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“Were you?” I asked and tilted my head at her.
She didn’t answer me right away but took another sip of her wine. I did the same and looked at her over my glass.
“All right,” she said with a smile. “Maybe I was digging myself into a bit of a hole. He was so determined we were meant to be together.”
“When clearly you aren’t.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He doesn’t know you. Excuse me for saying this, but I overheard you saying that you wouldn’t be moving away from the city. Any man who would even ask you to do that is a fool and obviously doesn’t know you at all.”
“And you do?”
“Your family means everything to you. Especially your sister and your niece. You would no sooner move away from them than you would go to Mars.”
“Mars might be fun to visit.”
“Visit, not live. Would you really want to go?”
“No. Would you?”
“I never thought about it. I could see Walker maybe, but not me.”
“You know, you’re allowed to have the same interests as your brothers. You don’t have to let them have all the fun.”
“I don’t do that.”
Her glaring at me over her wine glass was her answer.
“It’s going to be fine. Bash is gone, we can sit and have a drink and that will be the end of it. Unless you don’t want it to be,” I offered.
I was enjoying sitting and talking to Hope in a setting that didn’t involve a charity event or our friends or family being around us. I liked having a drink with her, sitting across from her and seeing her smile at me as we talked. It made me think and wonder what it would be like if we were to do this for real.
“You don’t need to do that. Bash is gone, this has been fun, and we’ll have a great story to laugh about later, but it doesn’t need to go any further than that.”
“Would it be such a horrible thing to pretend to be dating me?”
“I’m not good with lying. I have a horrible poker face.”
“Okay, then we don’t lie about it.”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme, just to keep an ex-boyfriend from getting his feelings hurt?”
“Who said this had anything to do with Bash?” I asked and leaned closer to her.
Hope laughed and I could tell she didn’t believe me. As I watched her reaction, a feeling of dread filled me. Maybe she hadn’t just wanted to end things with Bash because they weren’t right for each other but also because she didn't want to be in a relationship at all. I had mentally berated Bash because he hadn’t listened to Hope when she had been telling him to leave her alone. How much better was I at that moment?
She was trying to let me down easily. She was telling me without saying it that she didn’t want to date me anymore than she did Bash. I would chalk it up that she wasn’t ready to get into a relationship at the moment because the alternative was too difficult to swallow.
“I get what you’re saying. I won’t push. I would like to have another drink together sometime. Maybe you can save me from a disastrous date,” I said as I finished off my drink.
“Just tell me when you need rescuing and I will be there,” she said with a smile.
“Are you admitting that I saved you tonight?”
“No, but I would be willing to help you out, if the need arose,” she countered.
“Thank you. You’re a good friend.”
