Page 67 of Go Find Less

“Fine.” I raise my brows at her use of the word. “Text me if you need me to come get you, bring you more rubbers, anything.” I close my eyes, shaking my head at the mental image of Carla making an emergency condom run. “Bex and I will be here, just chilling. We’re gonna have a girls night in, right, Bexy?” She turns back to the dog on the couch, who completely ignores her. I make my way to the door while she’s distracted. I almost make it out before she screams “MAKE GOOD CHOICES.” And I slam the door before she can say anything else embarrassing.

Chapter 24

Fitz

Ileanagainstthepassenger side of the car, which I’ve pulled up just out front of the entrance to Piper’s building. Shifting nervously, I cross my arms.

No. You look like a douche.

I put my elbows back, and they drop - I forgot I have the top down.

Finally, I settle on putting my hands in my pockets, peering out at the over-watered grass surrounding her apartments. They tried to keep this place looking nice, but even in the limited time I’d been inside, I’d noticed the lines cracking across the ceiling. The floorboards warping in certain spots.

Then again, I’m driving around in a car worth more than most people make in a year. I can’t exactly judge from my pedestal.

I notice movement out of the doorway, and when I see Piper take the final steps downstairs, I blink several times, swallowing hard.

How did I never notice this woman before? If we did cross paths outside of the context of the reunion - or even before then, all those years ago. Sure, the red hair was something else. But she’d always had this natural swagger. And I was too busy reinforcing my own walls to even look her direction.

Flipping through that photo book in her office, I learned something about the woman in front of me - she was fearless. Maybe not all the time, but when she was comfortable, which she clearly was with whoever was shooting those pictures (I hadn’t asked, but hoped it was a girlfriend), she shone.

Like a star. Like a fucking diamond.

I notice her stop halfway to me, and I think she’s eying me, but I realize quickly she’s looking at the car behind me.

“Is that a MK III?” she asks, and I nearly fall over.

“Uh, yeah,” I stammer, and she steps up next to me, peering inside of the open interior. Blue leather. Manual shift. The Austin-Healey is in great shape. “1964.” Her hands slide over the cream exterior, just above the passenger door handle.

“It’s beautiful.” She eyes me, giving me a head-to-toe glance that has me feeling self conscious. “Did you restore this?”

“My brother and I did,” I answer honestly, unable to keep my eyes off of her. The lacy corset covering her midsection is giving me a clear outline of her full chest and hourglass figure. “It’s not my daily driver or anything. But it’s fun for stuff like this.” I reach in front of her, pulling the door open and holding out my hand, which she takes gingerly as she steps up, sliding into the seat with more grace than I’d expect with heels that tall. Before I let go of her hand, I bring it to my lips and give it a light kiss. Her sheepish smile is incredibly satisfying as she folds her feet into the car, adjusting the full skirt of her black dress.

“I feel overdressed.” She pulls a purple silk scarf from her bag as I make my way to the driver’s side, sliding in next to her.

“You look perfect.” I look at her when I say it, so she knows I’m being serious. “I look like a bum in comparison.” A bum in $800 shoes, but I don’t need to elaborate on that. She gives me another nervous smile before using a clip to hold back her curls at the nape of her neck, and then tying the scarf over her hair. The wind was already blowing at a mild rate - I didn’t want her to feel like she was caught in a tornado on the way to dinner.

“I think you could wear a potato sack and not look like a bum,” she says as I start the car, and I smile to myself when the engine purrs. I reach out a hand and give her knee a squeeze while she buckles her seatbelt.

“The feeling is mutual.” I put a hand on the gear shift, and turn to her. “You ready?” She nods, but even under the sunglasses she’s slid on, large and in charge, I can tell she’s nervous. “Hey,” I give her knee another squeeze. “You look beautiful.” She smiles.

“The feeling is mutual.” Beautiful, eh? I take that as a sign, and shift the car into gear, driving away from her apartment.

Piper

We’re on the road for a few minutes before I get up the nerve to speak. Why I’m so jittery and anxious, I don’t know. Hadn’t we been talking for weeks? But I think, deep down, a part of me, that small bit left from high school Piper, is freaking out a little bit.

I was on a date with Fitz Westfall.Fitz Westfall. Me. If you’d told me this was going to happen even a year ago, I probably would have laughed you back to whatever bar you came out of. But it’s reality, and I’m losing my shit.

“I don’t know all that much about you,” I finally say, resting my arm on the top of the door frame and watching the trees as we zoom away. We’re heading toward downtown, that much is obvious, as he turns onto the access road. But instead of merging onto the highway, he stays in the right lane. The long way to wherever we were going, I guess.

“I feel like that’s the point of tonight,” he responds, his hand shifting the gear in between us. “And any dates that may or may not follow.” He’s wearing sunglasses, but when he looks at me, I can almost feel the hopeful look in his eyes. “What do you want to know?”

Everythingis my real answer. But I go with “You said your brother and you rebuilt this car?” He nods, his hand coming to rest back on the wheel. I watch the way his crisp white button up tugs at his forearm, where it’s rolled up. Paired with gray slacks, he looks like he just walked out of an Armani ad. Then again, I’m pretty sure his shoes actually are Armani.

“Technically my half-brother, but yeah.” I watch him as we cruise down the road. I didn’t know his parents weren’t together anymore, or that they had remarried. “It was something we could do together. He’s a science guy, and I’ve never really been into anything else he likes - but this, this we could compromise on.”

“Older or younger?”