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“Why not?”
She gave me a look. “Are you serious? Hi, I know I’ve never met you before but would you like to join me alone in the woods?”
“It’s pretty,” I said, gesturing at the flowers. “You wouldn’t like this kind of date?”
“I would, yeah. But not for the first one. What if you murder me?”
“Okay, assuming you know me well enough to know I’m not going to murder you, why not?”
“Let’s see. I’d want to be able to look at you, for one. That’s hard when you’re walking next to someone. If I want to leave, I can’t unless the guy walks me out, and that’s awkward. Also, what if it’s hot? Or cold? Nobody wants to sweat or shiver on a first date. And then there’s an incline and I’m gasping for breath, fighting for my life, trying not to let him see how out of shape I am.”
“Ha. You’re not out of shape though.”
Then I realized how that sounded, like I’d been checking her out. “I… I just mean you seem fine on this walk.”
“I walk a lot at work. I’m used to it. Not sure how I’d do if there were hills though.”
A warm breeze blew and her perfume danced across my nose. I turned away from it and pretended to be looking at the tree line.
When I glanced at my watch again, we were almost at mile six.
“How long have we been out here?” she asked, noticing me check.
“Over two hours now.” I wrinkled my forehead. “Maybe we should look at a map. Do you think we took a wrong turn?”
“There haven’t been any turns.”
She was right. The path had been clear, no forks.
We moved under a tree for shade and I pulled out my phone.
“Okay, let’s see.” I tapped Google Maps.
The area we were in was solid green. Nothing but forest. I zoomed out. More green. I zoomed out again. Still green. I shook my head. “Where the hell are we?”
“Let me see.” She leaned over to look at my phone. It only took her a second to register what I’d already realized. “We’re in the middle of nowhere!” She looked up at me. “Why would Mike send us out here?”
“I don’t know. I’m calling him.”
He didn’t answer until the sixth ring. “What?”
He was drunk. I knew it immediately.
“Uh, hey,” I said, trying not to let Larissa see it on my face. “We’re on this walk and we’ve been out here over two hours. The map says we’re in the middle of the park reserve. Are we on the right trail?”
“How should I know?”
I glanced at Larissa.
“You said it was an hour and a half,” I said.
“It is. I just did it the other day.”
I paused. “Were you running?”
“Yeah? Why?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Then I moved the phone from my mouth. “It’s an hour and a half, running,” I told her.
