“Frankie! How are you feeling after the other night?” he asked. “I was a bit wrecked the next morning.”
I smiled. “I was okay.”
“Hey, Mark.” He turned to Mark and extended his hand. There was a brief, small pause before Mark shook it. Suddenly, everything was awkward AF. How had I gone from touching Mark’s fingers, to Mark touching Zack’s hand? I watched their hands as they connected. The shake was hard, and firm, and I imagined my fingers would have been hurt in the strong-looking clench.
“Zack,” Mark said flatly.
“Mark.” Zack mirrored Mark’s tone, even though he’d already said his name and it probably wasn’t necessary to say it again.
“Zack.” Mark said his name again too.
Like I said, awkward.
“Is this your dog?” Zack asked, turning to Harun.
“YES!” I said too loudly and enthusiastically, because I was only too happy to shift the focus of this conversation away from firm hands and double name-calling.
Zack stepped closer to Harun, and I gave him a once-over as he came closer to me. He was definitely good-looking. Very. No doubt about it.
“What’s his name?” Zack asked.
“Well, that’s a funny story. He’s had three names in the last week. Satan’s Little Helper, Cujo, and now we have settled on Harun.”
“Hey, Harun.” He reached down to pat him and Harun let out a very ominous-sounding growl. “Seems like he doesn’t like me.” Zack stepped back.
“That’s odd, he usually likes everyone,” Mark said, looking at Zack through narrowed eyes. Zack glanced back at Mark over his shoulder and something competitive passed between them.
“I’m glad I ran into you.’ Zack turned his attention back to me and smiled. Dimples. Cute and boyish and I admit, I melted just a bit.
“You are?” I heard myself say, perhaps a little too sweetly.
Zack nodded. “I was wondering if you would like to go out with me?”
My heart jumped. “Like, on a date?”
He smiled and gave a small chuckle. “Sure. A date.”
I glanced behind him, Mark looked at me and then quickly turned around and placed a DVD back on the shelf. I tried to project my thoughts across to him, even though I knew that was impossible. I wanted Mark to look at me again. To shake his head. To tell menotto go on a date with Zack. Give me a reason not to say yes to this hot man in front of me.
But he didn’t.
“Uh . . . um.” I turned back to Zack.
“What about tonight?” Clearly, he wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“Uh . . .” I looked over at Mark again and this time he did look at me. But not in the way I wanted. He shrugged, as if he didn’t care. As if telling me to go. My heart felt like it physically slumped in my chest.
“Sure.” I looked back at Zack.
“I’ll fetch you at seven. At Mark’s. I hear you’re renting the cottage there.”
“Uh . . . how did you know that?”
“Small town. News travels.”
I nodded, a tightness in my throat.
“Great, see you then,” he added, and then put his hand on my shoulder momentarily and gave it a squeeze. He walked out the shop confidently, shooting Mark a quick careless goodbye as he went.
