Page 53 of Maybe Yours (Love & Wine)

I’m not, but I have no idea how she’ll react.

Knowing it’s too late to back out now, I grab my keys and wallet before heading out to my truck. It’s a thirty-minute drive into Napa and I spend the time going over everything I know about Wine Queen in my head.

Comes from Massachusetts. Has a couple of tattoos. Wants kids eventually. Loves living in Napa. Is twenty-three years old.

I let out an exhale at that last one, knowing that up until she revealed that detail, I’d thought she was pretty fucking perfect. Which is not to say that her age is an issue, but I am well aware of the irony that I won’t date Penny partly because of her age, yet here I am meeting up with this woman, regardless of her age.

When I reach the restaurant, I park out on the street and head inside. I’m early and when the hostess greets me, I tell her I’ll wait at the bar.

I take a seat and order a beer, needing something to calm my nerves while I wait. It’s been a long fucking time since I went out on a date and I can’t help but wonder if I even remember how to. God, I hope no one I know is at the restaurant. The last thing I need is any witnesses to this.

“Thanks,” I reply, when the bartender slides the bottle in front of me. I lift it, taking a long sip of the cold liquid.

“Can I grab a Sam Adams, please?”

I turn at the familiar voice, a sinking feeling in my gut. “Penny?”

She turns to me, a surprised look on her face as she glances over my shoulder and then back to me. “Tommy, hey, what are…um what are you doing here?”

I take another sip of beer. “I’m meeting someone,” I cough out. “You?”

“Same,” she replies, before thanking the bartender for her drink.

She takes a seat beside me and we both face the bar, sipping on our beers as a weird awkwardness falls around us. Of all the fucking people who had to come in here tonight, Penny is the absolute last person I needed it to be.

How the fuck am I supposed to be on a date with Wine Queen, when the woman I have a totally inappropriate and unrequited crush on is in the same restaurant. Probably on her own date, for fuck’s sake.

I glance at my watch, noting Wine Queen is now five minutes late. Fuck me, if she stands me up, that will be even worse. I may as well tattoo the words, giant fucking loser, across my forehead now.

I pull my phone from my pocket to check for any messages from her. There’s nothing there, so for something to do, I type out a quick one of my own.

Me: hey, am here at the bar. Lmk when you get here.

As soon as I hit send, the all too familiar ping of an incoming message sounds out to my right. Turning, I watch as Penny pulls her phone from her purse, her eyes on the screen. She reads whatever is on there before glancing sideways at me, a strange look on her face.

I swallow hard, my body suddenly tense as my mind plays catch up and starts to process what the fuck is going on right now.

Penny turns back to her phone, typing something. As soon as she’s done, my phone pings with a new message and when I glance at the screen, I’m hit with a sucker punch, right to the gut.

WineQueenFamilyTruckster: I’m at the bar too…you’re sitting right beside me, aren’t you?

My heart pounds in my chest as I stare down at my phone. Everything feels like it’s moving in slow motion, my brain now filled with an endless stream of messages that Wine Queen and I have shared over the past few weeks.

But before I even have a chance to question any of it, flashbacks of the night Penny and I shared together appear, reminding me that it doesn’t matter what Wine Queen and I have said to each other via online messages, not when we’ve already gotten up close and very fucking personal with each other in real life.

“Wine Queen?” I eventually ask, turning to Penny.

“Clark?”

I nod, letting out a hard breath as I shove a hand through my hair. “Shit,” I blurt out.

Penny laughs, her bottom lip between her teeth. “Um yeah,” she says. “Fuck, I can’t believe I’ve been talking toyouthis whole time.”

I shrug, figuring this is probably the end of us talking now that she knows who I am. “Yeah,” I mumble.

“I mean, shit,” Penny continues, still smiling. “You’re like, so funny and cheeky and…”

“And what?” I ask, finishing my beer, wondering what else she was going to say.

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