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“Do what...often?”
“Encourage your dates to get back with their exes.”
Josie raised one shoulder, then let it drop. “He was still hung up on her, which meant it was never going to work out.” She could almost hear her mother protesting before saying‘it could have though, in a fake dating friendly sort of way.’At the same time, she could also hear Louise telling her to just go for it with the hot guy. Before she could say anything more, or introduce herself, a petite young woman with dark hair bound over and pulled out the empty chair across from him. It was just as well, Josie thought, standing up. When she caught him staring again, she gave a little wave and made her way out of the coffee shop.
Chapter Five
Josie
‘The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you’ve gotta put up with the rain’ - Dolly Parton
“Still can’t believe you told that boy to look up his ex.”
Pursing her lips, Josie rolled her eyes towards the ceiling and silently prayed for patience. Two days ago, she had arrived home from her less than productive date with Will to find Aunt Beckett sitting on her sofa with a knowing gleam in her watery eyes, and Louise hanging her head in shame, while Ruth hid in the bedroom with the cats. Any hope she had that Aunt Beckett was in the dark about where she had been and why went out the window when Louise mumbled an apology and her mother called out ‘it wasn’t me.’
“She did the right thing,” Ruth argued from Josie’s kitchen, where she was unbagging the chinese take out she and Aunt Beckett had shown up with.
“Ba!” Aunt Beckett sucked her teeth. “He was prime boyfriend material and she just let him slip right through her fingers.” Prime boyfriend material? Josie rolled her eyes.
Ruth let out an exasperated sigh that mimicked everything Josie was feeling inside. “He would have spent the whole time mooning over his ex.”
Aunt Beckett let out a huff that reminded Josie of the noises Cupcake would make when dinner wasn’t served on time.“Could have used that to her benefit. Built in excuse for dumping him. Would have kept Kyle off her back until after the wedding.”
“You know, he did message last night,” Ruth drawled.
“To thank me for suggesting he reach out to Charlotte,” Josie reminded her mother. She leaned forward and scooped Parking Lot cat into her lap. Her aunt insisted his name was Derek, after the doctor she’d had an appointment with when she found him, but any time Josie tried calling him that he would ignore her. She’d considered calling him Chai after her favorite drink, but that didn’t feel right either. Nor did Louise’s suggestion of Earl Gray. The right name would come, in the meantime, he seemed content to sit around with a judgmental look on his homely face.
“He also said he talked to Charlotte about you, and-”
No. Just... no. Josie knew where her mother was headed and she wasn’t going to consider it. There were four other options sitting in her DMs; she wasn’t going to complicate things further by fake dating a guy that was supposed to be rekindling things with his ex. “Let’s just pick one of the other guys.” An odd silence swept over the room. Dread knotted in Josie’s stomach as her mother cleared her throat and Aunt Beckett muttered something under her breath. “What?”
“Three of them sort of disappeared.” Ruth shook her head before taking a delicate bite from a spring roll before continuing. “The third one was nice enough to let you know he had met someone else though.”
Visions of DMs full of micro-peens and salacious invitations invaded Josie’s thoughts. “Don’t worry,” Aunt Beckett’s raspy voice cut through her panic, “I’ve been chatting with a nurse and he’s going to meet you at that coffee shop you like.”
Inhaling sharply, Josie shot her mother a horrified look. “Mother,” she said tightly, “could you... ” she gestured towardsher bedroom. “Why was Aunt Beckett on my LoveBuzz profile,” she hissed once they were in her bedroom.
“There was a notification for a message from UrMrRight, so I logged on to check it and, well, that’s when I noticed your back-up guys were no longer available.” Ruth wrung her hands. “I thought I would do a quick scroll through, see if there was anyone decent, and Aunt Beckett sort of took the iPad from me. Before I could stop her, she’d swiped right on some muscled up guy claiming to be a nurse.”
Josie bowed her head, and pitched the bridge of her nose. She couldn’t even be angry, not when she was only in this predicament because she’d told a lie.‘It isn’t too late to come clean, or pretend you’ve been dumped.’“How bad is this date going to be?”
“I’m not sure.” Sinking onto the edge of Josie’s bed, Ruth fumbled with her phone. A few minutes later, she handed her phone to Josie. The LoveBuzz app was open to a profile for a NahTNurse. Everything on it was cringe worthy. Bathroom mirror pics, where he’s pulling up a scrub top to show off his abs. Cheesy lines about sex on the beach being his favorite drink and activity. Shirtless pics where he is slathered in baby oil. If he had popped up when Josie was around, she would have nixed him on the spot. The one bright spot in the whole thing was he had multiple pics of the same two cats and his message exchange was respectful. He’d mostly talked about his cats Nahir and T-bone.
‘Maybe it won’t be so bad,’ Josie thought, handing the phone back to her mother.
***
Cold droplets of rain landed on Josie’s neck, slowly winding along the delicate curvature of her throat before finding a downward pathway between the neckline of her light pink sweater and into her cleavage. Muttering a curse, she hunchedher shoulders and quickened her step. It was just her luck that the one time she couldn’t find parking near the coffee shop the weather would randomly go from cool but sunny to frigid and rainy. She should have expected it, since nothing else seemed to be going according to plan. Every time she thought she’d found another decent guy they turned into a creeper with a peen pic.‘I never should have played cupid between Will and Charlotte,’she sulked, crossing her arms.
NahTNurse. The name still made her cringe.‘Maybe he’s a nice guy. You never know.’Aside from one winky face, his messages had been respectful. He had even given solid advice on which dermatologist to take Aunt Beckett to for the rash she’d picked up at bingo. Josie was going to cling to that, along with Nahir and T-bone, not the oiled up muscle pics. Who knew, maybe NahTNurse would turn out to be the perfect fake boyfriend. Doubtful, but miracles were known to happen. He had also been a good sport about meeting at Delilah’s, even though his profile claimed he wasn’t a coffee drinker.
A sense of deja vu wrapped around Josie as she yanked open the glass and wooden door to the coffee shop. “Not meeting Wilbur again I hope,” a familiar voice chuckled. Glancing up, Josie found the hot guy from last week standing behind the pastry counter. He shot her a dimpled grin.
“No,” Josie smiled back. “You will be pleased to hear that he made contact with his ex and they are going to try to make the long distance thing work.”
“No kidding.” He jerked his chin towards a tray of fresh croissants. “Chocolate croissant?”
Josie nodded. “And a chai.” She stepped to the side, her gaze scanning the small shop for a guy that resembled NahTNurse. Her body relaxed when she didn’t spot him. ‘Maybe he will no-show,’ she silently hoped, trading her credit card for the croissant and chai.
