the Sea Turtle Center tour, they paused beside the small restaurant that was inside the aquarium. It was hardly a restaurant. More like a glorified snack bar. Still, David stopped and looked up at the menu. “Can I buy you lunch?” he asked.
Avery hesitated long enough that David quickly backpedaled out of his offer. “Sorry. I should let you get back to work. You’ve already given me your entire morning.”
That much was true, but Avery did have to eat. “No, that’s not it. I’d love to have lunch. Just not here.”
What was she doing? She sounded like she was flirting. She did not mean to be flirting.
David’s expression brightened. The man’s face was easier to read than a giant billboard on the side of the highway. “Did you have somewhere else in mind?”
She should back out. Fake a phone call. Something. She was definitely giving him the wrong impression. “There’s a little restaurant down the street that I really love,” Avery heard herself say. “It’s not far if you don’t mind the walk.”
David smiled, the first full smile she’d seen from him all day. “Lead the way.”
David liked her.
Avery didn’t need to be as smart as he was to figure that much out.
On the one hand, she loved the attention. Which must be why she’d agreed to go to lunch in the first place. But she really didn’t want to lead him on.
Avery didn’t spend a ton of time sitting around imagining the guy she hoped to fall in love with. If anything, she avoided the subject whenever possible. But she was pretty sure David wasn’t that guy. Sure, he was easy to talk to, but she didn’t think they had a lot in common. Avery was Charleston born and bred, Lowcountry to her very core. She lived for the salt and sand, for marshy tide waters and hot, humid summers. She spent her free time paddle boarding. Sailing. Eating really good seafood.
She glanced at the menu, suddenly wondering what David would pick. The waiter approached and she ordered the scallops—she always ordered the scallops—and waited with curiosity while David studied the menu. “I’ll have the shrimp and grits,” he said, folding his menu.
Avery hid her smile behind her napkin. Maybe she could give him a few points for that. But everything else? David was about as Lowcountry as a winter snowstorm.
“So tell me about growing up in Chicago,” she said later, after they’d finished most of their meal.
David shrugged. “What would you like to know?”
“What did you do in your free time? Tell me about teenage David.”
He grimaced. “I’m a bad example of the typical Chicago teenager. I mostly just . . . studied.”
“That’s right. College at sixteen, right? That’s intense.”
He shrugged. “It was. I didn’t have a lot of free time.”
“What about summers?”
“I took classes through the summer.”
“Good grief, Dave. You didn�
��t do anything fun?”
His jaw tightened, likely from her use of the nickname she really thought suited him no matter what he said, but he didn’t correct her. “I was focused on becoming a doctor. It probably makes me sound boring, but I was pretty single-minded.” He hesitated, then went on. “I know for a lot of people work is just something they do from nine to five. Something to pay the bills. It isn’t like that for me. The science of medicine, of how our bodies work and how medicine can do so much to keep them working—it’s my passion.”
He held Avery’s gaze, his blue eyes bright and focused, until she dropped her eyes to the table. Did he look at everyone with such intensity? She cleared her throat. “I think that’s really amazing. It must make your work really meaningful.”
He nodded. “It does.”
“So why emergency medicine?” Avery asked.
David pursed his lips, a tiny wrinkle appearing between his brows. “I know this is going to sound hard to believe,” he said, his eyes lifting with humor, “based on how smooth I’ve been in my encounters with you, but I don’t generally get ruffled in stressful situations. In the ER, you’re constantly making decisions and there isn’t always time to second guess yourself. I learned in med school I have a knack for that kind of quick, on-your-feet thinking.”
Avery suppressed her laugh, but she couldn’t completely hide her smile. The way David had bumbled his way through giving her coffee that morning flashed through her mind. This was a guy making split second decisions under extreme pressure?
“I know,” David said, clearly reading her amusement. “It’s hard to believe. But I know a lot more about medicine than I do about women. I don’t have a reason to doubt myself when I’m at work, but I have every reason to doubt myself in social situations.”
“I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit,” Avery said. “You’ve done fine today.”
D is for Doctor (ABCs of Love Sweet Romance Book 4) Page 3
