Page 19 of Forever Only Once

“Either she canceled, or he did. I don’t know. It wasn’t my client, I had nothing to do with it. Anyway, I saw a single woman at a table and sat down, thinking it was Chris’s contact.”

Arden put both hands over her face. “You did not.” She groaned.

“Yep, I did. Because I’m an idiot. However, it turned out well.”

“Really?” she asked.

“At first she thought I was her blind date.”

“Oh my God, that’s like the perfect meet-cute.” Her eyes widened. “Wait, did her date show up?”

“No. So, it was just me.”

“What an asshole. He stood her up? Who backs out on a blind date?”

I shook my head quickly. “Apparently, his daughter was sick.”

“Now I feel like an asshole.”

“Maybe you should let me continue the story.”

“Fine.”

“Anyway, once we realized that we had both made a mistake, we just went with it. She was nice, we talked, got along, and I got her number for maybe another date.”

“Seriously, that’s such a meet-cute. What’s her name?”

“Stop calling it a meet-cute. And her name is Hazel.”

“Cross and Hazel. That’s so sweet.”

“If you start singing about sitting in a tree, I will have to force you to give Jasper a B-A-T-H.”

“That’s cruel. For both of us.” She put her hand over her dog’s head and petted him quickly. “We don’t want to scar him for life.”

I gave her a look. “Anyway, it was a weird situation that turned out kind of nice.” I shrugged. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to see her again. She has my number if she ever wants to call.”

“You can’t just leave her hanging, Cross. She’s probably waiting on you.”

“It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet. I’ll text her. Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Don’t be an asshole.”

“I’m not trying to be an asshole. It’s more that I don’t know if I want to date. I have enough issues with work. Adding a relationship on top of that probably isn’t the best thing.”

“Chris is already hurting your creativity. He’s hurting your work. Don’t let him hurt your personal life, too.”

“I don’t know. Plus, she may have another date by the time I figure out what I want.”

“What do you mean? With that same guy?”

“I don’t know about that. But she has this whole blind date thing going on with her friends.”

I explained the pact that Hazel made, feeling kind of bad that I was telling the story, but it was Arden. She wouldn’t tell a soul. Plus, I needed to talk this out. I really didn’t have anyone else to do that with. I could talk with Prior or Macon or Nate, but they had their own issues. Arden was the only one of us who was truly settled. She was our touchstone.

She’d always been that, even when her life had been chaotic.

“That’s genius. I kind of envy that she has those kinds of friends.”