Anybody who fell for Brooklyn understood the appeal of a beautiful woman.
“I mean, why do you think you don’t have them?”
It was my turn to stare back at him.
“Hello?” I said. I pointed to my chin. “Plain Jane librarian here.”
“Well, you’re not exactly glamorous,” he said.
“Thank you for making my point.” I tamped down the ego pinch. I hadn’t really expected James to insist I was beautiful. Still, blunt honesty was hard to take sometimes.
“But you’re pretty.”
I shook my head. “Oh, no. You can’t backpedal now. Your first reaction is your true reaction.”
“My first reaction was that you have the raw material.”
“Be still my beating heart.”
He grinned at me.
I had been joking. Well, I was mostly joking. I could make light of my looks or I could get depressed about them. I wasn’t going to get depressed.
Plain was fine. It was ordinary and normal, and people led perfectly happy lives with plain looks. In fact, most did—the vast, overwhelming majority of people had looks that were plain in some way or another. The bombshells among us were few and far between.
“You did get a look at the guy Brooklyn married, right?” James asked.
I definitely got a look at him. I hadn’t attended Brooklyn’s wedding to Colton Kendrick, but I’d gone to Layla’s wedding right after when she married Colton’s twin brother, Max. Colton and Max were rich, rugged and handsome. They also seemed to be truly great guys.
I nodded to James.
He made a sweeping gesture down his chest. “Then you can guess how I feel.”
“You have the raw material,” I said.
I tried not to smile. I knew heartbreak wasn’t funny.
James shook his head and seemed to fight his own smile. “Are we going to sit here and wallow in it?”
“That’s the opposite of what I want to do,” I said.
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
I gave my racket a pointed look. “I wanted to play tennis.”
“Not this minute. I mean more broadly, in life, going forward?”
“I was thinking about getting a cat.”
“Seriously?”
“No. Not really.”
“A cat’s a big commitment.”
“You don’t like cats?”
He seemed to ponder the question. “I’d probably go for a dog. But I’d have to get a house first.”
I knew he and Brooklyn had planned to go house shopping right after the wedding. I wasn’t going to touch that one.
“A dog does need a yard,” I said instead.
“Maybe I’ll buy a house,” he said. But he didn’t look enthusiastic about it.
I wished I could afford a house. It would be years before I had a down payment saved up for even a condo. I’d be staying in my loft apartment for the foreseeable future.
“Real estate is a good investment,” I said.
James was an economist. I didn’t exactly know what he did on a day-to-day basis in his job, but it seemed to me economists would be interested in good investments.
“It’s definitely a good time to lock in an interest rate.”
“But?” I could hear the but in his sentence.
“It’s hard to know what to look for when you can’t picture your future.”
The statement seemed particularly sad.
While I searched for the right response, my phone rang.
“Go ahead,” James said, lifting his beer and sitting back in his chair.
“It’s Sophie.” I was curious about her lunch date, but I wasn’t about to have an in-depth conversation here in front of James. I swiped to accept the call. “I’ll tell her I’ll call her back.”
“You want privacy?” He made to leave.
“No.” I shook my head. I didn’t want to chase him away. “It’s fine.”
“Hi, Sophie,” I said into the phone.
“Bryce has a friend,” she said.
“Uh...that’s nice. Listen, can I call you—”
“As in a friend,” she said. She was talking fast, enthusiasm lighting her voice. “A friend for you, a guy who wants to meet you. We can go on a double date. Dinner tonight. Does tonight work for you?”
I found myself meeting James’s gaze.
“Nat?” Sophie asked. “Are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
I didn’t know why I was hesitating. No, I didn’t have plans for Saturday night, and of course I wanted to meet a new guy. What single girl wouldn’t want to meet a new guy?
It seemed like Bryce and Sophie were hitting it off. I knew Sophie had good taste in men. If Bryce was a good guy, it stood to reason that his friend would be a good guy. I’d like to meet a good guy.
“What time?” I asked.
“Seven. We’ll swing by your place. You might want to meet us downstairs. I mean...you know...”
Sophie was not a fan of my utilitarian loft apartment. She bugged me about fixing it up all the time.
Myself, I didn’t see the point in spending a lot of money on cosmetics. The place was perfectly functional. Then again, if the guy thought like her, I didn’t want to put him off straightaway because of my questionable taste in decorating.
“Sure,” I said. “Seven o’clock downstairs.”
“Perfect!” She sounded really happy.
I ended the call.
“Sorry about that,” I said.
James waved away my apology. “Girls’ night out?”
“Not exactly. Double date.”
James sat forward again. “Blind date?”
“Yes.” I took a sip of my beer “I haven’t been on one of those in a while.”
“I guess your dry spell is over.”
I didn’t particularly like calling it a dry spell. It made me sound desperate—like I was thirsty for a man.
All I really wanted was to move completely and permanently on from Henry. I supposed that made me thirsty enough. There wasn’t much point in dressing it up.
“That’s one way to put it,” I said to James.
He lifted his mug in another toast. “Well, congratulations.”
I touched my mug to his again and laughed at myself. I’d just been moaning about my loneliness. I should be thrilled about having plans for tonight. I would be thrilled. I was thrilled.
“That’s better,” James said. “Smile and be happy.”