I refrained from stomping my foot. “Evie.”
She grinned like she’d just found the last piece of a puzzle. “Are you going on a date?”
“It’s not a date.”
“But it’s something?”
I groaned. She was like a dog with a bone. “You aren’t going to give up until I tell you, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Fine.” I sighed. “I have to go to an investor dinner with Connor, and he’s picking me up.”
She gasped. “He’s picking you up? Like… picking you up?”
“Please don’t say it like that. It’s not a big deal.”
“Why? How else am I supposed to say it? Your arch-nemesis, old academic rival, secret internet husband—”
“Secret what now?”
“—is arriving at your door to escort you somewhere dinner related? Teddy, this is rom-com behavior.”
I let my head fall back between my shoulder blades. “It’s duty. It’s PR. Just part of our job.” And it won’t be like last time.
“Uh-huh,” she said, clearly not believing me. “And how united do you two plan on looking? Because from where I was on the pitch, he was practically undressing you with his—”
“Stop.”
She laughed, bumping her hip against mine. “I’m just saying… You get this look around him.”
“There’s no look.” Even though I’m sure she caught me staring after him. Rookie mistake. Was I that obvious?
“You know…” She waved her hand vaguely in front of my face. “The one where your brain short-circuits and your mouth forgets how words work.”
I scoffed. “That doesn’t happen.”
“It literally happened minutes ago.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but unfortunately, she was right. So I closed it again.
She nudged me with her elbow. “Look, you don’t have to freak out. It’s one night. You dress up, smile, pretend you and Connor aren’t seconds away from combusting—easy.”
“I hate that you make it sound like I’m fragile.”
“You’re not fragile,” she said with a shrug. “You’re just… emotionally constipated.”
I groaned again. “Thank you so much.”
“Anytime,” she chirped.
Next time she cornered me before training, I’d remember to put my headphones in because Evie excited is almost unbearable. And I still have to tell Micah; she’ll want to dress me. Probably go shopping too, which I hated. Jesus, what have I gotten into? Spending the evening with Connor might be the easy part in all this.
***
Waiting for Friday to arrive felt like some kind of torture. Hours felt like weeks, and my anxiety over this dinner was raging wilder than a hurricane in the mid-west. I’d also done my utmost to avoid Micah today because all week she’d been quizzing me about sizes and heel height. I’d managed to avoid an actual shopping trip, thank god, but her shifty eyes told me she had something up her sleeve.
By the time I made it back to my apartment, my legs felt like they’d been swapped for someone else’s. Not because training had been particularly brutal today, but because for the last two hours, my brain had done a steady sprint around the same track.
