AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lily: Oh no!!!! Did the date not go well?
Emma: It went too well. I’ll explain tomorrow over a bottle of wine, pizza, and Pride and Prejudice (you know which one).
Lily: If we are watching Colin Firth, instead of our usual movie where they need to save the small town hot chocolate shop and fall in love…it must be bad.
Emma: Bad? Not exactly, I just need some girlfriend time to wrap my head around the whole thing. See you then?
Riley: I’m in, I’ll bring dessert.
Lily: I’ll bring the wine!
Chapter twelve
Dylan
AfterstayingatEmma’slast night, I know things are on the right track.
It’s a typical Monday morning.Wait, that means I get to see her tomorrow.When I get in the building, there is an undeniable pep in my step. As I greet all of my favorite people, you can almost hear Dean Martin crooning in the background like a damn movie montage. I settle into my usual routine of emails and meetings. About an hour into my day, my phone vibrates in my pocket.
Emma: Thank you so much for last night! My sitter bailed on me for Tuesday. Sorry, I won’t be able to make it.
I pause for a few moments, contemplating my response. I should wait until later today to respond.Wait…does my phone send read receipts?Spoiler alert: it does. If I don’t respond, she might think this is Emma/Dylan 1.0, so I need to say something.
Dylan: Raincheck? How about Friday?
Emma: Sorry, she is out sick for the week.
Dylan: Maybe this weekend?
Emma: I promised my boys it would be a family weekend.
So much for being on the right track.
Dylan:When is the next time you're free?
After several agonizing minutes, she finally responds.
Emma: Maybe next week? Can I let you know?
I purposefully don’t open up our conversation again—I saw enough of the message to know what it says without her knowing I read it. I have no idea how to respond to that! What changed in the last few hours? I know we said we were going to take things slow, but this sounds more like a brush off. I pull up my call log and click on Andrew’s name, but after 4 rings, it goes to voicemail. Twenty minutes later, he calls me back and I pick up.
“Hey, how’s it going?”
“Oh, um, it’s going…typical Monday shit. Sorry I missed your call. What’s going on?” He sounds distracted.
“So, I went out with Emma last night.” I pause for a response, but am met with silence on the other end, so I continue, “It went great! I took her to a game, and we spent an incredible night together.” I pause a second time, but he is still silent. “So…anyway…this morning she canceled our Tuesday plans.”
He sighs. “I have no idea what’s going on, but Lily said tomorrow she will be at Emma’s, something about a Jane Austen emergency. What did Emma say exactly?”
“That her sitter canceled.”
“Well, I mean, it’s possible she’s telling the truth. Their pajama night is at her house. Maybe she was just bummed that she had to cancel and invited her friends over? I don’t know, it’s weird talking to you about this. It’s why I didn’t want you to date my friend! I don’t know what to tell you.” I can tell he is frustrated.
“I know. I know. It was just aperfect nightand an amazing morning.” Realizing my slip-up and quickly correct myself. “I mean, our texts this morning.”
“For. The. Love.Did you sleep with her?!”
I wince. “I mean,technically…but we just slept. I told her I would take things at her pace. We are going to take things slow.”
