Page 30 of Unforgettable You
“Oh,” she said. “I mean, you don’t have to. But I guess it would be fine if you did. Stace would be happy. It is a very ‘the more, the merrier’ kind of thing.”
“I don’t have to go.” I was backtracking now and wishing my face wasn’t so damn red.
“No, actually that works. I won’t feel like a fourth wheel and I’m pretty sure Jo is going to say that she can’t come anyway. But if she does, you can meet her too.”
Her friend Jo was also a grad student and I was looking forward to meeting her so we could swap academic war stories.
“If you’re sure…”
Reid nodded. “Hell yeah, you should come. You can meet my friends and everything. The food will be good and Stace’s family is beyond nice.”
That didn’t sound too bad. I was surprised at myself for so readily agreeing to go into a situation where there would be so many unknowns. Right now, it was okay because it was in the future. A hypothetical. The closer the party got, though, my anxiety would seize its moment and force me to imagine every single worst-case scenario as if all of them were inevitable.
“You okay over there?” Reid leaned closer, staring at my face. She must have seen my spike in anxiety. Crap. I was so bad at hiding my emotions.
“Yeah. I’m good.” I nodded and swallowed before having some more of the half and half.
“You don’t have to come. If you decide you need to bail at the last minute, I’m good. Okay?”
“I know,” I said. “I’m not… You don’t need to baby me.”
Why was my brain so embarrassing?
“I’m not babying you, Soph. I don’t want you to do something if it’s going to make you miserable. I like it when you’re happy.”
Oh. Why did her saying that make me feel like I was going to cry?
“Uh, thank you?”
A beat of silence passed between us and Reid abruptly cleared her throat and then smiled at me. “Tell me how far you got in the fanfic. I’ve read it like three times.”
The subject change was more than welcome. I tried not to gush too much as I pulled up the notes I’d taken.
Reid didn’t seem to mind as I rambled on and on with increasing enthusiasm. I knew I was taking things too far, but I couldn’t stop. Once I got started, it was hard to reel it in. I usually had to trust someone to let them see this side of me. Without filters. Without holding back.
Reid listened and laughed, and she watched me with a somewhat dazed look on her face, but she didn’t tell me to stop. Or be quieter. Or look away and then make an excuse to leave. She let me ramble until I’d gotten it all out.
When I finally finished, Reid just smiled and then laughed.
“I’m glad you liked it.”
My stomach curdled in the way it did when I prepared myself for someone to reject me, but she didn’t. Instead she got out her phone and started searching for more fics to send me.
A little bit of tension left my body as we talked more, and I completely forgot about the reason she’d come over until she brought it up.
“Let’s say you’ve approached someone and you’re sitting together to talk. You’ve done the hardest part, which is getting her attention. What do you say next?”
There was my anxiety again. Right on time.
“Have you, um, been here before?” I asked, my voice tentative.
“No, this is my first time to Sapph. How about you?” She leaned toward me and for a moment I didn’t know what to say.
“I have a friend who works here so I’ve been once before. Sometimes she gives me free drinks.” I had no idea where that had come from, but I was going with it. Reid smirked.
“She sounds like a good friend to have. Is she hot?” Her question took me off guard.
“She’s gorgeous. Has these incredible brown eyes and she doesn’t smile a lot, but when she does? You know you’re seeing something special.”