Page 36 of Somebody To Love

“Sure.”

“In that case,” she said, gesturing to the waiter, “Can I get another beer please?”

“Wear the red one, seriously, it’s so much better than that blue one. You look like a character from Little House on the Prairie in that blue dress.”

I frowned and looked at myself in the mirror. “That’s kind of harsh, don’t you think? I think I look very well put together. Classy and elegant.”

From the mirror I could see Becca and Dana look at each other with raised eyebrows. I turned around and faced them. “I saw that.”

“Saw what?” Dana said, trying to look innocent.

“That look that you just shot Becca.”

“You’re imagining things,” Dana said, trying to fight back a smile.

I rolled my eyes and chose to ignore them. Dana had invited Becca over to help me choose another hot date outfit. Between Dana being tipsy and Becca texting nonstop, I wasn’t getting much reliable feedback.

“Who are you texting, Becca?” Dana finally asked, then her eyes grew wide. “Do you have a boyfriend suddenly? If so, please tell me he’s not as old as your ex? Yuck. What a geezer.”

Becca looked at me and we both tried to control a giggle. Dana’s ex and Becca’s ex were one of the same.

“I’m texting my dad. He’s going through a mid-life crisis.”

“Poor guy,” I said, meaning it. I’d met Becca’s father and he was a genuinely nice guy.

Suddenly Becca stood up and grabbed her purse. “I’m going to go stop by his house to check on him. I’ll see you guys later. And, oh yeah, I don’t know what Little House on the Prairie is, but I do know that you should burn that blue dress you’re wearing so you can never wear it again. It’s kind of horrible. See ya.”

And then she sashayed out the door while my mouth hung open.

Dana let out a little burp that turned into a giggle. “Excuse me. But wow, she’s right.”

“Fine,” I said. Maybe my fashion sense was a little off.

Fifteen minutes later I was dressed in a red snug-fitting mini dress with a halter top neckline. I felt like it was a little much, but my date was taking me to a comedy club, so I figured I would be sitting down most of the time anyway. As long as I didn’t do any bending over, the dress would be fine. Carter planned to swing by in a little while to pick up Dana, so everything was all set for tonight.

As I was about to head out, I received a text from Ty.

“What are you doing tonight?” he asked.

I smiled down at the phone. I figured I would hear from him sooner or later, after all, he’d already texted me several times.

I texted back simply, “Heading out. You?”

He texted me back quickly. “Nothing. Just thinking about how you looked in that dress.”

I couldn’t keep the smile off my face as I thought of that night. It felt like ages ago and I had even seen Jean-Bernard since then, but Ty had been on my mind the whole time.

My phone beeped again, and I looked down at the message as I got in the car. “Call me when you get a chance.”

I made a mental note to do exactly that and then programmed the comedy club’s address into my phone’s GPS. Twenty minutes away, just as I’d thought.

I quickly made my way there, parked the car, and walked up to the outside of the venue. It was a two-story venue with posters of comedic greats posted across the bottom floor.

I wandered inside, not seeing my date, and took a walk down the long hall looking at the posters that were signed by some of the funniest comedians from the 80’s onwards. I recognized a few of them, but not others.

“There you are. What happened? Did you get lost?” asked a voice suddenly next to me.

I turned and looked at the man whose voice it was. I smiled, assuming he was joking, but he didn’t smile back.